Altiverb 8 What's new

  Watch the guided tour video

The original convolution reverb

Altiverb is a plug-in that makes your audio sound as if it was played back somewhere else, adding the acoustics of existing spaces to your own recordings or to your live audio. All spaces in Altiverb were recorded in the real world, from Sydney Opera House to a Scottish underground oil tank the size of a cathedral.

Buy now Impulse responses Features Specifications Download Support
recording The Loft, a club in Amsterdam
Buy now Impulse responses New Features Specifications Download Support
recording at Wembley Stadium, London

Altiverb impulse responses

From all over the world

Longer than anyone in the industry, and with more ear for detail, Audio Ease has been traveling the world to record the acoustics of the best sounding spaces.
The results of hundreds of these recordings are included with Altiverb 8.
Ranging from London's Wembley stadium to the ancient caves of the island of Malta and the churches, concert halls and rock studios from cities like Tokyo, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and New York.

worldwide IRs
IR Browser

Browse through all Altiverb IRs

The IR browser

The Impulse Response library is now more accessible then ever because of Altiverb's newly designed browser. Select impulse responses by clicking photos of rooms. Instant, gapless loading, finding similar sounding spaces, organise by reverb length (RT60), and single click favorites are just a few of the possibilities. The Impulse Response Browser and the pictures in it are resizeable and contains an extensive search field.

Concert halls in the Altiverb 8 IR Browser

Concert halls

First class orchestral recording studios from the US East and West coast are featured in Altiverb, like Todd AO, 20th Century Fox, paramount, some of these studios do no longer exist, but their sound lives on in Altiverb.

Orchestral studios

First class orchestral recording studios from the US East and West coast are featured in Altiverb. Some of these scoring stages are no longer excistence, but their sound lives on in Altiverb.

Recording studios and echo chambers in the Altiverb 8 IR Browser
Concert halls in the Altiverb 8 IR Browser

Recording studios

Many world class recording studio live spaces and echo chambers, from Tokyo to Paris are part of the Altiverb impulse responses library.

Every day rooms

The POST category features many different sounding spaces, every day rooms like bathrooms, restrooms, kitchens, different types of transport, trains, cars, planes, but also the not so ordinary, odd sounding, spaces like museums, huge domes or sewer pipes.

Not your every day rooms in the Altiverb 8 IR Browser

"This library is the result of twenty five years of travelling with the speaker and it's all included with Altiverb."


Classic reverb gear

Altiverb contains a tremendous amount of classic reverb gear and purpose built echo chambers. You will find all the EMT plates you want, spring reverbs, classic digital gear like the 480, 224, the RMX 16, the 250. Add the Frank Sinatra and Beach Boys echo chambers and you have everything you need to recreate all those classic sounds.

These IR sets match the real hardware units very closely, usually indistinguishable from the original,
as you can compare below, by switching in realtime between:
the Altiverb output recording and
the original recording. Four machines below, more on the IR page

.

High Density Plate - decay 3.0 seconds

SP2016 Altiverb Dry bass


Room Reverb - decay 3.0 seconds

SP2016 Altiverb Dry conga


Stereo Room - decay 1.2 seconds

SP2016 Altiverb Dry guitar


The SP2016 audio examples are recordings of the DRY input track played through the actual SP2016 hardware reverb at the IR recording session by Zach McNees.
The ALTIVERB examples are bounced tracks from a Pro Tools session in which the DRY input sends to an Aux track with the Altiverb 7 plug-in inserted and Altiverb 7 has loaded the IR of the same SP2016 preset.

The guitar example is a snippet from Kiss Landing by Pierre Bensusan

0.6s - LOWS 1.0 - HIGHS 0.33

EMT 250 Altiverb Dry drums


3.0s - LOWS 2.0 - HIGHS max

EMT 250 Altiverb Dry bass


The EMT 250 audio examples are recordings of the DRY input track played through the actual EMT 250 hardware reverb at the IR recording session by Arjen in New York.
The ALTIVERB examples are bounced tracks from a Pro Tools session in which the DRY input sends to an Aux track with the Altiverb 7 plug-in inserted and Altiverb 7 has loaded the IR of the same EMT 250 setting.

The SST-282 on guitar

Dry

SPACE 2, 90 msec pre delay, 0 feedback
SST-282 Altiverb

SPACE 4, 120 msec pre delay, 4 feedback
SST-282 Altiverb


The SST-282 audio examples are recordings of the DRY input track played through the actual SST-282 Space Delay in Stanley Arts' studio at the actual IR recording session.
The ALTIVERB examples are bounced tracks from a Reaper session in which the DRY input has the Altiverb 7 plug-in inserted on its track and this Altiverb 7 has loaded the IR of the same SST-282 setting. A stretch of SST-282 DA converter noise was mixed into the Altiverb mock up to make the comparison fair. For the joy of listening to a nice piece of music, both examples have the same amount of DRY input mixed to it. The guitar example is a snippet from Kiss Landing by Pierre Bensusan.

The 240 gold plate on guitar

Dry (bypassed)
240 Altiverb Martyn's setting
240 Altiverb no Low cut
240 Altiverb -24dB Low cut


The 240 gold plate on conga

Dry (bypassed)
240 Altiverb Martyn's setting
240 Altiverb no Low cut
240 Altiverb -24dB Low cut


In all examples there was no damping applied in the 240 unit. Martyn's setting is his preferred one: the -24dB Low cut on the 240 and a personal EQ setting to boost treble. The other two examples are the -24dB low cut and no low cut. All 240 audio examples are recordings of the DRY input track played through the actual 240 Gold Plate in Martyn Heyne's Studio in Berlin at the IR recording session.
The ALTIVERB examples are bounced tracks from a Pro Tools session in which the same DRY input has the Altiverb 7 plug-in inserted on its track and this Altiverb 7 has loaded the IR of the same 240 setting.
A close listen will reveal that the IR in Altiverb lacks the noise the real 240 reference recording has.

The guitar example is a snippet from Kiss Landing by Pierre Bensusan.

Creating your own IRs

With the sweeps and tool you get with Altiverb 8 you can capture acoustics yourself and use these impulse responses in Altiverb. Please check the tutorial video and follow the tips to get best results.

Watch the video Follow the tips, get started

If you have any questions or need assistance in this process: contact support@audioease.com.

Sweep recording requirements

  • To make your own impulse responses (IRs) you must playback a sweep sound from a speaker.
  • You must record this with microphones, as many as you want output channels from your altierb impulse response.
  • The input recording must be an interleaved wav file with SMPTE channel ordering, so if you need a center channel it must be the third channel. Pro Tools bounces any interleaved file always in SMPTE channel order.
  • The largest alowed output configuration is 9.0.6. (note: 7.0.6 is not produced, instead 9.0.4 is produced when 13 channels are in the recording.).
  • The recording must contain either 1 sweep, including start and end blip, for mono input, or two sweeps for stereo input.

Impulse Repsonses made like this, with the Altiverb sweeps and the tool that comes with Altiverb, may only be used in Altiverb. These IRs are saved in Altiverb Proprietary format. Reverse engineering or re-sampling is prohibited. This information is also in the End User License Agreement of Altiverb.

Best practices

  • use omnidirectional microphones.
  • Space the microphones far apart, several meters if possible.
  • Carefully measure that everything is symmetrical, with large setups, a large error is easily made.
  • To test your setup on the location: play dry music through your speaker and compare the recording in the room to the dry recording. Decide if you would be satisfied if that were Altiverb.
  • You will find your speaker to be the most critical component. Few speakers when free standing like in the video, sound neutral on-axis at a couple of meters distance. Neutral is crucial if you want to reverberate dialogue and match it to something real. If you feel the result sounds too thin, try a speaker with bass reflex ports on its front, or a bigger speaker, or change out directional microphones for omnidirectional microphones. all of these measures will increase the low end in a more complex and natural way than post-eq.
  • Do not playback loud, to protect the people around you, and do not record loud to make sure you don’t clip the recording.

Recommended sweep file

The most used, general purpose, sweep file: 30s sweep for 16sec reverb 44k.wav
In total it takes about 1 minute to get 16 seconds of reverb.

In a hurry ?

On a busy film set when people are waiting, time is limited. When you do not have the time to use an entire minute per take use one of shorter sweeps below. Do select the proper sweep for the length of the reverb you wish to sample.

