Demystifying Spatial Audio Plugins: Comparative Insights into Functionality and Features

The proliferation of audio systems reproducing spatial information has revolutionized the market, offering enhanced timbre fidelity and high-quality spatial perception. Recording and reproducing spatial sound often require specialized microphones and loudspeaker arrays. To manipulate immersive sound, digital audio workstations (DAWs) rely on software extensions known as spatial audio plugins, which significantly expand the functionality of DAWs for spatial audio. Therefore, it is crucial to provide researchers and practitioners with comprehensive information about the most relevant spatial audio plugins available. This study examines the encoding and decoding stages within the immersive sound production chain, with a specific emphasis on plugins and their respective features. These plugins enable the execution of typical operations, facilitating the conversion of mono, stereo, or multichannel audio formats into several orders of Ambisonics spatial audio formats. In addition, decoding plugins are responsible for processing Ambisonic signals to generate either binaural outputs or formats suitable for loudspeaker arrays. The study offers a comprehensive overview of currently available spatial audio plugins, accentuating recent advancements while outlining the underlying methodologies, encompassing both parametric and non-parametric approaches.