360 Reality Audio FAQ
“A lot more stems in 360, and it has no bleeding or filtered sounding artifacts.
A big problem with Dolby stems is artifacts, essentially none of that in 360.
And if there is bleeding in 360 then the volume is completely balanced and doesn’t change all the time” - I.
Q (isling): Is there a way to just listen to 360 files locally while still getting the immersive 3d effect?
Decoding them and listening in DAWs don't sound like how they do on Amazon Music for example.
Is there even a way to listen to them without decoding? I've downloaded the MPEG-H software stuff.
The MPEG-H format player doesn't read the decoded WAVs nor supports m4a which is what the original non-decoded files are.
The 360 WalkMix player didn't work either.
https://github.com/ittiam-systems/libmpegh/releases
This one is the one I use, works great to use, but doesn’t have the same 3D effect.
I tried playing the decoded 360 Reality Audio stems in VLC as it has the best Dolby effect, but it didn't have all the channels playing.
A (Sam Hocking): I've worked it out, there's a free decoder. These are the main MPEG-H tools for both creating and playing MPEG-H 3D: https://mpegh.lze-innovation.de/
All free. The plugin is really cool. Request the plugin from their site.
Dolby and Sony 360 are object based [not channel base like Ambisonics]. Sony 360 is just protected MPEG-H 3D.
When you rip from Tidal, you can choose how you decode the file to channel-based audio. This is the point of object-based audio, you decode it to what number of speakers you have
If you use tidal-gui, enter an Android token from your Tidal app on the phone and download the file, then you can decode the Sony 360 / MPEG-H by the following:
Description in format Front/Surr.LFE
1: 1/0.0 - C
2: 2/0.0 - L, R
3: 3/0.0 - C, L, R
4: 3/1.0 - C, L, R, Cs
5: 3/2.0 - C, L, R, Ls, Rs
6: 3/2.1 - C, L, R, Ls, Rs, LFE
7: 5/2.1 - C, Lc, Rc, L, R, Ls, Rs, LFE
8: NA
9: 2/1.0 - L, R, Cs
10: 2/2.0 - L, R, Ls, Rs
11: 3/3.1 - C, L, R, Ls, Rs, Cs, LFE
12: 3/4.1 - C, L, R, Ls, Rs, Lsr, Rsr, LFE
13: 11/11.2 - C, Lc, Rc, L, R, Lss, Rss, Lsr, Rsr, Cs, LFE, LFE2, Cv, Lv, Rv,
Lvss, Rvss, Ts, Lvr, Rvr, Cvr, Cb, Lb, Rb
14: 5/2.1 - C, L, R, Ls, Rs, LFE, Lv, Rv
15: 5/5.2 - C, L, R, Lss, Rss, Ls, Rs, Lv, Rv, Cvr, LFE, LFE2
16: 5/4.1 - C, L, R, Ls, Rs, LFE, Lv, Rv, Lvs, Rvs
17: 6/5.1 - C, L, R, Ls, Rs, LFE, Lv, Rv, Cv, Lvs, Rvs, Ts
18: 6/7.1 - C, L, R, Ls, Rs, Lbs, Rbs, LFE, Lv, Rv, Cv, Lvs, Rvs, Ts
19: 5/6.1 - C, L, R, Lss, Rss, Lsr, Rsr, LFE, Lv, Rv, Lvr, Rvr
20: 7/6.1 - C, Leos, Reos, L, R, Lss, Rss, Lsr, Rsr, LFE, Lv, Rv, Lvs, Rvs
Note: CICP 13 is applicable for baseline profile streams with only object audio.
But the delivery is all contained within 12 channels (7.1.4)
There are different levels of MPEG-H. For streaming, it's 7.1.4 which is level 3 IIRC.
Q: 3rd order Ambisonics you mean? And 7.1.4 is literally just Dolby, right?
A: No 7.1.4. You can consider it the same as Dolby Atmos.
It's object-based audio, Ambisonics is channel based audio.
Q: Isn't 360 RA Ambisonics though? Dolby is object based, right?
A: Yep, Dolby and Sony 360 are object based. Sony 360 is just protected MPEG-H 3D
Q: So Sony 360 is also object based? So it's not Ambisonics
A: [Sony 360 7.1.4 “decoded to normal channel-based audio” looks like just 12 stems which can be imported into Audacity]
Q: The one I got was from Amazon Music, not Tidal. Shouldn't make a difference?
A: It's actually far more powerful than Dolby Atmos in this sense.
Music Media Helper can decode Sony 360. Last time i checked they are possible to rip from Tidal although iirc Tidal are dropping 360 support?
Alternatively, this paid plugin can handle 360RA downmix to binaural audio. https://www.perfectsurround.com/ but you need an iLok ID even for the free trial (jarredou)