I need help to handle ambisonics audio files

Nuendo
1

Hi everyone.
I’ve been trying to learn how to edit and export ambisonic files lately for 360 video projects.
I have used a H3VR Zoom Ambix recorder, and everything is fine with the recordings.

I would like to edit them in nuendo, to reduce noice, hi-pass etc…
I can monitor it with gopro vr player but I have a huge problem when exporting.
The file I get has 4 tracks in it, but it seems to have lost its “Ambisonics” value according to Zoom ambisonics player. (see picture : https://i.imgur.com/uRME23B.png )
I have also tried editing the files in Davinci Resolve ending with the same results.

The problem being that when I export a video, I feel like there is an audio mixdown occuring, the 4 tracks are still in the file but the audio is stereo only, with no movement whatsoever

Guides I used :
for nuendo configuration : VR Audio Workflow in Nuendo 8.3 | New Features in Nuendo 8 3 - YouTube
for premiere pro configuration : Zoom H3-VR: Editing Ambisonics in Premiere Pro - YouTube
for davinci resolve configuration (yes, the only tutorial available for this is in italian, and I do not speak a word of it either ahah) : TUTORIAL Davinci Resolve+360 Video+Ambisonic Audio - YouTube

2

did you handled all your Ambisonic signals with Ambisonics buses and Outputs? If you routed them to a stereo bus they will transform to stereo… make sure all your routings is using Ambisonics…

3

Yes I did, I even made sure to output the ambisonic bus rather than the stereo output

4

and the panners do no conversation by accident?

5

What do you mean ?

6

if you route something to a bus it goes through the panner… that can change the Ambisonics to Quadro or 5.1 or what ever it is set to…

7

My file is ambisonic on an ambisonic track going to the ambisonic bus which I select to output.

8

Do you set the Ambisonic output as default?
What kind of edits did you apply?
Are all panners in you entire signal path set to VST AmbiDecoder with 1st Order Ambisonics on both (in/out) sides?

9

I’ve made some weird edits on my first try, but when i realised something was wrong i tried using the original file, with no edit.
As I said, Ambisonic file on an ambisonic track going to the ambisonic bus which I select to output.
Everything is fine in the box, i can monitor the movement as long as I’m in Nuendo.
The export seems to be the issue

10

This file comes straight out of H3VR, Ambix A format

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image846×99 9.43 KB

Heres’ the track
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image96×914 17.5 KB

Here’s the bus
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And here’s the export window
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image996×811 47.1 KB

The resulting file has 4 tracks, but has lost its ambisonic attribute according to zoom ambisonics player
image

11

“Even though the resulting files look like multi-channel WAV files, they must be played back with a dedicated Ambisonics player or converted into another platform-specific format using an external application.”

I think when you import an Ambisonics encoded file, it gets decoded into it’s 4 mono audio channels, and loses it’s Ambisonics encoding.

When you play back the exported Ambisonics mixdown file, in an ambisonics capable playback device, does it sound ok?

12

No…but I can’t explain what happens… it get’s converted… but not to 4 mono files…
it is still an Ambisonics file (AmbiDecoder would give a warning if it’s not useable)
still digging in the Ambisonics secrets myself

1 Like
13

Here’s the original file

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image1004×627 66.2 KB

And here’s the exported file

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image1003×627 26.8 KB

I can play it, but as you can see there’s no way for me to change XYZ values to change audio in real time