What is Spatial Audio?
For a long time, the stereo format has been the standard in the audio industry. Easy positioning of the loudspeakers and the possibility to playback audio via headphones made the format available for everyone, everywhere. Formats like 5.1 or 7.1 made it into some home theatres but could never make the breakthrough. The advantages are obvious: they add a front-back dimension to the left-right stereo dimension. However, until now, cost and technical effort were too high to completely supersede the stereo format. Software solutions by Dear Reality now offer an alternative.
Immersive audio, 3D audio, spatial audio, or multichannel audio - the terms are often used synonymously. What they all have in common is that they extend the surround setups by the high-low dimension and cover all three dimensions. For example, 5.1.4 adds additional loudspeakers at the "ceiling position" in 5.1.4 to the speakers which are placed around the listener. The term immersive audio, therefore, refers to a variety of formats in which the sound can be heard from all directions in the room, immersing the audience more deeply. The good news is that all different formats can now also be played back quite simply and without complex speaker setups via any headphones.
SPATIAL AUDIO - SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE
As a part of the Sennheiser Group, Dear Reality specializes in immersive audio formats and develops innovative tools for diving into the world of spatial audio quickly and easily. Dear Reality's plugins provide next-level reliability to mix and listen to multichannel productions on headphones.
Immersive panning plugins
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MIX - ALWAYS IN THE SWEETSPOT
dearVR PRO makes it easy to shape the direction, distance, reverberation, and reflections of a sound source. The state-of-the-art plugin enables productions in all common immersive audio formats, from binaural to ambisonics to 9.1.6, so that even mixes that are to be run on large multichannel systems in the final product can be realized on headphones.
The free plugin dearVR MICRO is a perfect introduction to the world of 3D audio production. With its simple user interface, the plugin can replace the usual stereo panning with immersive binaural panning - ideal for the first immersive productions for headphones.
The perfect virtual studio
RELIABLE MIXING ON HEADPHONES
Dear Reality's custom Spatial Headphone Compensation turns your headphones into a virtual studio with a wide selection of different mix rooms that meet all acoustic requirements from car checks to reverb correction.
dearVR MIX offers the ideal reference room with perfectly tuned acoustics for stereo productions. This combines the advantages of a headphone mix with the possibilities of a loudspeaker mix: A high level of detail despite a precise representation of reverberation, low-end.
dearVR MONITOR extends the concept to all popular multichannel formats, from stereo to 7.1.4 and 9.1.6. This makes mixes much easier to implement, listen to, and evaluate, without the limitations of poor acoustics or missing speaker setups.
VR, AR controller & interactive audio
IMMERSIVE AUDIO IN AR/VR
With dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT it is even possible to immerse yourself in the 360° environment. VR glasses can be easily connected to the DAW to experience your own mix in a virtual space and gain full control over positioning and automating in the 3D space via intuitive gesture control.
With dearVR UNITY, the mix can then be easily transferred to the Unity game engine for use in games, a VR/AR app, or even 360° video with outstanding localization and externalization.
PROFESSIONAL END-TO-END-WORKFLOWS
Dear Reality and Sennheiser AMBEO offer compelling end-to-end workflows. With dearVR PRO and dearVR MUSIC, mono or stereo recordings can be easily transformed into immersive 3D sounds, while dearVR AMBI MICRO incorporates additional Ambisonics recordings of the AMBEO VR microphone.
For mixing, dearVR MIX and dearVR MONITOR create virtual studios that allow easy, fast, and reliable mixing on headphones - anytime, anywhere. For interactive applications, such as games or apps, dearVR UNITY provides the interfaces to the Unity game engine, and dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT rounds off the package, allowing full immersion in the new immersive world.