10s sweep for 3s reverb 44k.wav
fast, but delivers max 3 seconds of reverb.
Need more options ?
10s sweep for 3s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
10s sweep for 15s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
30s sweep for 3s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
30s sweep for 16s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
30s sweep for 45s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
100s sweep for 16s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
100s sweep for 45s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
100s sweep for 180s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
300s sweep for 45s reverb 44.1k 48k 88.2k 96k
Sampling Gear

Spring reverbs, echo chambers, plate reverbs and other analog reverbs: please use the sweep files mentioned above.
For digitally connected reverb gear: use the spike file below. It is prefered over sweeps when capturing time variant features like chorus.


Spike 44k.wav Spike 48k.wav

Advanced tutorial

In this deep dive video Arjen shows you how to capture concert hall IRs with stereo input and up to atmos 9.0.6 output using only one speaker and two microphones.

You will learn how to set this up, process this and why we recommend to do it like this.

Features

Apart from the extensive library of impulse responses you get with this plug-in, Altiverb features some clever controls for shaping the sound of this convolution reverb.

Reverb time

Decay

This essential reverb parameter is very prominent in Altiverb 8. You can apply an exponential decay on any impulse response to reduce the reverb time, without changing the character of the room. Read more...

Over the years we have recorded in multiple rooms that allow physical reverb time control by introducing objects that dampen the room, like curtains for instance. For many rooms we sampled both wet (no damping) and the more intimate (dry) settings and added both to Altiverb. When you compare a wet setting with the right amount of reverb time reduction you will hear you get very close to the original in dry (dampened) conditions recorded impulse response. This shows how natural this control behaves.

Brightness

Brightness

Real spaces often contain less high frequency content than algorithmic (synthetic) reverbs. Sometimes you need that extra sparkling brightness in a reverb tail that is just hard to obtain from the real world. Read more...

And often this cannot be achieved with EQ, because what’s not in the signal cannot be turned up with EQ either.
This is where brightness comes in.
Brightness adds an entire algorithmic synthetic reverb on top of the real-world impulse response. It tailors the reverb tail exactly to match the IR, following length, slope and early reflections closely, so that it connects and the result does not fall apart in two sounds. By turning up brightness you dial in more of the synthetic reverb and thus more high frequencies.

Damping

Damping

Control the reverb length of three separate and adjustable frequency bands. Shortening is damping, lengthening is enhancing. You can see the effect of damping in the waterfall graph of the impulse response.

Stage positions

Stage position

Altiverb can have mono or stereo inputs. When making impulse responses, we used either one speaker position in the center of the stage for mono input, or two speaker positions for stereo input. So there is a direct relation between the amount of inputs and the speakers used. Using the positioner tab, available only in mono and stereo input Altiverbs, you can switch on the speaker, in which case you can hear where it stands. You can also, right there, move the speaker around.

This is the absolute most realistic sounding virtual playback of your audio in any space in Altiverb.

You should use it fully wet, but even then you hear quite some dry-ish material, because there is a direct path from speakers to microphones. A demo of this is in the first minutes of the Altiverb 8 guided tour video.

The four knobs on the right manipulate the different stages of the impulse response, starting with the earliest part: the direct sound. The gain and color of the direct sound can be adjusted. Color is adjusted between neutral (flat) and the actual direct sound that is in the Impulse Response (IR), which sounds more realistic, but can give unwanted coloration as it can contain a very early reflection from an on stage piano or the stage itself, and also includes speaker and microphone coloration.
Early and tail can be switched on or off and the levels can be changed too. Read more...

Stage position

An exhaustive recording session in a Viennese concert hall gave us an algorithm that allows you to accurately place your sound anywhere on stage of all our concert halls, or in any of our other rooms. Physically correct sound placement using the Altiverb Stage Positioner creates a stunningly realistic audio panorama.

Back in December 2003 Audio Ease went to several rooms to make samples using a larger than usual set of source positions. The goal was to find out what exactly the influence of stage position is on the impulse response, so an algorithm could be derived that allows the source sound to be moved around on the stage of any hall or room available in Altiverb. The following is a demo using Altiverb's resulting 'stage positions' feature for a specific case:

Creation of a convincing stereo image of a sampled orchestra on a stage
altiverb stage positions
pro tools mixer

First, listen to what the stage position control in Altiverb can do

altiverb stage positions audio demo

The percussion section is placed in three different positions on stage in the same hall (Konzerthaus, grosse saal). The image is the starting position, but then the percussion moves to the rear and then the right rear. There are two speakers on stage because the input audio is a stereo mixdown of a percussion section.

Maarten's demo

We asked Maarten Spruijt, composer, maker of primary demos for such renowned sample manufacturers as Vienna Symphonic Library, Spectrasonics and ProjectSAM, to compose a short movement for us. As his instrument he chose to use the Vienna Symphony Library of orchestral samples.

This is what his dry, un-positioned orchestra sounded like:

Instrument track inserts

We asked Maarten to distribute his separate instrument tracks over the stage using Altiverb's stage position feature. Each track was to be played back from a different position on stage.

First thing to do was insert Altiverb on each of the 15 instrument tracks. Each Altiverb loaded with the same microphone setup. A setup close to a stage was used to achieve a wide stereo image:

Vienna Konzerhaus microphone placement layout image taken from Altiverb
The Vienna Konzerthaus 10m, omni directional mics

To ease the load on the CPU, and to remain more flexible, the choice was made to not render the full tail in all instrument tracks. Instead all 15 Altiverb instances in the instrument tracks only use the direct sound and the early refs (reflections).

tail off

On the master track, one Altiverb will take take care of the tail. This way the longest part over the reverb is applied once instead of 15 times and by using this setup you can easily change the tail sound.

Selecting Instrument Positions

Then the Altiverbs were switched to their Stage positions tabs. The direct gain control now becomes disabled, as the Stage positions control takes over the gain of the direct sound.
Stage positions were selected, by dragging the speaker for mono instrument tracks, or by dragging both speakers for placement of stereo mixdowns of instrument groups.
Classic orchestral positions were selected, with percussion in the far back of the stage.

Listen to Maarten's tracks carefully positioned

Maarten's positionings are available as Altiverb plug-in presets here:
Orchestral positioning presets

A single master Altiverb for the reverb tail

With all of the instruments placed properly a final Altiverb was put in the master channel to take care of the reverb tail. Mechanics Hall in Worcester MA was selected to provide the reverb tail. The instrument tracks now provided the direct sound and early refs in the production, so the direct sound of the master Altiverb was set all the way down, as well as some of its early reflections (early).

av7-no-direct-low-early-tail

With the master now only rendering the tail, the mix between the placement and the tail could be made using the wet/dry control of the master Altiverb.

Results

Check out this final result. A very convincing orchestral stage, that could not have been achieved using traditional panning.

Best listened to on speakers

The audio demos on this page are optimized for playback on speakers, not headphones.

Alternative mix

Alternatively, here's a wetter setup, that makes use of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw for the reverb tail.(Maartens alternatives are available in the preset menu under Orchestral Reverb Tails)

Download all audio in high quality

You can download all audio featured on this page also as non-compressed 44.1 kHz, 16 bits AIFF files.

download all demo audio
 
EQ

Equalizer

Altiverb features a four band equalizer. The bass and treble bands are Baxandall EQs, designed to not shift phase more than 180 degrees, which effectively means that combing or cancellation effects are unlikely when the EQ’d signal is mixed with the dry signal. The equalizer works on the wet signal only.

Reverb size control

Size

Makes the selected room (impulse response) smaller or larger. This transposes room modes and resonances, tightens or spreads early reflections, and shortens or lengthens the reverb tail.

Microphone

Pre-delay

Delays the onset of the reverb. If the note symbol is clicked, the timing of the delay is locked to the tempo of the host application so you can select an eighth-note as the delay time.

Cloud Size and Pan Tracking Reverb - from LCR up to 9.1.6 input Altiverbs

Stage position

Altiverb XL supports more than two inputs. With more then two inputs there is no longer a direct relation between an input and a speaker that was used when making the impulse response. Therefore the Positioner tab is unavailable. Instead there is a new control: cloud size. With cloud size turned down, the reverb no longer outputs to all output channels, it starts clustering around the input pan position of your sounds. Even when the input sound moves, the reverb cloud travels along with it. The Altiverb 8 guided tour video gives an example of input pan following reverb starting at 5:43.

Microphone

Attack

Fades-in the start of the impulse response, resulting in a more lush, distant reverb sound.

Reverse

Reverse

The entire impulse response is reversed in time for backward reverb effects.

Modulation

Modulation

This effect does not emulate anything that happens in reality, it emulates something that happens in artificial reverb algorithms. Read more...

When the impulse response is modulated, the frequencies of input notes are a little bit spread out. The effect is that a note that is a bit off-key (false) does not necessarily remain false in the reverb, or that the reverb may sound a bit more full, or that a snare sample that is input twice to Altiverb does not come out of Altiverb the same way twice.

