Envelop for Live
Envelop for Live is a collection of free, open-source immersive audio production tools that work with Ableton Live Suite. E4L creates an open and accessible path for artists and producers to create immersive music for Envelop listening spaces, DIY multichannel audio environments, as well as headphone-based VR/AR applications. It works with 3rd-order Ambisonics and includes the E4L Master Bus decoder, E4L Source Panner encoder, AuraVerb, and a custom-decoder system, alongside integration with EnvelopLX for synchronised LED lighting via ADM-OSC. The toolkit is built on established open-source foundations, including the ICST Ambisonics Tools, the HISSTools Impulse Response Toolbox and CNMAT's odot externals, and its modular design lets developers build their own custom effects within the Ambisonic domain. E4L requires Ableton Live Suite (versions 10 through 12) with Max for Live, and is released under the GPLv2, with the reusable bus components in its bus and live sub-directories licensed separately under the LGPLv2.
tech specs
history
+–
Envelop for Live grew out of Envelop, a San Francisco nonprofit co-founded by Roddy Lindsay, Christopher Willits and Elan Rosenmann, among others, whose interest in Ambisonics traces back to Lindsay's experience at Naut Humon's Com# studio in 2009, an intimate venue built around a 16.8-channel EAW system. The founders began developing spatial audio software and content together during regular studio sessions there before setting out to build a dedicated venue from the ground up, eventually partnering with Jeff Whitmore and the Midway SF team to house Envelop within that building. The first version of the E4L software was developed by Rama Gottfried, modelled on the architecture of IRCAM's Spat combined with an odot port of Alex Harker's Convolution Reverb Pro Max for Live device, adapted to work with B-Format impulse responses. An initial beta was released in 2015, with the toolkit made publicly available in May 2018; its core architecture has since been credited to Mark Slee, Roddy Lindsay and Rama Gottfried. Envelop's physical presence has grown alongside the software, from the permanent Envelop SF venue and the touring Envelop Satellite rig to the mobile Envelop Pop-up space, which held its first public events in May 2019, and Envelop Stream, a virtual listening space launched in April 2020.
back to tools
