Producing 3D Audio in Ambisonics

Ambisonics is a 3D recording and playback method that is based on the representation of the sound field excitation as a decomposition into spherical harmonics. This representation facilitates spatial sound produc-tion that is independent of the playback system. The adaptation to a given playback system (loudspeakers or motion-tracked headphones) is achieved by a suitable decoder. This contribution gives an overview of the current state-of-the-art in Ambisonics including content produc-tion using Ambisonic main microphone arrays or panning of virtual sources, spatial effects, and reproduction by loudspeakers and headphones. The software for the whole production chain is already available as a VST-plugin suite for digital audio workstations. 1