Gated reverb

Gated Reverb

Allows you to abruptly cut-off a reverb after a set amount of time. The gate time can also be locked to the tempo of the host application.

Mixer

Mixer

Everything is recorded with enough microphones to provide Atmos reverb (up to nine eye level speakers plus six over head channels).

There's a new output meter and a mixer that provides full control of all outputs.

Snapshots

Snapshots

Snapshots are presets that are private to an instance of Altiverb. Read more...

Another Altiverb in the same session contains different snapshots. Snapshots are saved in the session/project. Snapshots can be switched using automation. The automation preset index parameter does that. Snapshots are an inheritance of older versions of Altiverb and no longer a necessity in Altiverb 8 because Altiverb 8 is a total-recall plug-in, meaning that the entire state of the plug-in can be automated without the use of snapshots.

WHAT IS NEW IN ALTIVERB 8

Native apple silicon support

Native Apple silicon

M1 / M2 & Intel macs are fully supported.

Altiverb 8 output options

Dolby Atmos support

Up to 9.1.6 input and output channels for fully immersive convolution reverb. XL only

Resizable user interface

New scalable user interface

(except AU version)

Altiverb 8 cloud size control

Cloud size

Automatic input-pan following reverb, locate each reverb around the panning of the source, even when multiple sources move in a single instance.

Reverb time

Smooth and clickless

IR switches, reverb adjustments and stage position changes all practically seemless without any clicks.

Altiverb 8 output meter

New output level meters

These allow manipulation of level and delay per output channel. XL only

Browser showing Dolby Atmos concert hall IRs

Pure Dolby Atmos IRs

Almost all of the hundreds of the music spaces (concert halls, churches, cathedrals, studios, scoring stages) have been upgraded to Dolby Atmos by utilizing the original extra recordings we have been routinely making throughout the years.
All outputs of Altiverb are always real and distinct original speaker to microphone takes.XL only

Altiverb 8 mono panned input

Mono pan following

Across surround busses up to Dolby Atmos (9.1.6), making multi-mono instances unnecessary, reducing session load time considerably. XL only

Altiverb 8 improved IR searching

Improved IR searching

The newly designed browser offers more and quicker ways to find the right IR.

IR Tool

New IR Tool

This tool enables you to create your own IRs, with output support up to 9.1.6 channels.

Your choice computer activation or ilok usb key activation

Computer activation

The Altiverb license can be activated on a computer or on a USB iLok key. The iLok USB key is NO LONGER required.

VST3

VST3 Plug-In

To ensure compatibility with worldclass VST host applications (DAWs) like Ableton Live, Cubase and Nuendo Altiverb 8 features a VST3 plug-in.

Altiverb 8 improved IR searching

Center

Almost all IRs have been supplied with a real center channel for LCR or 5.0 7.0 without center bleed.

IR Tool

Backward Compatibility

Altiverb 8 is fully backward compatible replacing Altiverb 7 in your sessions.

Your choice computer activation or ilok usb key activation

New Spaces

many new spaces are included with Altiverb 8, like the Zuidervermaning from the intro video, a dance club, some industrial spaces, a Tesla, camper vans , atmos plates and springs reverbs, and a selection of buckets and bins including a porta toilet. All including atmos.

VST3

improved loading speed.

Your sessions with many Altiverbs will load quicker than ever.

WHAT IS NOT NEW IN 8

Wait? What?
This is what Altiverb 8 continues to deliver, just like Altiverb 7 (and earlier) has been delivering for two decades:

  • Backward compatibility, Altiverb 8 opens in sessions/projects that were made with Altiverb since 2006 and the session/project will sound the same.
  • All IRs ever released for Altiverb.
  • New IRs will be added regularly, for free.
  • Fixes and support without yearly fees.
  • The option to sell and transfer your license.
  • Countless ways of manipulating the reverb sound with controls like reverb time, attack, brightness, pre delay, EQ, damping..
  • Revolutionary stage positioning control for placing single members of a group, ensemble or even a complete orchestra on their own individual spot on stage, in any room/concert hall

Specifications

System requirements

iLok account
The Altiverb 8 license can be activated by iLok on your machine (computer) or on an iLok USB Key (generation 2 or newer).
The physical iLok USB key is NOT required.
iLok Cloud is not supported.

macOS
Mac OS X 10.14 (Mojave) or higher
macOS 15 (Sequoia) and macOS 14 (Sonoma) are fully supported.

Windows
Windows support will be added later.
For now you can use Altiverb 7 on Windows.
Altiverb 7 does require the iLok USB key for activation.

8 GB free disk space
The core IR set takes around 8 GB of hard disk space. You can choose to install this in any location you like.

Tested host applications (DAWs)

MacOS
Ableton Live 12-11
Cubase 13
Digital Performer 11
Logic Pro 11-X
Nuendo 13
Pro Tools 2024-2022

Windows

Not available yet.
Support will be added later.

Other DAWs might work too, only these have been tested
Wavelab is currently not supported.
Plug-In formats

AAX Native
Audio Unit (AU)
VST3

MAS
AU is now recommended for use in Digital Performer (DP).
Check this FAQ entry for more details.

All plug-ins are 64 bits and macOS Universal (ARM & Intel).
Altiverb 8 XL vs Altiverb 8 Regular

Altiverb 8 Regular
supports mono and stereo inputs and outputs.
supports sampling rates up to (and including) 96 kHz.

Altiverb 8 XL
supports inputs and outputs from mono all the way up to 9.1.6.
supports sampling rates up to 384 kHz.

Altiverb 8 XL and Regular feature the same controls, the same impulse responses. Sessions made with Regular can be opened with XL (and the other way around), as long as the session is within the Regular limits (stereo & max 96kHz).

You can always upgrade from Regular to XL for the price difference between the two.

Altiverb version history

Click on a version for release notes ()

This new Altiverb 8.1.0 adds new functionality:
classic level meters in the mixer tab⭐️ classic level meters in the mixer tab
import export presets and snapshots⭐️ import and export of single presets or entire snapshot banks
New IR downloads from the browser⭐️ new IR downloads from within the browser window
⭐️ and a resizing gui for the AU version
We have kicked off a series of impulse response releases with UK’s Snape Maltings Hall.
With our fresh Atmos recording workflow we are ready to record more, so suggestions are welcome!
Since the initial Altiverb 8 release 11 months ago, apart from numerous fixes we have greatly improved VST3 compatibility, made sure we loaded even more of those very old sessions correctly, brought the screensaver back, perfected third party IR support, improved the balance in many of our atmos sets, sped up IR automation, and added an IRTool to create your own IRs.
⚠️ Altiverb 8 instances with one or two inputs and 5 outputs (5.0) are 3dB louder than their Altiverb 7 predecessor.
This should have been caught early and fixed then, but we have decided it's too late to fix this now.
We want the 5.0 output instance to be as loud as all higher multi-channel versions (7.1, atmos, etc), because some hosts can switch between these on the fly.
A proper fix of the above level problem would involve bringing down the atmos-Altiverbs by 3dB as well, and we think that would hurt too many ongoing atmos productions at the moment, so the fix would be worse than the problem.
To update any Altiverb 8.0.x use the 360 MB plug-in updater.
Download Altiverb
Altiverb 8.1.0 changes:
Improved support for Third Party and User Creaded IRs in the IR browser
User Created and Third party IRs can now be added to the Favourites (and Favourites can be removed too).
AU: 7.1 and higher output configurations work now
Added import/export of presets (imports also from v7)
Added import/export of the contents of all snapshots
Added functionality to download of new IR sets from the IR Browser
updated Screensaver
updated IRTool.app
many small improvements & fixes
To update any Altiverb 8.0.x use the 360 MB plug-in updater.
Download Altiverb
Altiverb 8.0.9 changes:
The Altiverb 8 installer now also works on macOS 15 (Sequoia).
⚠️ Please be sure to check if your DAW is compatible before upgrading to Sequoia.
Altiverb 8.0.8 changes:
Find similar sounding IR works again
A new IRTool to process Altiverb sweep recordings (or slate clap recordings) into IRs.
📘 Check the manual for more details.
Improved snapshots (including a fix for the in 8.0.7 introduced faulty +1 offset for snapshots #19 and up)
Fixes backward compatibilty with Altiverb 7 for some IRs when direct sound and early reflections are switched off
Installer: updated preset converter, the installer converts your Ativerb 7 presets to Altiverb 8 (in all formats, for vst, au and aax)
To update Altiverb 8 Regular use the 360 MB plug-in updater.

