German spatial audio technology and virtual acoustics software specialist Dear Reality has announced the dearVR pro and dearVR music, two plug-ins providing tools for creating immersive 3D audio for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality films, games, and video from within a DAW.
dearVR pro and dearVR music aim to eliminate the middleware, unwieldy software bundles and complex routing often used to create immersive 3D audio for films, games, and video since all essential tools are now contained in a single plug-in interface for processing tracks in a DAW .
As a complete 3D audio toolkit, dearVR pro allows audio tracks to be positioned anywhere in a 3D soundstage (behind or in front of the listener, above or below the head, to the left or right, closer or farther away( by dragging an icon representing the track in the plug-in’s XYZ pad, or by using sliders for adjusting the sound’s Elevation, Azimuth and Distance from the listener.
There is a choice of 46 Virtual Acoustics featuring 3D imaging and depth, in which to place an object’s sound and move it around in real time, with full automation support. Options include concert halls, car interiors, variously-sized rooms (Church, Cellar, Staircase, Bathroom, Booth, Warehouse, and Live Arena), Outdoor Street and Live Stage. Each environment is instantly and independently recallable per plug-in instance, allowing each object to be placed in a different space.
The shape, dimensions, and texture of each virtual space can be modified using controls that adjust its Size, Damping and balance of early reflections and diffuse Reverb. In Realtime Auralisation mode, turning six knobs respectively adjusts the distance from the listener of the four walls, ceiling, and floor to match onscreen visuals. As the sound is moved around to match the corresponding onscreen object’s movement, the delay times and directions of arrival for early reflections bouncing off these virtual boundaries change – as in real environments. An Occlusion control adjusts the sound of the object to realistically match its being blocked by another virtual object in line of sight to the listener. Other controls can be used to scale azimuth (Azimuth Scale) and distance (Distance Scale) to match picture and sound.
dearVR pro outputs 3D audio in seven delivery formats (including 360° videos on YouTube and Facebook), meeting all professional requirements for any AR or VR productions. In addition to two-channel binaural format (for immersive playback using conventional headphones), producers can choose four-channel first order, nine-channel second order, or 16-channel third order Ambisonics output in either AmbiX or FuMa (Furse Malham) format. The plug-in’s 46 Virtual Acoustics can also be used as conventional reverbs in 2D (two- dimensional) stereo mixes, making them indispensable for music production.
dearVR music is a streamlined version of the plug-in for entry-level 3D audio applications. While dearVR music makes available the same XYZ pad, Elevation, Azimuth and Distance sliders as dearVR pro, other controls respectively adjust the Size, Damping and balance of early reflections and diffuse reverb in 18 Virtual Acoustics, including Concert Hall, Church, Live Stage and Drum Room.
dearVR music outputs 3D audio in binaural or four-channel Ambisonics format for musicians and audio engineers wishing to use immersive 3D audio into their mixes.
dearVR pro and dearVR music are respectively available as AAX AudioSuite, AAX Native, AU, VST2 and VST3 supporting plug-ins for Mac OS-X (10.8–10.12), Windows (7–10) and Pro Tools (10.3.10 or higher).
