Do I need dearVR Music/Pro for 3D headphone mixes when I've got N11?

Nuendo
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#1

Hey. So I’m looking to start creating 3D (binaural) mixes for headphones as one of my clients is interested in delivering this type of content to his clients. This is sort of a new territory for me, and so far I’ve only been scratching the surface on Ambisonics, Dolby Atmos etc. I downloaded the demo of dearVR Music and it actually does a great job for what I want to achieve. And it’s got a built-in reverb that works straight out of the box.

My question is: Do I really need the dearVR plugin for this kind of work, or can I achieve the exact same thing using only the built-in features of N11? If so - how do I set up the built-in reverbs, like REVerence for this?

#2

Do a search for Ambisonics/binaural workflows in Nuendo. That is already incorporated in the app.

#3

Thanks for replying. I did search but can’t find anything on how to setup the built-in reverbs when doing these kinds of mixes. And nothing about it in the documentation either.

#4
#5

As far as reverbs etc, just use them as you would in a Stereo session. You just adjust them to taste while monitoring in Ambisonics. In the video above, you see how to set up your Ambisonic Buss as your Main Mix. Just mix through that buss.

#6

Thank you! I’ve set it up exactly that way. And technically it’s working as it should. What I’m curious about, though, is how to make it sound as acoustically “correct” as the dearVR plugins. So far, I’ve been trying the following:

  • Creating a 7.1.2 Group that outputs to a 3rd order Ambisonics bus. As decoder for stereo/binaural sound for headphones through the Control Room, I’m currently using the free dearVR AMBI Micro. To my ears, this one sounds much better than the built in VST AmbiDecoder.
  • Creating 4 FX channels with REVerence reverbs on them (LA studio preset), that output to said 7.1.2 group. Each of the stereo reverbs are panned to Front, Rear, Side and Top respectively.
  • Creating a mono audio track that outputs to the 7.1.2 group, with sends to all four reverb channels
  • Playing around with panning on the mono track and gotten ok results

I’ve also tried the exact same setup with the Dolby Atmos feature, and in that case I’m outputting the 7.1.2 group to a 7.1.4 bus with the Atmos Renderer on it which in turn is outputting to the 3rd Order Ambisonics bus and further into my headphones through Control Room using the above mentioned dearVR AMBI Micro decoder. In this case the 7.1.2 group acts as “Bed”, and the mono audio track is the “Object”.

My conclusions:

  • The Dolby Atmos setup definitely sounds better, although I’m still not getting this “extreme” feel of room and direction that dearVR Music gives me when panning the audio to the rear and top, for example.
  • When playing around with panning using the aforementioned pure Ambisonics setup there’s very little difference between front and rear. And the results are nowhere near what I’m getting with the dearVR Music plugin applied onto a simple stereo track outputting to a regular stereo bus.

I’m guessing there are some serious Reverb tricks that I’d need to look into in order to achieve what I want with the built-in stuff. Any tips?