To update Altiverb 8 XL
If you installed the IR set before version 8.0.7 then use the full installer. The IR set re-install will add new center channel IRs for many 5.0 / 7.0 IR sets.
If you installed the complete 8.0.7 (including IRs), you can use the upater installer, no need to re-install the IRs.

Download Altiverb
Altiverb 8.0.8 changes:
Find similar sounding IR works again
A new IRTool to process Altiverb sweep recordings (or slate clap recordings) into IRs.
📘 Check the manual for more details.
Improved snapshots (including a fix for the in 8.0.7 introduced faulty +1 offset for snapshots #19 and up)
Fixes backward compatibilty with Altiverb 7 for some IRs when direct sound and early reflections are switched off
Installer: updated preset converter, the installer converts your Ativerb 7 presets to Altiverb 8 (in all formats, for vst, au and aax)
To update Altiverb 8 Regular use the 360 MB plug-in updater.

To update Altiverb 8 XL
If you installed the IR set before version 8.0.7 then use the full installer. The IR set re-install will add new center channel IRs for many 5.0 / 7.0 IR sets.
If you installed the complete 8.0.7 (including IRs), you can use the upater installer, no need to re-install the IRs.

Download Altiverb
Altiverb 8.0.7 changes:
Improved compatibility with Altiverb 7 sessions in three ways:
1. Improves matching out levels when Altiverb 7 5.0-in 5.0-out settings are loaded,
see note 1.
2. Copies Altiverb 7 front gain to the new center gain to ensure center channel level now better matches your Altiverb 7 setting.
3. Chooses a better fitting center channel for a number of rooms,
see note 2.

Faster startup due to more restrictive IR folder rescanning
Some User IR improvements
Much faster IR automation
Now compatible with macOS 10.14 (Mojave) and later
improved compatibility with control surfaces in Pro Tools
many small improvements & fixes
Installer improvements & fixes

To update your currently installed Altiverb 8 Regular you only need to download the 360 MB plug-in updater. For Altiverb 8 XL the full installer is recommended due to the new center channel IRs in many 5.0 / 7.0 IR sets.
https://www.audioease.com/download

Known issues:
settings do not transfer well from Altiverb 7 VST to Altiverb 8 VST3 in Reaper and Ableton Live (AU does work in Live).
UI Resize in AU (audio unit) is unavailable.
no Windows support yet.
 
note 1:

Levels are improved in Backward compatibility situations for the Altiverb 7 instances with input-output: quad to quad, 5.0 to 5.0 and 5.1 to 5.1.

Altiverb is a music and post reverb. The 5.0-in 5.0-out Altiverb, however is mainly targeting post. The 5.0-in 5.0-out Altiverb 8 loads new true 5.0 IRs by default, implements easy center-channel-only reverb with input pan following and adjustable cloud size. For Post this instance has undergone massive improvements and it was the most challenging to keep it backward compatible.

In a 5.0 input to 5.0 output instance of Altiverb 7 a stereo to quad output IR was loaded by default, mainly because no 5.0 IRs existed in Altiverb 7. Center reverb was created via the center bleed option, a delayed mix of the rear channels in the front. Altiverb 8 will load the IR that was chosen in Altiverb 7, including the center bleed. You may, as we do, prefer the native Altiverb 8 way: if you have just upgraded to v8 when opening your Altiverb 7 project or template we advise you to open your Altiverb 5.0 input to 5.0 output instances and load the true 5.0 Impulse Response in there. One should be available for most Impulse Responses in the Altiverb collection.

When cloud size is increased it gradually adds speakers which increases the total level. Cloud size did not exist in Altiverb 7. In Altiverb 8 5.0 input to 5.0 output Altiverb 7 settings are loaded with 60% cloud size, which may result in a higher output level than in Altiverb 7 produced, depending on different circumstances.

Similar measures have been taken in the quad input quad output and the 5.1 input 5.1 output instances. Please note that all of the above only applies to Altiverb 7 settings received by Altiverb 8.

note 2:

Version 8.0.7 chooses a better fitting center channel for a number of rooms.

With the Stage Positioning turned On the Center channel now better equals Left and Right channels in a number of rooms.

We use widely spaced omnidirectional microphone setups to capture the IR. Left and right microphones are typically spaced by more than 3 meters. For Altiverb 8 we needed to select a center output to the front L and R microphones in every room. We originally decided to use a front row center microphone for that. However, that microphone faces the center stage speaker on-axis so it is brighter, and its path is shorter so it is louder. This can be tolerated to a peak level difference of 4dB between center and left output. However as was pointed out to us by score mixers and upon careful review, we have, in a number of rooms, now decided to use the second row center microphone as the front row center output. This results in an improvement of the balance of the collection. There are no new Impulse Response names, so no automation breaks. There are differences but they are usually slight. If you have been using the center channel in Altiverb 8 in one of the rooms below, you may hear a difference.

A list of rooms with an adapted center channel: 

In POST:

Black Hangar
Castle of Zuylen attic
Castle of Zuylen gallery 1st floor
Castle of Zuylen kitchen
Castle of Zuylen library room
Studio 2 control room
Picasson Hall far
Ford Transit van
Gasometer - Westergasfabriek Amsterdam
Kitchen 4
Therapist's 2
Warehouse Las Palmas main space
Warehouse Las Palmas main space between stands

IN MUSIC:

Allaire Studio Neve room
Allaire Studio sunporch
Amaryllis Fleming Hall
Antwerp Sports Stadium
Berliner Konzerthaus large hall
Berliner Konzerthaus small hall
Berliner Philharmonie large hall
Hansa studios big hall - meistersaal
Broadcast studio mco 1 orchestral
Broadcast studio mco 3 Metropole
Broadcast studio mco 4 choir
Broadcast studio mco 5 orchestral
Chapelle Saint Jean Baptiste
Clinton Recording - Manhattan NY
Clubhouse - Rhinebeck NY
Dark Horse cabin drum room, Nashville
De Doelen
Dukes Hall
Ferber studio A - Paris
Festspielhaus - Baden Baden
Filmorchester Berlin studio 2
Gol Gumbaz ground level
Gol Gumbaz the whispering gallery
Gol Stave Wood Chapel
Halle Aux Grains - Toulouse
Hardenbergstrasse Berlin
Harpa Eldborg - Reykjavik
Haydn Hall - Esterhazy Austria
Iglesia de San Miguel - Cuenca
Joseph Joachim Hall
Kings College Chapel - London
Konserthuset Large Hall - Stockholm
Konzerthaus Vienna large hall
Lully Hall Ghent
Mechanics Hall - Worcester USA
Mozart Hall 
Muziekgebouw aan het IJ, Amsterdam
Opera of Ghent
Paramount Stage M
Salle de Musique - Chaux de Fonds
Sodra Teatern - Stockholm
Sound Kitchen the big boy- Nashville
St Alain de Lavaur
Teldex Studio Berlin
Theatre du Capitole - Toulouse
Trackdown Scoring Stage
Tracking room - big live room
Train station waiting room class 1-2
Uranienborg Church - Oslo
Utrecht Conservatory Chapel
Vigeland Mausoleum - Oslo
Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn
Wooden Church - Zuidervermaning
Wooden Church Krommenie Vermaning
Zlin
Altiverb 8.0.6 changes:
Better user and library IR support
Images of user and library IRs
Altiverb will phone home to see if there is a newer version
General improvements and fixes
Installer concerts MAS presets
Screensaver can be installed as well
Not possible to install on systems before macOS 10.15
Installer improvements & fixes
To update your currently installed Altiverb 8 you only need to download the 360 MB plug-in updater from:
https://www.audioease.com/download
Known issues:
settings do not transfer well from Altiverb 7 VST to Altiverb 8 VST3 in Reaper and Ableton Live (AU does work in Live).
UI Resize in AU (audio unit) is unavailable.
no Windows support yet.
Altiverb 8.0.5 changes:
Improved compatibility of VST3 in Adobe Audition, Audacity, Digital Performer
Pro Tools bypass and other parameters are working in automation
Audiosuite is compacted to one version
Altiverb 7 settings import in Cubase/Nuendo is fixed
Paramter value edit popup is fixed
Installer is improved
Several smaller bug fixes and improvements
To update your currently installed Altiverb 8 you only need to download the 210 MB plug-in updater from:
https://www.audioease.com/download
Known issues:
settings do not transfer well from Altiverb 7 VST to Altiverb 8 VST3 in Reaper and Ableton Live (AU does work in Live).
UI Resize in AU (audio unit) is unavailable.
no Windows support yet.
no images in the IR Browser for User IRs.
Altiverb 8.0.4 changes:
This first update addresses several crashes that had been overlooked during beta testing.
It also fixes a crash in preset conversion in the installer.
To update your currently installed Altiverb 8 you only need to download the 210 MB plug-in updater from:
https://www.audioease.com/download
Enjoy!
Altiverb 8.0.3 changes:
First Altiverb 8 release.
Enjoy!

