SPARTA

Overview

SPARTA is a collection of flexible VST/LV2 audio plug-ins for spatial audio production, reproduction and visualisation, developed primarily by members of the Acoustics Lab at Aalto University, Finland.

The SPARTA installer also includes the COMPASS suite, the HO-DirAC suite, CroPaC Binaural Decoder, and the HO-SIRR room impulse response renderer. These plug-ins employ parametric processing and are signal-dependent. They aim to go beyond conventional linear Ambisonics algorithms, used by the baseline SPARTA plug-ins, by extracting meaningful parameters over time and subsequently employing them to map the input to the output in an adaptive and informed manner.

Note that example REAPER projects may be found here.

All included plug-ins

SPARTA

SPARTA Suite →

  • sparta_ambiBIN - A binaural ambisonic decoder (up to 10th order) with a built-in SOFA loader and head-tracking support via OSC messages. Includes: Least-Squares (LS), spatial re-sampling (SPR, virtual loudspeakers), time-alignment (TA), and magnitude least-squares (Mag-LS) decoding options.
  • sparta_ambiDEC - A frequency-dependent loudspeaker ambisonic decoder (up to 10th order) with user specifiable loudspeaker directions (up to 128), which may be optionally imported via JSON configuration files. Includes: All-Round (AllRAD), Energy-Preserving (EPAD), Spatial (SAD), and Mode-Matching (MMD) ambisonic decoding options. The loudspeaker signals may also be binauralised for headphone playback.
  • sparta_ambiDRC - A frequency-dependent dynamic range compressor for ambisonic signals (up to 10th order).
  • sparta_ambiENC - An ambisonic encoder/panner (up to 10th order), with support for up to 128 input channels; the directions for which may also be imported via JSON configuration files.
  • sparta_ambiRoomSim - A shoebox room simulator based on the image-source method, supporting multiple sources and ambisonic receivers.
  • sparta_array2sh - A microphone array Ambisonics encoder (up to 10th order), with presets for several commercially available A-format and higher-order microphone arrays. The plug-in can also present objective evaluation metrics for the currently selected configuration.
  • sparta_beamformer - A spherical harmonic domain beamforming plug-in with multiple beamforming strategies (up to 128 output beams).
  • sparta_binauraliser - A binaural panner (up to 128 input channels) with a built-in SOFA loader and head-tracking support via OSC messages.
  • sparta_binauraliserNF - Binauraliser, with the addition of proximity filtering for near field sound sources.
  • sparta_decorrelator - A simple multi-channel signal decorrelator (up to 128 input channels).
  • sparta_dirass - A sound-field visualiser based on re-assigning the energy of beamformers. This re-assignment is based on DoA estimates extracted from “spatially-constrained” regions, which are centred around each beamformer look-direction.
  • sparta_matrixconv - A basic matrix convolver with an optional partitioned convolution mode. The user need only specify the number of inputs and load the filters via a wav file.
  • sparta_multiconv - A basic multi-channel convolver with an optional partitioned convolution mode. Unlike “MatrixConv”, this plug-in does not perform any matrixing. Instead, each input channel is convolved with the respective filter; i.e. numInputs = numFilters = numOutputs.
  • sparta_6DoFconv - A time-varying partitioned convolution multi-channel convolver for SOFA files containing RIRs with multiple listener positions.
  • sparta_panner - A 3D loudspeaker array panner using the VBAP method (up to 128 inputs and outputs).
  • sparta_pitchshifter - A simple multi-channel pitch shifter (up to 128 channels) based on the phase vocoder approach.
  • sparta_powermap - A sound-field visualisation plug-in based on ambisonic signals as input (up to 10th order), with PWD/MVDR/MUSIC/Min-Norm options.
  • sparta_rotator - A flexible ambisonic rotator (up to 10th order) with head-tracking support via OSC messages.
  • sparta_sldoa - A frequency-dependent sound-field visualiser (up to 10th order), based on depicting the direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimates derived from spatially localised active-intensity vectors. The low frequency estimates are shown with blue icons, mid-frequencies with green, and high-frequencies with red.
  • sparta_spreader - An arbitrary array (e.g. HRIRs or microphone array IRs) panner with coherent and incoherent spreading options.

COMPASS

COMPASS Suite →

  • compass_binaural - An adaptive binaural ambisonic decoder (up to 3rd order input) based on the parametric COMPASS model, with a built-in SOFA loader and head-tracking support via OSC messages.
  • compass_binauralVR - Same as the compass_binaural plugin, but also supporting listener translation around the receiver position and support for multiple simultaneous listeners.
  • compass_decoder - A parametrically enhanced loudspeaker ambisonic decoder (up to 3rd order input).
  • compass_6dof - A six degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) renderer based on multiple Ambisonic receivers as input, which supports listener translation both within and beyond the convex hull of the receiver arrangement.
  • compass_gravitator - A parametric sound-field focussing plug-in.
  • compass_sidechain - A plug-in that manipulates the spatial properties of one Ambisonic recording based on the spatial analysis of a different recording.
  • compass_spatedit - A flexible spatial editing plug-in.
  • compass_tracker - A multiple target acoustic tracker which can optionally steer a beamformer towards each target.
  • compass_upmixer - An Ambisonic upmixer (1-3rd order input, 2-7th order output).

HO-DirAC

HO-DirAC Suite →

  • hodirac_binaural - An adaptive binaural ambisonic decoder (up to 3rd order input) based on the parametric HO-DirAC model, with a built-in SOFA loader and head-tracking support via OSC messages.
  • hodirac_decoder - A parametrically enhanced loudspeaker ambisonic decoder (up to 3rd order input).
  • hodirac_upmixer - An Ambisonic upmixer (1-3rd order input, 2-7th order output).

Note these plug-ins are released under their own licensing terms.

Other plug-ins

  • hades_renderer - A flexible head-worn microphone array to binaural renderer.
  • cropac_binaural - An adaptive binaural first-order ambisonic decoder based on the parametric CroPaC model, with a built-in SOFA loader and head-tracking support via OSC messages.
  • HOSIRR - An Ambisonic room impulse response (RIR) renderer for arbitrary loudspeaker setups, based on the Higher-order Spatial Impulse Response Rendering (HO-SIRR) algorithm.
  • UltrasonicSuperHearing - A plug-in for the binaural reproduction of ultrasonic sound sources captured using a 6-sensor ultrasonic microphone array, which uses direction-of-arrival estimation and pitch-down-shifting prior to binauralisation in order to provide the appropriate localisation cues.

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SPARTA →