ambiX v0.3.0 – Ambisonic plug-in suite

I am happy to finally release my cross-platform Ambisonic processors useable as VST/LV2 plug-ins or standalone application under Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. They can be used in flexible hosts like Reaper, Ardour, MaxMSP, Bidule or as standalone applications with Jack.

The plug-ins can be used to produce 3D Ambisonic content or do post production on recordings. (eg. Soundfield or Eigenmike® microphone recordings)
The Ambisonic order is variable and can be choosen at compile time. A practical limitation for Reaper is 7th order due to the 64 channel limit. The processors use the ambiX convention (full 3D, ACN channel ordering, SN3D normalization)

ambiX screenshot ReaperA short video clip showing the plug-ins in action: https://vimeo.com/81073470

You may want to use these plug-ins in combination with the mcfx multichannel effect plug-in suite: https://www.matthiaskronlachner.com/?p=1910

Source code repository: https://github.com/kronihias/ambix

download

Download binaries from Github:

https://github.com/kronihias/ambix/releases

download

You will also need the binaural decoder presets if you want to listen with headphones:  ambix_binaural_presets_v0.1.5.zip
(download includes decoder matrices + binaural loudspeaker impulse responses)

Some more good presets from the BBC can be downloaded here: https://github.com/bbc/bbcrd-brirs

Install the decoder presets to:
Windows 7/8: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ambix\binaural_presets\
MacOS: ~/Library/ambix/binaural_presets/
Linux: ~/ambix/binaural_presets/

Currently there is no preset generator included, you have to generate your decoding matrix with other tools. For example with the Ambisonic Decoder Toolbox by Aaron Heller using Matlab/Octave: [Source repo] [LAC Article].

Read this article from the AES Design competition for some informations regarding the plug-ins!

A slightly outdated paper about the plug-ins can be found here: http://lac.linuxaudio.org/2013/papers/51.pdf

Ambisonic transformations are described here ICSA2014_KronlachnerZotter_AmbisonicTransformations.pdf

This software was developed during the work on my master thesis at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustic Graz. [ IEM ]

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Kinect Headtracking with OSC Support

left: GEM Window, right: head pose estimation by G.Fanellibased on
Real Time Head Pose Estimation from Consumer Depth Cameras by Gabriele Fanelli [ref name=”fanelli”]http://www.vision.ee.ethz.ch/~gfanelli/head_pose/head_forest.html[/ref]

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download source and windows/OSX binaries: https://github.com/kronihias/head-pose-estimation

Application that detects head position from a depth image provided by Microsoft Xbox Kinect Sensor in x,y,z and Euler Angles (pitch, yaw, roll) from multiple persons.

–> needs no calibration!!

Application sends data as OSC[ref name=”osc”]Open Sound Control (OSC) is a message based communication protocol for multimedia systems.[/ref] Message in the format:

/head_pose [User_ID] [x] [y] [z] [pitch] [yaw] [roll]
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pd-external: pix_freenect 0.10

(C)2011 Matthias Kronlachner

Version 0.10 of pix_freenect external for Pure Data/Gem now available.
Sourcecode and binary for OSX and Ubuntu 11.10 available at github: https://github.com/kronihias/pix_freenect

Look at this page if you don’t know how to install a Pd-External.

The pix_freenect external can output rgb and depth simultaneously from multiple Kinect sensors.

Features:

  • open specific Kinect sensor by serial number – useful for multiple Kinect installations
  • output registered depthmap -> rgb and depth image are aligned
  • output depthmap directly as 16 bit [mm] values
  • resolution of rgb image can be set to 1280×1024

To get audio streams you can use http://github.com/kronihias/freenect_audio.
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pd-external: pix_openni 0.10

If you are working with Xbox Kinect Sensor here is another goodie for you – A pure data / Gem external to get Kinect rgb and depth streams as well as skeleton tracking and multiple hand tracking via OpenNI[ref name=”openni”]http://www.openni.org[/ref]

Download the packed Binaries for OSX and Windows pix_openni-0.10.zip .
Latest sourcecode available at github: http://github.com/kronihias/pix_openni

Look at this page if you don’t know how to install a Pd-External.

To control tilt, led and output accelerometer data you can use libfreenect based http://github.com/kronihias/freenect.
To get audio streams you can use libfreenect based http://github.com/kronihias/freenect_audio.
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ambdec-0.5.1, tetraproc-0.8.2, AMB-plugins-0.8.1 for Mac OS X

(C) Fons AdriaensenI compiled the latest versions of Fons Adriaensens’ Ambisonics Decoder ambdec-0.5.1 (PDF manual) and his Microphone-Processor to convert TetraMic recordings to B-Format tetraproc-0.8.2 (PDF paper) for Mac OS X.

I packed them in easy-to-use installer packages which should run under Mac OS X >=10.6 (Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion):

Note about ambdec: The manual is outdated! The configuration window is gone. Use a Texteditor to edit .ambdec files!

ambdec-0.5.1-installer.pkg (C) Fons Adriaensen
tetraproc-0.8.2-installer.pkg

Make sure you have JackOSX (http://www.jackosx.com) and X11 (http://xquartz.macosforge.org) installed.

Troubleshooting: Sometimes the installer does not set the file permissions for graphic files correct, try to check if the folder /usr/local/share/ambdec is read/writeable for the user. You can start ambdec from Terminal and check for error messages (just type ambdec in Terminal and hit Return).

Additionally I compiled and packed the LADSPA Ambisonics Plug-In Set (AMB-plugins-0.8.1) for 32/64 bit on Mac running in Ardour under Mac OS XOS X >= 10.6 to use within Ardour.

AMB-plugins-0.8.1-LADSPA-osx.zip

Homepage of the Software Author Fons Adriaensen and his (mostly Linux) tools:
http://kokkinizita.linuxaudio.org