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Download

Get the latest Altiverb update and full installers.

Altiverb guided tour

In this video Arjen walks through most features.

Altiverb manual

Search and find what you need to know in the Altiverb manual.

Upgrade to 8
Browse all IRs
System Requirements
Buy Altiverb 8
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license agreement
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Check the frequently asked questions below or send us an email and we will get back to you as soon as possible!


support@audioease.com

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Frequently asked questions

Installation

Welcome to Altiverb 7 !

Install iLok software
First please make sure you have installed the latest ilok software from:
www.ilok.com
When you do not have an ilok.com account, please create one for free at ilok.com.

Get the Altiverb 7 license
If you do not have the Altiverb 7 license on your ilok account yet, you can request it here:
www.audioease.com/authorization

Then run the ilok license manager app, log in to your account and choose to activate the Altiverb 7 license to your iLok (2nd generation or up) key. Once you did this you can install and use Altiverb 7 on any Mac or PC you connect this ilok key to.

Request an Altiverb 7 downloads email
To get the latest Altiverb 7 installer, please request a link to the current downloads page at:
www.audioease.com/download

Full install
Check your email, open the downloads page from the link in the email and then proceed to download the latest first time full Altiverb 7 installer (that is the large 7 GB download, not the plug-in updater).

Extract the zip file with the OS default tool (macOS: Archive Utility, Windows: choose Extract All...) and then run the Altiverb 7 installer to install Altiverb 7.
The installer will ask you where to install the impulse responses and what plug-ins to install (or at what locations, on Windows) and it will then proceed to install Altiverb 7 and all impulse responses.

Then open your DAW and you will find Altiverb 7 is available as effect ready to add reverb to your audio.
Update to latest version 7
To update an installed Altiverb 7 to the latest simply request a link to the downloads page and download the latest plug-in updater. The update installer will take care of updating, no need to uninstall or anything.
www.audioease.com/download

Update old 7 to the latest 7
When you are updating a really old Altiverb 7 installation to the latest you can best download the latest first time full Altiverb 7 installer (not the updater) to make sure the impulse responses (IRs) get updated to. The Altiverb 7 impulse responses core library gets updated every few years and if you update from an old Altiverb 7 it is required to re-install the latest complete IR set.

New impulse responses (IRs)
We are continuously looking for, traveling to and recording the nicest acoustics from all around the world. We add new IRs to the Altiverb collection regularly and to install these simply open the IR Browser in Altiverb 7, hit the NEWS button and Altiverb will show you what IRs are available for download. And a single click on the download button is enough to add the IR to your collection.

Upgrade old Altiverb to version 7
You can upgrade an old Altiverb version (version 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6) to version 7. Check your options at:
www.audioease.com/store/#upgrade
Follow this guide to remove Altiverb 7 from your system. Please note you do not need to uninstall when updating Altiverb 7. The installers will take care of this.

Windows
Simply uninstall Altiverb 7 via the add/remove software Control Panel.

macOS
To uninstall Altiverb 7 on Mac OS X please delete the Altiverb 7 plug-ins from here:
Audio Unit:/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
MAS:/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/MAS/
VST:/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
AAX:/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/
RTAS:/Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins/
Then remove the following folders:
/Applications/Audio Ease/Altiverb 7
/Users/Shared/Altiverb

And the Altiverb 7 preferences file:
/Users/name/Library/Preferences/com.audioease.suite.Altiverb7.plist *

* Please note Mac OS X hides the Library folder in your user folder (since 10.7). You can go there by hitting the GO menu item in the menu bar when you have a finder window open. Then hold down the option (alt) key and a link to the User Library will appear.
av7 installer damaged
Here's what you can do when the newly downloaded installer fails to run because the macOS reports the downloaded installer failing verification (or reports it is damaged and cannot be opened).
  1. Make sure you use the macOS default 'Archive Utility' to open the downloaded zip file (other utilities could corrupt the installer app while unpacking the zip file).
  2. Please check if there is a security update available for your macOS and please install this.
  3. Open Safari and check if you can visit https://www.audioease.com.
    When you can visit the website in Safari, then please retry downloading the installer. If the download fails to run, you can try using a different browser. Any of the following: Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, will do.
Perhaps the download is broken, in which case a new download with another browser may work. Otherwise the solution may be to use Terminal, a built-in program on the Mac.
  1. Make sure you use the macOS default 'Archive Utility' to open the downloaded zip file (other utilities could corrupt the installer app while unpacking the zip file).
  2. In case that does not solve it, open Terminal. You can use the Mac search at the top right and start typing Terminal. It will appear, click on it to open the program.
  3. Type “unzip” and a space, then drag/drop the zip file into the Terminal window.
  4. Press Enter and the zip file will be unzipped, storing all files on your computer.
Did you loose track of the screen saver? The plug-in should offer to install it, but you can also download the screen saver and copy it to:/Library/ScreenSavers/

Download Altiverb screensaver
Welcome to Speakerphone 2 !

Install iLok software
First please make sure you have installed the latest ilok software from:
www.ilok.com

Get the Speakerphone 2 license
If you do not have the Speakerphone 2 license on your ilok account yet, you can request it here:
www.audioease.com/authorization

Then run the ilok license manager app, log in to your account and choose to activate the Speakerphone 2 license to your iLok (2nd generation or up) key. Once you did this you can install and use Speakerphone 2 on any Mac or PC you connect this ilok key to.

Request a Speakerphone 2 downloads email
To get the latest Speakerphone 2 installer, please request a link to the current downloads page at:
www.audioease.com/download

Full install
Check your email, open the downloads page from the link in the email and then proceed to download the latest first time full Speakerphone 2 installer (a large 4.5 GB download, not the plug-in updater).

Extract the zip file with the OS default tool (macOS: Archive Utility, Windows: choose Extract All...) and then run the Speakerphone 2 installer to install Speakerphone 2 and all samples. The installer will ask you where to install the samples and what plug-ins to install (or at what locations, on Windows) and it will then proceed to install Speakerphone 2 and all samples.

Then open your DAW and you will find Speakerphone 2 is available as effect ready to worldize (futz!) your audio.
Update to latest version 2
To update an installed Speakerphone to the latest version simply request a link to the downloads page and download the latest plug-in updater. The update installer will take care of updating, no need to uninstall or anything. www.audioease.com/download
Follow this guide to remove Speakerphone 2 from your system. Please note you do not need to uninstall when updating Speakerphone 2. The installers will take care of this.

Windows
Simply uninstall Speakerphone 2 via the add/remove software Control Panel.

macOS
To uninstall ASpeakerphone 2 on Mac OS X please delete the Speakerphone plug-ins from here:
Audio Unit:/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
MAS:/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/MAS/
VST:/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
AAX:/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/
RTAS:/Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins/
Then remove these folders:
/Applications/Audio Ease/Speakerphone
/Library Application Support/Audio Ease/Speakerphone
/Library/Frameworks/SpeakerPhonePublicSupport.framework

And the Speakerphone 2 preferences file:
/Users/name/Library/Preferences/com.audioease.suite.Speakerphone2.plist *

* Please note Mac OS X hides the Library folder in your user folder (since 10.7). You can go there by hitting the GO menu item in the menu bar when you have a finder window open. Then hold down the option (alt) key and a link to the User Library will appear.

License activation

If you have just purchased an Audio Ease product and received a serial number you can register this here:
www.audioease.com/ed

Why register?
When registered you can access the downloads and immediately get licenses to activate the software.

When you have purchased your software directly at audioease.com there is no serial number. In this situation you can get your licenses directly at:
www.audioease.com/authorization
If you have just purchased at audioease.com or registered a serial number you can immediately get an iLok license for your product.

Simply go here: www.audioease.com/authorization
fill in your registered email address and proceed.
In case your iLok key is lost, stolen or broken we will help you out right away, even in case you have not invested in additional insurances or coverage at ilok.com.

Send a message to support@audioease.com and we will provide you with a 30 days expiring backup license so you can continue your work immediately. A spare iLok USB key is required for this, as the software (Altiverb, Speakerphone and Indoor) requires the ilok usb key. This means the software will not work without an ilok usb key with a license on it.

To resolve this situation permanently you may have to acquire another iLok USB key. We can help here too:
We can send you one at a not-for-our-profit-price, which will normally takes 2-6 weekdays in Europe (6-20 weekdays to the rest of the world), available at: audioease.com/store. Depending on your location purchasing locally might be quicker.
Yes, you can sell / transfer your license to another user.

