Voyage Audio Spatial Mic User manual

Spatial Mic

User Guide

Version 1.4

 
Voyage Audio Spatial Mic 
User Guide 
 
 
Package Contents 4 
Introduction 4 
Requirements 5 
Background 5 
Getting To Know Spatial Mic 8 
Mounting 8 
Powering 8 
Outputs 9 
Controls 10 
USB Audio Recording 11 
Mac OSX 11 
Windows 10 15 
Mobile Devices 20 
iOS 20 
Android 23 
USB Notes & Troubleshooting: 25 
Using Your Microphone 26 
Positioning 26 
Recording Tips 26 
Care & Maintenance 27 
Spatial Mic Converter 28 
Overview 28 
Usage 28 
Controls & Interface 29 
Controls 29 
Interface 30 
Installation 31 
Spatial Mic Control 32 
Overview 32 
Usage 32 
Controls & Interface 32 
Controls 32 
2 

Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

User Guide

Installation 33

Specifications 34

Warranty 35

Support & Contact 36

Third Party Tools & Notices 37

Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

User Guide

Package Contents

● Spatial Mic

● Your choice between USB C to C or USB C to A cable, 3 meter, black nylon braided

● ¼-20 to ⅝’’ mini swivel ball hard-mount

● Foam windscreen

● Quick-start guide

● For Download: Spatial Mic Converter VST® plugin (Mac OSX & Windows) and AAX (Mac

OSX)

● For Download: Spatial Mic Control standalone app (Mac OSX & Windows)

● For Download: User Manual

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing Spatial Mic! With 8 high-quality capsules, digital connectivity, live

monitoring and a dedicated DAW plugin for output conversion, Spatial Mic helps you capture

immersive 3D audio, surround sound, rotatable stereo and beyond.

Spatial Mic records the entire sound-field with precision. Signals from 8 capsules, encoded



with

Spatial Mic Converter plugin result in a second order ambisonics representation of your audio

Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

User Guide

scene. This allows for stunning spatial resolution, engaging listeners as immersive sound moves

around their heads.

Designed for audio engineers, producers for AR/VR, game sound-designers and 3D audio

pioneers, Spatial Mic is a next generation 360 microphone. Spatial Mic and the included Spatial

Mic Converter plugin (VST and AAX) offer substantial improvements over existing solutions:

● Enhanced spatial resolution, pattern decoding, directivity & optimal listening area vs first

order microphones and less phase issues than with spaced arrays.

● Future-proof output — may be decoded to any listening format live or in post and is not

locked to one specific configuration like 2-channel binaural microphones.

● Output may be head-tracked and used natively with content delivery tools from

YouTube, Facebook and Google Resonance SDK.

Streamlining the recording workflow when dealing with multi-channel microphone arrays was a

top priority during the development of Spatial Mic. With built-in USB and ADAT connectivity, no

external mic preamps, multi-channel cables carrying analog signals or converters are needed.

Along with purity of signal, an individual calibration profile stored within each mic ensure

consistent quality.

We are excited for you to start recording with Spatial Mic. Please read this user manual and get

to know everything this microphone package has to offer. Happy recording!

Requirements

● Host device supporting multichannel USB Audio 2.0 or ADAT lightpipe input.

● USB bus power via USB-C jack or external 5v / 500mA source via micro-USB.

● DAW supporting multi-channel audio tracks like Reaper, Pro Tools or Nuendo.

● Spatial Mic Converter plugin and Spatial Mic Control app have been tested to work on

Mac OSX 10.11 and higher or Windows 10.

Background

When we record the signal from a traditional microphone, we put this on a track and assign it to

a playback channel. We can play this back on one speaker and call it mono, or send it to two

speakers, pan it left, right or center and call it stereo. We can also expand this to a larger 5.1 or

even 22.1 surround system. In all of these cases we are relying on a channel based system to

record and playback audio.

Channel based systems require the same number and configuration of loudspeakers to be used

in production and playback. Ambisonics enables audio production and playback without using

Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

User Guide

a channel based methodology, thus enabling reproduction on any number of speakers in

varying configurations. The advantage of using ambisonics vs channel-based audio (i.e. mono,

stereo, 5.1, etc) is that the signals are not related to speaker feeds. Because of this, ambisonics

is a future-proof way of recording.

Ambisonics was first developed in the 1960’s and ‘70’s by passionate researchers as a way to

encode



a 3D sound field. To do this, the sound-field is decomposed into a series of spherical

harmonics. While a spherical harmonic series goes indefinitely, we are most interested in the

first few “orders”, which will give us enough spatial resolution to encode a realistic sounding

representation of a soundfield. The encoded audio on DAW tracks will represent these spherical

harmonics, instead of speaker feeds.

In the figure below, you can see that, as order increases, more spherical harmonics are needed.

For example, a second order spherical harmonic representation of a sound field contains 9

components - all of the harmonics from the zeroth and first order, plus 5 more.

At the zeroth order, you can see that a single, omni-directional microphone capsule is capable

of recording this harmonic. But what about the first and second order? To create these

harmonics, the sound field must be sampled by a microphone array and then encoded. For first

order, the traditional way is to use crossed figure-eight microphone capsules and was first

pioneered by Michael Gerzon and Peter Craven in the 1970’s. The 8 microphone capsules in

the Spatial Mic array are encoded by the Spatial Mic Converter plugin to create the 9 spatial

harmonics needed to represent a soundfield as second order. Any ambisonic soundfield

representation greater than one is referred to as Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA).

Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

User Guide

When working with ambisonics, sometimes the raw capsule signals, pre-encode, are collectively

called A-Format, while encoded signals are called B-Format. Ambisonics encoders, decoders

and processors vary in the expected sequencing of the spatial harmonics and their encoded

level (sometimes called weighting). The two most common are AmbiX and FuMa. Make sure

the expected format for a given ambisonic processor matches the audio being sent to it.

Spatial Mic Converter encodes the raw capsule signals from Spatial mic to second order (9

channels) B-Format. Once in B-Format, audio can be sent to numerous sound crafting plugins.

Here are some that work with Higher Order Ambisonics:

●SSA

●Blue Ripple Sound

●Nosiemakers

●IEM Plugin Suite

●SPARTA

Ambisonics may be decoded



to almost any format desired (including channel-based) and

stored in formats like MPEG-H. The most common decoding method for ambisonics is called

binaural, which is played back on stereo headphones. When decoding to binaural a Head

Related Transfer Function (HRTF) is used to approximate how human anatomy affects spatial

perception. For example, how does the frequency response of a single sound source change as

you rotate your head in front of it? An HRTF aims to take this into account.

Ambisonics moves us beyond what has been possible with channel based formats, enabling

applications in Augmented and Virtual Reality, music production, broadcasting and immersive

environments. While ambisonics can be used in nearly any type of audio production, adoption is

becoming more widespread. Here are some useful resources:

●Reaper Ambisonics User Forum

●Oculus - Spatial Audio How-To

●YouTube 360

●Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation (also check out how to livestream)

●Resonance Audio - Spatial Audio SDK for Unity, Unreal, FMOD, Wwise, Web,

Android and iOS

●Ambisonics in Pro Tools

Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

User Guide

Getting To Know Spatial Mic

Mounting

A ¼-20 thread mount on the back of the mic allows for hard-mounting to a standard microphone

stand. Screw the included ¼-20 to ⅝’’ mini swivel ball hard-mount into the ¼-20 threads on the

back of Spatial Mic. Screw the other end into your microphone stand. Note that this method

does not provide acoustic isolation from the mic stand.

For acoustic isolation, use a Rycote InVision shockmount (sold separately). Place Spatial Mic in

the shockmount so bottom of mic is flush with inner shockmount ring and tighten screws around

the mic. Ensure microphone cannot slip out of shockmount and knob can be accessed.

Powering

Spatial Mic can be bus powered through the same USB-C jack used for data transfer. Operation

with a hub is not guaranteed (and beyond the scope of this user manual) due to the number and

variety available. If attempting to use Spatial Mic with a hub, please ensure that it is

self-powered and can provide 500mA to the mic.

When using the ADAT lightpipe digital output, power to Spatial Mic must be applied via USB-C

jack or micro-USB.

Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

User Guide

Some mobile devices connected via USB may require power to be applied through the

micro-USB jack. Using a USB battery or 5V AC adapter will also help to extend the battery life of

your mobile device while recording.

Outputs

ADAT Lightpipe

The ADAT Lightpipe output provides 8 channels of digital 24-bit / 48kHz uncompressed audio

over a fiber optic cable. Connect a TOSLINK optical cable to the ADAT receptacle on the

bottom of Spatial Mic and the other end to an ADAT lightpipe input. Follow the setup instructions

for the connected device to receive 8 channels of audio from Spatial Mic.

USB

Connecting Spatial Mic via a USB cable offers single wire connectivity to Windows, Mac OSX or

mobile USB Audio 2.0 compatible host devices. Connect a cable with a USB-C plug into Spatial

Mic and the other end into a USB port on the host device.

Headphones

Plug headphones into the ⅛-inch (3.5mm) stereo jack on the bottom of the microphone to

monitor capsule array in binaural (using Google Resonance HRTFs) and host device playback

in stereo. Note that the live headphone output uses a frequency independent first order

ambisonics matrix and is intended for confidence monitoring only. For full fidelity, the

microphone output should be encoded with the Spatial Mic Converter Plugin in a DAW.

Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

User Guide

Controls

Knob

The anodized aluminum knob on the front of Spatial Mic indicates the front of the microphone

and is used to change various aspects of the recording and monitoring configuration.

●Push the knob to cycle through modes:

METERING ➜ MIC GAIN ➜ MIX ➜ HP LEVEL.

●Rotate the knob to adjust selected mode.

●Push & Hold knob to mute or unmute capsule signals.

Metering Mode

When powering up Spatial Mic for the first time, the LED display will show a turn-on sequence

and then default to metering mode showing individual capsule level. Default metering mode may

be changed with the Spatial Mic Control app. The metering modes that may be selected are:

● Off - no metering or LEDs on

●Monitor - LEDs display stereo L-R mix of Live binaural monitoring and host device

playback.

● Capsule - LEDs display signal level for the 8 capsules. If audio from a capsule clips, it’s

corresponding LED will turn red for 3 seconds. This is an indication that you may need to

decrease capsule gain.

Mic Gain

Push the knob while in metering mode to enter Mic Gain mode as shown by the blue LED.

Current Mic Gain will now be displayed and can be adjusted by rotating the knob. Mic Gain

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