Spatial Audio Workstation
The Spatial Audio Workstation (SAW) is Encircled Audio's production tool for the creation of immersive audio content in a fully implemented, object-based workflow. The software is an exclusive plugin for Steinberg's Nuendo DAW. A mixing project can consist of up to 64 simultaneous objects, each shown in a single display as a sound object that can be freely positioned, moved along automated motion paths, rotated, scaled or grouped with others for easier editing. An internal rendering mode supports a large number of common 2D multichannel speaker layouts (up to 8.1) without the need of additional hardware, and switching between surround standards automatically remaps existing position automation to the new setup. The external processing mode works in combination with an IOSONO inside audio processor and allows for real-time rendering to any 2D/3D speaker arrangement, and a dedicated Upmix! feature can also recover natural-sounding surround from existing stereo material.
tech specs
history
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The Spatial Audio Workstation was first developed by IOSONO GmbH together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, presented publicly at the AES Convention in Amsterdam as the next generation of an object-oriented surround panning and mixing plugin built exclusively for Steinberg's Nuendo. The software's object-based approach, letting engineers work independently of any specific speaker layout and export to whichever surround format they later needed, grew directly out of IOSONO's earlier research into wavefield synthesis. A major update, SAW 2.0, followed in April 2011 under CEO Olaf Stepputat, unveiled at Musikmesse and ProLight + Sound in Frankfurt, adding the Upmix! technology for converting stereo recordings to surround. IOSONO was later acquired by Barco and became Barco Audio Technologies, and the product line lives on today under the Encircled Audio brand, where SAW remains the production-side software counterpart to the company's ENCIRCLED hardware processors.
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