You can transfer a license from your ilok account to someone else's ilok account (the new owner) by using the iLok License Manager (choose Transfer License...).
Please note: while PACE/ iLok fees apply, there are no fees imposed by Audio Ease.

Do please send a message to support@audioease.com with the name, email address and ilok user account info of both you and the new owner.

We will then transfer the software registration at audioease.com to the new owner, so that they will be able to access all downloads and (future) upgrades.
You can use the software with a single license on more then one computer. Simply connect the ilok usb key with the license on it to a computer and you can install and use the software.

However you can use the software only at one computer at a time.

When you need to run the software in two locations (two rooms / two machines) at the same time this requires two licenses. This means purchasing two copies of the software. We do not offer any second license deals or discounts.

General troubleshooting

Altiverb 8, Speakerphone 3 & Indoor 2 are universal (native Apple silicon and Intel)

360pan suite 3 works fine using Rosetta 2 on the Apple silicon machines. The performance is great.

The latest BarbaBatch, Snapper and Make a Test Tone are all universal applications, supporting both Apple silicon & Intel.

Last update: Dec 6, 2024
In case your iLok key is lost, stolen or broken we will help you out right away, even in case you have not invested in additional insurances or coverage at ilok.com.

Send a message to support@audioease.com and we will provide you with a 30 days expiring backup license so you can continue your work immediately when you have a spare ilok key.

To resolve this situation permanently you may have to acquire another iLok key. We can help here too:
We can send you one at a not-for-our-profit-price, which will normally takes 2 to 5 shipping days in Europe (6-20 days to the rest of the world), available at: audioease.com/store. Depending on your location purchasing locally might be quicker.
Pro Tools states it is not a valid 64 bits plug-ins
Most likely the installer or the plug-in got corrupted in transit. Please download the latest updater installer on the computer you want to use it on. Then move the downloaded zip file on the desktop and there choose to extract it using the Mac OS X default Archive Utility app. Once you did this please run the updater installer from the desktop to install the correct aaxplugin and this should cure the problem.
The aax plug-in can get corrupted when transferred on some external (or network) drives. The plug-in won't validate properly then.
Authorization Wire Exception bad channel id "Speakerphone / Altiverb cannot run, because an error occurred. Encrypted Channel Bad Channel ID (or USB error or frame is an invalid size)"

Authorization Wire Exception invalid size

Errors like these can be solved by downloading and installing the latest ilok software from www.ilok.com. Altiverb, Speakerphone, Indoor and 360pan suite require this software.
Windows Authorization Error: Altiverb 7 Regular cannot run because it is corrupted please try reinstalling the product

This error means the graphics card driver on your system is not up to date. Even when Windows states this is up to date, Altiverb 7 can generate this error and you will find there is a newer driver available (and this will solve this error).

Please try to update your graphics card driver.

Find out what graphics card you have in your system (right click on your desktop, choose change screen resolution, hit advanced settings, that would show you the manufacturer"s name and the model).
Then please go to the manufacturer"s website, hit support/drivers and find the latest driver for your graphics card and download and install this.
Restart your computer.
The problem should be gone now.
The plug-in is installed correctly (Altiverb / Speakerphone / Indoor / 360pan suite) and the ilok software is up to date and still the plug-in cannot be found in Cubase (or Nuendo).

Let's clear Clear the Cubase vst preferences to force a re-scan of all vst plug-ins (in case the plug-in is blacklisted)

  • Remove all plist/xml files with VST in the file name from the Cubase preferences folder, check this post where to find the preferences folder.
  • Then restart your computer.
  • After the restart run Cubase. Cubase will now re-scan all plug-ins and it should load the plug-in again.

360pan suite

Currently the 360pan suite cannot detect the video window in Pro Tools 2023 & up on Windows. Until this has been resolved in an update we advice to stay on Pro Tools 2022 for 360pan suite on Windows.
When using HDX hardware the Hybrid Engine needs to be Enabled for the private (pre-fader) sends from the 360pan plug-in to the 360reverb to work.
When the Hybrid Engine is disabled the distance cannot be controlled for a panned source. The 360reverb does work as normal reverb insert/aux effect on HDX systems with disabled Hybrid Engine.
When you use the VST3 360pan suite plug-ins in Reaper you will have to verify two settings in Reaper's preferences are properly set up, else the suite will not function properly.

In Reaper choose Preferences... from the bottom of the Options menu and then first go to:

Reaper preferences - turn off Anticipative FX Processing 1. Audio -> Buffering
and then TURN OFF the Anticipative FX Processing
2. Audio -> Buffering
and then TURN OFF the Live FX multiprocessing
these two options will ensure the 360reverb to function properly (else you will get sync problems)

Reaper preferences - VST-parameter-automation
3. Plug-Ins -> VST
Under VST Compatibility please set the Parameter automation notification to:
Process all notifications
this will ensure automation is written to track when you control the panner pucks from the video overlay (without the panner plug-ins being open).

Reaper preferences - automation-do-not-add-points.png
4. Editing Behavior -> Automation
When recording automation and stopped should be set to: Do not add additional points.
This to ensure you can nudge the time cursor and then drag pucks and write automation this way (like in the tutorial/example project).
5. Reverb last
When creating a bus for 360Reverb, make sure it is last, or right before the monitor.
6. Your Video window can not be Docked, and the video window can not be full screen.
These are not in the settings window. You right-click on your video to undock it if it is embedded in another window.
It could be some or all 360pan suite plug-ins are missing the first time you run Reaper after installing the 360pan suite VST3 plug-in. Reaper then needs a gentle push to see all plug-ins in the suite.

Solution:In Reaper choose Preferences... from the bottom of the Options menu and then open the VST tab in Plug-Ins:
  • Hit the Re-scan... button
  • Choose (from the popup menu) Clear cache and re-scan VST paths for all plug-ins
  • Quit and restart the Reaper app
Reaper preferences - Clear Cache and rescan to make the plug-ins appear

Clearing the cache should solve warnings like this:
In Reaper not all plug-ins available
The video preview in the 360monitor AAX plug-in only functions (on modern systems and recent Pro Tools versions) when the Pro Tools.app is allowed to record the computer screen in the macOS system preferences.
Make sure you set this option to fully benefit from the 360pan suite plug-ins options.

360monitor video preview: Allow Screen Recording for Pro Tools
Quick start: download & check out the example project / session featuring a short 360 video of us running around at Audio Ease, mono panning audio, a true ambisonics (b-format) FX recording, binaural preview and export suggestions.

Open the practice project START and open the workflow video and practice along with the video.

Available for Pro Tools, Reaper and Nuendo at:
www.audioease.com/360/#example
Here we offer a bunch of free "spatial treats" that we use at Audio Ease ourselves on a daily basis. There are no warranties, and almost all of it builds upon either Google's Omnitone or Here we offer a bunch of free "spatial treats" that we use at Audio Ease ourselves on a daily basis. There are no warranties, and almost all of it builds upon either Google's Omnitone or FFMPEG:
www.audioease.com/360/#goodies
True headlocked stereo is not possible in the ambisonics audio format.
Ambisonics audio is a 3D audio sphere and headlocked (fixed) stereo sound does not fit into this.
This is simply impossible.

Headlocked mono is possible, that is the top channel only.

360pan suite offer to mix to the top channel using the position blur control.
More position blur (more mix to top) is more mono, more inhead/headlocked.
When you pan your stereo source hard left and right (-90 and +90) in the ambisonics sphere and you set the position blur to half way (somewhere between 0.40-0.60) you will find there is stereo sensation while you cannot really identify things turning when you look around in the 3D sphere.
If you move the position blur control more towards 1 you will find it will rotate less, but it will also be more mono. That is the trade off.

Altiverb 8

Do you have customer IRs, or did you add your own IRs, impulse responses, to Altiverb 7?
You have to copy these to the new location Altiverb 8 uses to ensure Altiverb 8 also finds these.
The new location is:
/Users/Shared/Audio Ease/Altiverb/Impulse Responses/User Created IRs

You can also verify Altiverb 8 uses this location, in the preferences tab in the plug-in:
Altiverb 8 user irs prefs
Altiverb 8 is backwards compatible with Altiverb 7. when you install the upgrade license replaces your altiverb 7 license, and the Altiverb 8 plug-in will be loaded in your older sessions, sounding identical to Altiverb 7 (and Altiverb 6 and Altiverb 5).

Forward compatibility is limited: sessions made with Altiverb 8 don’t load reliably on systems with altiverb 7 installed because new functions may have been used in the Altiverb 8 session that are lacking in Altiverb 7.


