A viewer question sent me back to this channel's roots: how do you actually get Neumann RIME working inside WaveLab 13 to monitor Dolby Atmos on headphones? I also show a bonus trick for adding Apple Spatial Monitoring the same way, so you can virtualize your Atmos studio anywhere.

I take a hands-on look at Spanner 5, The Cargo Cult's immersive channel panning plugin, now available in VST3 and Audio Unit alongside its long-standing Pro Tools version. I show how it handles panning, up-mixing, and down-mixing across Reaper, solve a Reaper specific channel routing issue, and share my honest verdict.

I sit down with Gert Keunen, author of Stereo Was a Nice Try, to break down the immersive audio panning plugins that matter right now — from cinema-grade channel tools to creative, movement-driven effects — and what actually makes one worth putting in your workflow. It's Part 1 of a two-part series (upmixers are coming next), and we each reveal a personal favorite at the end.

I sit down with Ben Weatherill, the one-man team behind South Loop Studios, to talk about how a small side project became a full suite of immersive audio tools — from Orbit and Orbit Pro to the Esfera streaming platform, OSLS, and Cota — in a matter of months. We dig into open formats like IAMF and Google Eclipsa, how they stack up against Dolby Atmos and Apple Spatial Audio, and where 3D sound is headed next.

Orbit Pro 1.5 brings a dramatically cleaner interface and a surprising new capability that pushes the software into fresh territory. I break down what's improved, what still needs work, and whether this tiny developer is quietly outpacing the giants behind Eclipsa Audio.

I sit down with Pablo Garcia-Valencuela of Nine Angles For Forte, a two-decade pioneer of immersive live performance, to dig into SPAT Curve, his patent-pending 3D Kontakt instrument built for the stage. We cover where immersive audio is heading, why he builds instruments rather than tools, and a few creative directions that genuinely caught me off guard.

I put the new AB Recorder from Audio Brewers to the test, recording first-order ambisonics straight from the iPhone and decoding the result in Reaper. Join me for a hands-on walkthrough of the app's standout features, its limitations, and my honest take on whether it earns a place in your pocket.

I dive into Vert1go, the new immersive 3D auto-panner from Max1mus Audio, and explore everything from its pattern library and draw mode to a clever feature for object-oriented workflows like Dolby Atmos. I also compare it head-to-head with Sound Particles' Beat Panner so you can decide which one belongs in your immersive audio toolkit.

Sound Particles just released Beat Panner, a new plugin that works like an auto-panner in three-dimensional space for immersive and spatial audio. In this video I explore what it does, who it's for, and give my honest verdict, limitation and all.

Dolby recently made the Dolby Reference Player available to buy on its own, so I take a hands-on look at what it does, how it fits into Dolby Atmos quality control, and how to create a bitstream you can actually test. The real question, though, is who this $50 tool is for — and whether hobbyists and semi-professionals need it at all.

In this first look I explore Orbit Pro, the new Pro version of the Orbit player from Orbit Spatial, which can now transcode Dolby Atmos Master Files directly into YouTube-supported Eclipsa Audio—something even Pro Tools can't do yet. I also walk through its new video import, multi-track sessions, webcam head tracking and improved loudness metering, and explain why it's a strong pick for anyone serious about immersive audio production.

I answer the two biggest questions I keep getting about the Steven Slate Immersion One: can you use the VSX system for immersive audio, and should you upgrade from the original VSX? My verdict might surprise you — better doesn't always mean right for you.

In this episode, I chat with Gert Keunen, mastering engineer and author of Stereo Was a Nice Try, about everything from setting up a budget immersive studio to mixing secrets for Dolby Atmos and why thinking immersive from the start changes everything. We cover DAWs, headphone mixing, the LFE channel, loudness, virtual instruments, and even what beer style best represents an immersive mix.

I take a first look at the Areal SR1 — a groundbreaking set of immersive headphones from Belgium that uses multiple physical drivers per ear cup to reproduce spatial audio through your own ear geometry, bypassing software-based HRTF simulation entirely. In this video I walk through the hardware, the audio interface, the setup process, and give my honest verdict on whether the SR1 lives up to its fascinating concept.

I ranked every major DAW by the immersive audio features added in 2025 and early 2026 — from platforms with zero native support all the way to the surprising leader at the top of the list. Spoiler: Avid Pro Tools has quietly pulled ahead of the pack with native multi-format spatial session architecture, Sony 360 RA integration, and Audio Vivid support.

Fiedler Audio's new Armada plugin lets you use any mono plugin on immersive audio tracks and even on Dolby Atmos master channels via the Dolby Atmos Composer — and in this video I put it through its paces with FabFilter Pro‑Q and Pro‑C in Reaper. If you've been looking for a Waves Immersive Wrapper alternative from a developer you trust, this one's for you.

I review UpM1xer from Max1mus Audio, a new upmixing plugin for Dolby Atmos that features some genuinely innovative tools like an immersive transient shaper and an LFE subharmonic generator. It's a very strong first showing, though the lack of 9.1.6 support and the Apple Silicon-only limitation are worth noting.

I review DeepStereo Monitor by Leson, a new binaural renderer built on IRCAM research, and put it through its paces in Reaper with a full walkthrough of its features including head tracking. I also compare it head-to-head with APL Virtuoso to help you decide which renderer fits your immersive audio workflow.

Audio Brewers just released abEQ, a first-of-its-kind ambisonics EQ that lets you independently EQ each dimensional pole of the ambisonics field — and I'm walking you through everything it can do. I've also got a surprise reveal: Virtuoso's new HeadTrek feature, which turns your webcam into a head tracker for binaural monitoring.

In this video, I review Orbit by Orbit Spatial — a brand-new dedicated Dolby Atmos music player that finally makes it easy to play back and inspect your Atmos master files without needing the Dolby Atmos Renderer. At just 79 pounds (39 for educational users) and packed with features like object soloing, head tracking, and metadata PDF export, this Mac-only tool gets my first-ever unconditional buy recommendation.