Rapid Audio Questions

Ambisonics?

 The Latin prefix ambi- means 'around' or 'on both sides'. Ambire denoted the act of going around or encompassing an area. In 1973 Michael Gerzon startet to used the term while describing how to record, process, distribute and reproduce a full-sphere sound field.

B-Format?
  1. A-Format: raw microphone signals.
  2. B-Format: A-Format processed into Spherical Harmonics, containing all information of a full-sphere sound field. Independent of any loudspeaker configuration, but not playable yet.
  3. C-Format: B-Format spherical harmonics in a concrete distribution form. The standard: AmbiX. ACN channel ordering and SN3D weighting as *.caf audio file.
  4. D-Format: C-Format decoded as loudspeaker feeds or binaurally processed for headphones.

Higher Order?

 It depends. Start with simple microphone layouts and process in first order to learn the basics. You will encounter limitations. If you increase the order, you will hear that higher orders everywhere in the process do not simply produce better results. At least in my experience, you have to adapt to every use case. You have to balance noise, spatial resolution, quality of sound, price and of course taste. Some of these axes are orthogonal while others are inversely coupled.

Height?

 Good question. The spatial audio community is diverse and not everybody considers height information as crucial to the equation. This point of view was held by one of the pioneers, the late Prof. Angelo Farina. Michael Gerzon used the term pantophonic when referring to planar 360° and periphonic when referring to loudspeaker rigs with height information (e.g. a dome, a cube or a full-sphere layout).

Lossless?

 Done.

Head tracking?

 Yes. Supperware & AirPods details soon. Waves Nx? Google Chrome only. Orientation (dummy head) > press "Headlock" > select "Bluetooth"

I want more.

 Try to view it less from the perspective of a product and more as a set of methods. Read the original papers, listen critically, decode to real loudspeaker arrays when possible. Ambisonics is useful, not just fashionable. It remains because the underlying questions were formulated carefully. The simplest advice I can give is still to go to a concert by an artist you care about. :)