Problem: Altiverb 8 XL is installed, however Altiverb 8 is only available in mono and stereo (no surround or multi-channel options).
Or opening sessions made with Altiverb XL results in inactive plug-ins.

This could be due to incorrect plug-in cache in Pro Tools.

Solution: Force a re-scan of the plug-in.
First make sure Pro Tools is Quit. Then please remove these files: /Users/Shared/Pro Tools/AAXPlugInCache/Altiverb 7.aaxplugin.plugincache
/Users/Shared/Pro Tools/AAXPlugInCache/Altiverb 8.aaxplugin.plugincache

Now open Pro Tools. Pro Tools should re-scan the Altiverb plug-in and it should discover the XL multi-channel surround options now.
There will be no MAS Altiverb 8 plug-in.
Before you upgrade to Altiverb 8 please save the settings of your MAS Altiverb 7 plug-in instances in your projects as Altiverb presets (irp files). You can do this in the Altiverb IR browser.
These will be converted by the Altiverb 8 installer so you can load your settings into your Altiverb 8 Audio Unit instances when you replace them. In case in a while you need to turn back to an old project where you have not done that we can provide temporary licenses so you can do this still.

You can also use this handy preset converter app to convert old presets to the new one.
Download Preset Converter app
All new parameters in Altiverb 8 are not automatically enabled for automation when you open a session that was started with Altiverb 7. Ensure to enable these if you rely on automation.

Of course when you insert a new Altiverb 8 instance all parameters do get enabled directly (if you have this enabled in the pro tools preferences).
Enable new paramters for automation in Pro Tools

Speakerphone

If you upgraded to Speakerphone 3, do enable to two newly added parameters for automation.
Pro Tools won't do that automatically for you.

Speakerphone 3 move samples
Yes, of course!
Hit the little triangle icon in the top right corner of the Samplebay module in Speakerphone.
Then from the menu that pops up you can open the current Samples folder. Then move this to an external drive and then in the Speakerphone plug-in open the same menu again and use the CHANGE SAMPLES FOLDER option to point Speakerphone to the new location.
Then quit and open your DAW and from then on Speakerphone should use the samples from the external drive.
Speakerphone 3 move samples
There will be no MAS Speakerphone 3 plug-in.
Before you upgrade to Speakerphone 3 please save the settings of your MAS Speakerphone 2 plug-in instances in your projects as Speakerphone presets (spp files). You can do this in the Speakerphone preset browser.
These will be converted by the Speakerphone 3 installer so you can load your settings into your Speakerphone 3 Audio Unit instances when you replace them. In case in a while you need to turn back to an old project where you have not done that we can provide temporary licenses so you can do this still.

You can also use this handy preset converter app to convert old presets to the new one.
Download Preset Converter app
If Speakerphone 2 is gone after you updated Pro Tools to 2023.3 (or later) and you are on a Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3 ARM) then you have to open Pro Tools Using Rosetta to get Speakerphone 2 working.

Speakerphone 2 requires Open Using Rosetta on the Apple silicon (M1/M2/M3/etc) macs. Speakerphone 3 adds native support for apple silicon. You can check your upgrade options here.
You need to open Pro Tools using Rosetta in order to use Speakerphone 2.
To ensure Pro Tools opens using Rosetta:
  • open the Finder
  • go to the Applications folder
  • select the Pro Tools app
  • hit get info
  • tick the box to Open Using Rosetta.
Open Pro Tools using Rosetta
In Pro Tools 2024.3.1 & 2024.6 this AAE-9173 error can occur when a clip is played back through the Speakerphone 2.2.2 AAX Plug-In.
AAE-9173
This problem only occurs on Intel macs with Pro Tools 2024.3.1 & 2024.6 and Speakerphone v2 (not v3!).
You can workaround this problem by Updating Pro Tools to 2024.10 or up.
If updating Pro Tools is no option, then you can try these workarounds:
  • Increasing the H/W Buffer Size in the Pro Tools Playback Enging settings
  • Disabling Dynamic Plug-in Processing in the Pro Tools Playback Engine settings
  • Disabling Optimize Performance at Low Buffer Sizes in the Pro Tools Playback Engine settings
  • Or reverting to an earlier Pro Tools (in Pro Tools 2024.3 this error does not occur).
Pro Tools playback engine settings to prevent the AAE-9173 error
By granting this directory read & write permissions for all users an admin user can enable all users on Windows to use the Speakerphone VST (or AAX) plug-in:
C:\ProgramData\Audio Ease\Speakerphone

Without setting this Speakerphone will crash when a non-admin user tries to use the plug-in.
The challenge/response hard disk authorization is only available in the older (32 bits only) Speakerphone 2.0.5.
You are free to use this one instead of the latest, the 2.0.5 installer is available from the downloads page.

We strongly discourage running this old Speakerphone 2. This version will not be updated anymore. We recommend to use the latest Speakerphone 2.1. This one does require the iLok (2nd generation or up) key yes. Whenever your ilok key breaks or you loose it, we will always help you (supply a new license for a replacement key).
Most likely the Speakerphone 2.1 installer removed the resources from an older Speakerphone 2.0.5 installation however the installer failed to remove the Speakerphone 2.0.5 RTAS plug-in. When Pro Tools 10 now loads the Speakerphone 2 RTAS you get this error message. Then later Pro Tools scans the AAX and decides not to load the RTAS anymore.

Solution:
We need to fix this in the installer of course, but when you delete the Speakerphone.dpm (the RTAS plug-in) from: /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins/ this error message will be gone.

Altiverb 7

If Altiverb 7 is gone after you updated Pro Tools to 2023.3 (or later) and you are on a Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3 ARM) then you have to open Pro Tools Using Rosetta to get Altiverb 7 working.

Altiverb 7 requires Open Using Rosetta on the Apple silicon (M1/M2/M3/etc) macs. Altiverb 8 adds native support for apple silicon. You can check your upgrade options here.
You need to open Pro Tools using Rosetta in order to use Altiverb 7.
To ensure Pro Tools opens using Rosetta:
  • open the Finder
  • go to the Applications folder
  • select the Pro Tools app
  • hit get info
  • tick the box to Open Using Rosetta.
Open Pro Tools using Rosetta
Problem: Non-readable text in the Altiverb 7 user interface.
Solution: Follow this guide to allow Altiverb to access the font again:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/font-book/fb34862/mac

Altiverb uses the system font Arial. Altiverb does not install this, it should be on your macOS by default. If your system does not have the Arial font or the macOS system prevents Altiverb somehow from using it, Altiverb could look like this:
Altiverb 7 font missing or blocked
Problem: Installed or updated Altiverb 7 and now it does not show up in Logic.
Solution: Restart your mac.

Somehow (we are still trying to find out why) the macOS ignores Altiverb 7 until the computer has been restarted. This is why Logic (or Ableton Live, or any other DAW that uses Audio Unit plug-ins) does not show the Altiverb
Altiverb 7 Regular and XL sound exactly the same and come with the same IRs.
There are three differences:

Altiverb 7 Regular supports
  • up to stereo input and output
  • sampling rates up to 96kHz
  • plug-in formats on windows: aax native and vst, on mac: aax native, vst, audio unit, mas and rtas
Altiverb 7 XL supports:
  • up to 5.1 surround in and output
  • sampling rates up to 384 kHz
  • all plug-ins formats Altiverb 7 Regular supports + TDM on Mac OS X

So, in short, if you do not have sessions on 192k and you work in stereo only, Altiverb 7 Regular will do just fine.
If, at a later stage, you would like to upgrade from Regular to XL this is possible. The upgrade cost is just the price difference so you won't loose any money going for Regular first.
Problem: The IR set gets downloaded when you click the download button in the NEWS section in the IR Browser. It starts downloading but then nothing happens, the set does not load or show up.

When this happens the Altiverb plug-in fails to copy/move the downloaded IR set to the Audio Ease IRs folder.
It could be Altiverb is not allowed to write in the Audio Ease IRs folder.

Solution: Try locating the folder in the finder (or explorer), hit get info and then verify your user (and the admin group) can read&write in the folder. If you make changes make sure to also apply to all enclosed items too. If this does not help, try using the default location as IRs folder:
/Users/Shared/Altiverb/IRs

You can change the IR folder location in the preferences tab in the Altiverb plug-in:

Altiverb 7 ir folder location in preferences
Altiverb 7 supports loading your own files as IRs.
Any wav audio file can be used as impulse response.

Simply add your file(s) to your User Created IRs folder, the default location is:


macos user library folder
* Please note the MacOS system hides the Library folder in your user folder. You can still open this folder through the GO menu in the Mac finder. Then hold down the option (alt) key and a link to the User Library will magically appear.

