Soundfield Mic System

[Zumwalt]

Anyone know anything about a decoder plugin for B format? Does it work with Protools? Matt?

[MattiMattMatt]

Offhand, I don't know the answer.

A first thought, however, is that while possible, I don't believe it exists since the company strategy would suggest otherwise: they use the same mic for all systems, and charge a premium for the decoder box you select with the mic. If there were a software decoder, (and certainly now with their surround sound stuff) you would be able to buy a cheaper system to get the mic, and do all the fancy stuff in software.

However, I'm just guessing, and would like to know the answer myself. I have a few contacts I can check with in about a week.

I'm sure if Gerzon were alive, I bet this would at least exist in his workshop.

-MattiMattMatt

[Haigbabe]

Hi Zumwalt,

There is a free program called Virtual Mic which you can play with. It has its usefulness.

http://mcgriffy.com/audio/ambisonic/vvmic/

Thomas Chen does a format called B+ He uses the SF BFormat and two stereo "spotters" to combine into a surround (5.1 up to 22.x ambisonic surround) decode. His program costs about $500USD and only runs on the Creamware platform.

Nuendo has a plugin (free, someone else wrote it) also but I haven't had much success with it.

I have to say that none of the products I have used have actually been as good as the SP451 (SoundField decoder). I own one becasue it sounded best.

I believe a number of people are working on software decoders. Soundfield are well aware that many people would like a plugin to do this decoding. They hinted to me that there are good things on the horizon. Probably in twelve months we'll have a number of choices according to our budgets.

I guess that as they now sell the 922 mic with B-Format output from the pre/box, things may be hotting up. I would also like to see the MarkV box features also go "software".

Best regards,

Haigbabe

[Zumwalt]

Anyone at Waves listening? I would love to record B format out of my Mark V right into Protools and not have to go back to analog to decode!