O1A Decoder - UHJ Stereo

Host Support

Host Type	Support
AAX	Yes
VST2	Yes

Audio

	Channels	Content
Input	4	O1A
Output	2	UHJ Stereo

Description

This plugin takes a first order ambisonics (O1A) mix and converts it into UHJ stereo. This form of stereo uses phase to encode a small amount of ambisonic surround sound information, which can be recovered later, for instance in special A/V receivers.

UHJ stereo was introduced in 1985 for use with first order ambisonics. It contains no height information, only takes audio from three of the sixteen channels that make up O1A and those channels cannot be recovered entirely. However, it does allow an impressive amount of spatial detail to be "hidden" in the stream while still being good to listen to in stereo.

UHJ stereo is sometimes used for artistic reasons, as stereo formed this way has particular sound qualities. For instance, UHJ produces a "phasey" stereo image when sounds are behind, which can be desirable.

For simple stereo decoding you might also wish to try the basic O1A Decoder - Stereo plugin.

This plugin uses a gain boost of +4.315dB relative to the common UHJ decoding equations, for consistency with other Blue Ripple Sound studio decoders.

The plugin is available in the O1A Decoding plugin library.

O1A Decoding