Your third party impulse responses folders, libraries can be loaded through:
/Users/Shared/Altiverb/Third Party libraries

If you have recorded the Altiverb sine sweep to create an IR, then drag your mono or stereo recordings as wave file onto the drag and drop import window in the Altiverb plug-in. You can choose to save your IR into the User Created IRs folder.

Altiverb 7 ir import
There is a little trick you need to pull off to get this to work:
  • open the add fx window in Reaper on the 6 channel track
  • then right click on the Altiverb plug-in and make sure this option is checked:
  • ☑️ inform plug-in when track channel count changes

av7 reaper surround settings

When you then insert Altiverb 7 it should become 6 in 6 out and you will be able to choose the surround IRs in the IR Browser.
Most likely you were working with old older (version 7.0/7.1) IR set before and you recently installed the latest Altiverb 7 plug-in updater. This new Altiverb 7 plug-in however requires the latest core IR set.
To fix this please download the latest first time full Altiverb 7 installer and run this.
Once you installed this you will have all IRs again.

> You can request a link to the latest downloads at:
www.audioease.com/download
Altiverb 7 Windows Authorization Error: Altiverb 7 Regular cannot run because it is corrupted please try reinstalling the product

This error means the graphics card driver on your system is not up to date. Even when Windows states this is up to date, Altiverb 7 can generate this error and you will find there is a newer driver available (and this will solve this error).

Please try to update your graphics card driver.

Find out what graphics card you have in your system (right click on your desktop, choose change screen resolution, hit advanced settings, that would show you the manufacturer’s name and the model).
Then please go to the manufacturer’s website, hit support/drivers and find the latest driver for your graphics card and download and install this.
Restart your computer.
The problem should be gone now.
There is a situation where the Altiverb plug-in can revert to default settings when loading a project in Digital Performer.

This is caused by the fact the Digital Performer (DP) supports three plug-in formats: MAS, AU (audio unit) and VST.

How?
Example: When you save a project with the Altiverb MAS plug-in. And you then change the default plug-in type in DP to AU and re-open this project. DP will load Altiverb, but DP fails to transfer the saved Altiverb MAS plug-in settings to the now Altiverb AU plug-in, and Altiverb then reverts to loading the default settings (which is the Teldex IR).

When this suddenly occurs you are most likely using a different plug-in format then you used before. Try to find out what you used before, force DP to load this Altiverb plug-in from the plug-in settings in the DP preferences and then restart DP and re-open your project. The right settings should load again then.

If you need any help with this let us know. Send us for instance a project file that will not open correctly, then we can quickly help you out.
The macOS Altiverb 7.4.3 installer currently fails to install the screen saver. You can download the screen saver and copy it to:/Library/ScreenSavers/

Screensaver
What is the difference between the mono to stereo and the stereo to stereo options in a stereo out Altiverb ?

Best way to understand this is to go back with me to our sampling session when we recorded to room's acoustics for the IR in Altiverb.

mono to stereo
We put a single speaker in the center of the stage and two mics in the audience.

This results in a mono to stereo IR.
When you playback your audio through this IR in Altiverb, it will sound like your audio comes out of that single speaker from the center of the stage (mono!) picked up with two microphones (stereo!).
This IR gives a stereo reverb, however the input is (mixed to) mono, as there is only a single source on stage.

When you want to process a vocal (mono) or direct recorded electrical guitar or something where the panning is not important the mono to stereo IR will do just fine (pro: costs half of the processing then a stereo-to-stereo IR, so it is more efficient in cpu and memory).

stereo to stereo
back to recording the room
this time we put two speakers on stage, one on the left and one on the right side of the stage and we record again with the two mics in the audience.

When you playback your stereo audio through this IR in Altiverb your stereo signal comes out of these two speakers.
Easy to picture here that your original panning will be maintained using a stereo to stereo IR.

So basically it comes down to this:
is your input stereo or is it panned in stereo ?
use a stereo - stereo IR, else you will loose the stereo information in the reverb (although the reverb is stereo).

Sometimes even when using stereo panned sources a mono to stereo IR can be preferred as you do not want the panning to be reflected in the reverb levels. But this is a mixing decision which depends on taste mostly (and music style) and I dare not to advice on that :-)
We have removed some sets from the Altiverb IR library (mainly user submitted IR sets) that do not meet up to our current standards. The Speakers and Phones set is one of these. You can copy the original set from your Altiverb 6 Impulse Responses folder (if you still have this) to the Third Party IRs folder in the Altiverb 7 Impulse Responses folder.
Then you can then load these IRs again in Altiverb 7.

You can also download the original set from:
http://fokkie.home.xs4all.nl/IR.htm

Snapper

Snapper could act weird on your macOS system. In these ways: Snapper does not (always) appear when selecting audio file or Snapper crashes on quitting the application or preferences are not recalled properly.
Some check box has to be checked in the Mac OS System Preferences to ensure Snapper works properly. Maybe this somehow did not work on your system.

Please try this:
  • first quit Snapper (make sure it is not running)
  • then delete the Snapper preferences file: com.audioease.snapper.plist. This file is the Preferences folder in the User Library. Open the Mac Finder, hit the GO menu, hold down the option (ALT) key and a link to the Library folder will appear. Go to the Preferences folder and delete the file.
  • then please restart your mac (important)
  • now run snapper
  • open the mac os system preferences
  • go to the security and privacy settings panel
  • then to the privacy tab
  • select the accessibility panel on the left
  • open the lock on the bottom left (and fill in your password) to make changes
  • if Snapper is listed here, please select it and hit the - (minus) button to remove it from the list
  • now quit and run snapper and it should be added to the list again
  • make sure the box for Snapper is ☑️ checked. If it IS already checked then please un-check and ☑️ re-check it
  • quit and start Snapper
snapper 2 vital macos system setting in security and privacy panel
Snapper opens when you select any file that contains audio, also video files.
This sometimes is a problem, when you want to use the space bar to quickly preview the video in the finder.
There is a simple hack for this:

Use: SHIFT + SPACE BAR to preview the video

This works, even when Snapper is showing you the audio waveform of your selected video in the finder.
Snapper uses a temp folder to write the drag export files (selections) into when you drag (a selection) out of Snapper. Somehow on your system Snapper is unable to write in this folder.

By default the drag export folder is:
/Users/Shared/Snapper

You can check in the Snapper preferences what you currently use. Open Snapper, go to the preferences, open the export tab, then close to the bottom you should find:

snapper drag export folder preference
Hit the Folder... button to change the location (we recommend this: /Users/Shared/Snapper)
When this is set, quit Snapper, then start Snapper and then check in the Snapper Preferences if this option is still set correctly.
If not, we have to reset some things, see below.**
If the folder is correctly set, then let's open the /Users/Shared folder in the Finder, select the Snapper folder, hit get info and under sharing & permissions ensure your user and the everyone group are set to Read & Write.
Hit the circle with the three dots and hit 'apply to enclosed items'.
Now dragging audio (selections) out of Snapper should work again.

** If the settings in the Snapper preferences do not stick, something's wrong.
This problem is most likely solved by removing the Snapper cache and preferences.

Open the Mac Finder, hit the GO menu, hold down the option (ALT) key and a link to the Library folder will appear. Open the Caches folder and delete these four folders: com.audioease.snapper
com.audioease.snapper.filestate
com.audioease.snapper.view
com.audioease.snapper.waveform
Go to the Preferences folder and delete this file:
com.audioease.snapper.plist

Then restart the mac (this is important, as the macOS caches the prefs).
You can request your Snapper activation code by clicking on the Lost / forgot key code link at:
https://www.audioease.com/snapper/#support
This can be handy when you lost or misplaced the key code to unlock the Snapper demo to the full version.

Store / purchase / upgrade

The iLok USB key available for purchase at audioease.com is the USB A type, not USB C.

iLok USB key USB A packaging
Any piece of old software can be upgraded to the current version at:
https://www.audioease.com/store/#upgrade

The upgrade requires:
  • we still sell this software
  • your old copy has not been upgraded to the latest before
  • you know your registered email address
  • If you live outside the European Union (EU) and not in the United Kingdom (UK) then you do not pay sales tax at audioease.com.
  • If you purchase as a EU/UK business with a valid sales tax registration number (BTW), (you can provide this on the address page) then you do not pay sales tax.
  • If you are from the EU/UK and you do not have a business sales tax number, you pay local sales tax (BTW) on the downloads and Dutch sales tax (BTW, 21%) on the USB keys.
  • If you are located in The Netherlands you always pay sales tax.
Audio Ease does not extend educational discounts.