O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 9.1, 10.1, 11.1 and 13.1

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 9.1

Host Support

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 9.1

Host TypeSupport
AAXYes, input mapped to 5.1.4
VST2Yes

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 10.1

Host TypeSupport
AAXYes, input mapped to 7.0.4
VST2Yes

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 11.1

Host TypeSupport
AAXYes, input mapped to 7.1.4
VST2Yes

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 13.1

Host TypeSupport
AAXYes, input mapped to 7.1.6
VST2Yes

Audio

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 9.1

ChannelsContent
Input10Auro-3D 9.1 (mapped to 5.1.4 for AAX)
Output16O3A

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 10.1

ChannelsContent
Input11Auro-3D 10.1 (mapped to 7.0.4 for AAX)
Output16O3A

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 11.1

ChannelsContent
Input12Auro-3D 11.1 (mapped to 7.1.4 for AAX)
Output16O3A

O3A Upmixer - Auro-3D 13.1

ChannelsContent
Input14Auro-3D 13.1 (mapped to 7.1.6 for AAX)
Output16O3A

Controls

Description

There are four O3A Upmixer plugins for processing Auro-3D surround mixes. These correspond to each of the Auro-3D 9.1, Auro-3D 10.1, Auro-3D 11.1 and Auro-3D 13.1 speaker layouts. They convert the mixes to third order ambisonics (O3A).

The AAX versions of these specific plugins require Pro Tools 2023.6 or later.

Channels

The channel orderings used for 9.1 use the following table. AAX is mapped to the 5.1.4 speaker layout.

ChannelAAXVST
1Front LeftFront Left
2Front CentreFront Right
3Front RightFront Centre
4Surround LeftLFE
5Surround RightSurround Left
6LFESurround Right
7Height Front LeftHeight Front Left
8Height Front RightHeight Front Right
9Height Rear LeftHeight Rear Left
10Height Rear RightHeight Rear Right

The other Auro-3D formats are:

Auro-3D 10.1Auro-3D 11.1Auro-3D 13.1Channel Name
1 1 1 Front Left
2 2 2 Front Right
3 3 3 Front Centre
4 4 4 LFE
5 5 5 Surround Left
6 6 6 Surround Right
- - 7 Back Left
- - 8 Back Right
7 7 9 Height Front Left
8 8 10 Height Front Right
9 9 11 Height Surround Left
10 10 12 Height Surround Right
- 11 13 Height Front Centre
11 12 14 Top Ceiling

When these formats are mapped for AAX, no attempt is made to map to channels where they correspond. The channels simply appear in the order above. The AAX stem formats actually used are 7.0.4, 7.1.4 and 7.1.6.

If you are using the recommended "Inferred" mode, make sure you are using the right plugin for your content, rather than just patching to some of the channels of 13.1. This will give better results.

The plugin is available in the O3A Upmixers plugin library.

Controls

Control: Mode

Two modes are supported, "Inferred" and "Virtual". Generally, "Inferred" is recommended.

ModeDescription
InferredThis mode is optimised for use with material that has been mixed using conventional panning techniques, such as equal-power panning or VBAP. The approach produces smooth transitions when sounds pass between speaker locations.
VirtualThis mode simply places each of the main (non-LFE) audio channels in their appropriate speaker direction. This can be worth trying when the mix has not been put together by conventional panning and the channels have a complex phase relationship.

Control: LFE Gain

Audio from the LFE channel can be mixed into the output by setting this dial. It is added to the stream as an omnidirectional signal.