Understanding Bus Configurations

Warning: you were redirected to the latest documentation corresponding to your major release ( 2022.1.17.8543 ). Should you wish to access your specific version's documentation, please download the offline documentation from the Audiokinetic Launcher and check the Offline Documentation option in Wwise Authoring.

Understanding Bus Configurations

This section provides information on all of the options in the Bus Configuration list in the General Settings tab of the Property Editor. This includes details such as output channels, suggested angles for speakers, and ordering.

	Downmixing
	To ensure optimal performance when dealing with different bus configurations, it is important to understand the Wwise approach to downmixing. For more information, refer to Downmixing Behavior.

Interface Element: Same as parent
The bus inherits the bus configuration of its parent bus and has the potential to be non-mixing. This would save CPU and memory by propagating the properties of the bus to its input without requiring any processing. However, if the bus has certain features, such as Effects, processing is performed and the potential savings are lost. Refer to Understanding the Bus Icons and Processing Status for further details.

Interface Element: Same as parent

The bus inherits the bus configuration of its parent bus and has the potential to be non-mixing. This would save CPU and memory by propagating the properties of the bus to its input without requiring any processing. However, if the bus has certain features, such as Effects, processing is performed and the potential savings are lost. Refer to Understanding the Bus Icons and Processing Status for further details.

Interface Element: Same as main mix
The bus inherits the bus configuration of the Main Mix of the Audio Device at the end of the bus pipeline. This option provides flexibility in that the bus configuration is determined by the endpoint at runtime.

Interface Element: Same as passthrough mix
The bus inherits the bus configuration of the Passthrough Mix of the Audio Device at the end of the bus pipeline. This option provides flexibility in that the bus configuration is determined by the endpoint at runtime. If 3D Audio is active and the endpoint supports the Passthrough Mix, the bus output is formatted as 2.0. Otherwise, the bus functions as if Same as main mix were selected.

Interface Element: Audio Objects
The bus produces Audio Objects. These are audio buffers accompanied by Metadata that, if all conditions are met, could be passed to an endpoint to be rendered with spatialized effects. This bus configuration is intended for use with sounds positioned in the world that require a higher degree of accuracy in terms of spatial rendering. With this configuration, Audio Objects, their 3D position, and orientation are delivered by Wwise to platforms capable of rendering Audio Objects. This information allows the endpoint to create its own 3D spatialized effects. Refer to Understanding Object-Based Audio for further details.

Interface Element: Audio Objects

The bus produces Audio Objects. These are audio buffers accompanied by Metadata that, if all conditions are met, could be passed to an endpoint to be rendered with spatialized effects. This bus configuration is intended for use with sounds positioned in the world that require a higher degree of accuracy in terms of spatial rendering.

With this configuration, Audio Objects, their 3D position, and orientation are delivered by Wwise to platforms capable of rendering Audio Objects. This information allows the endpoint to create its own 3D spatialized effects.

Refer to Understanding Object-Based Audio for further details.

Interface Element: 1.0
Channel	Suggested Speaker Angle
Center (C)	0 degrees

Interface Element: 2.0
Channel	Suggested Speaker Angle
Left (L)	22-30 degrees
Right (R)	22-30 degrees

Interface Element: 3.0
Channel	Suggested Speaker Angle
Left (L)	22-30 degrees
Right (R)	22-30 degrees
Center (C)	0 degrees

Interface Element: 4.0
Channel	Suggested Speaker Angle
Left (L)	22-30 degrees
Right (R)	22-30 degrees
Surround Left (SL)	90-110 degrees
Surround Right (SR)	90-110 degrees

Interface Element: 5.1
Channel	Suggested Speaker Angle
Left (L)	22-30 degrees
Right (R)	22-30 degrees
Center (C)	0 degrees
Surround Left (SL)	90-110 degrees
Surround Right (SR)	90-110 degrees
Low Frequency Effects (LFE)	N/A

Interface Element: 7.1
Channel	Suggested Speaker Angle
Left (L)	22-30 degrees
Right (R)	22-30 degrees
Center (C)	0 degrees
Surround Left (SL)	90-110 degrees
Surround Right (SR)	90-110 degrees
Back Left (BL)	135-150 degrees
Back Right (BR)	135-150 degrees
Low Frequency Effects (LFE)	N/A

Wwise also supports extended standard channel configurations with "height" speakers. Below is a list of all available channels and their suggested speaker angles.

Standard Configurations Extended with Height Channels
Channel	Suggested Speaker Angle
Left (L)	22-30 degrees
Right (R)	22-30 degrees
Center (C)	0 degrees
Surround Left (SL)	90-110 degrees
Surround Right (SR)	90-110 degrees
Back Center (BC)	180 degrees
Back Left (BL)	135-150 degrees
Back Right (BR)	135-150 degrees
Top (T)	Straight above
Height Front Left (HFL)	Same as L, above horizon
Height Front Center (HFC)	Same as C, above horizon
Height Front Right (HFR)	Same as R, above horizon
Height Back Left (HBL)	Same as BL (or SL), above horizon
Height Back Center (HBC)	Same as BC, above horizon
Height Back Right (HBR)	Same as BR (or SR), above horizon
Low Frequency Effects (LFE)	N/A

Dolby™ Bus Configurations
Interface Element	Channels
5.1.2	L + R + C + SL + SR + HFL + HFR + LFE
7.1.2	L + R + C + BL + BR + SL + SR + HFL + HFR + LFE
7.1.4	L + R + C + BL + BR + SL + SR + HFL + HFR + HBL + HBR + LFE

	Note
	Wwise-supported Dolby configurations include the addition of height channels to 5.1 surround and to 7.1 surround configurations. The resulting notation is a third digit indicating the number of height channels.

Ambisonics Bus Configurations
Interface Element	Component Ordering
Ambisonics 1st order	W-Y-Z-X
Ambisonics 2nd order	W-Y-Z-X-V-T-R-S-U
Ambisonics 3rd order	W-Y-Z-X-V-T-R-S-U-Q-O-M-K-L-N-P
Ambisonics 4th order	1-25
Ambisonics 5th order	1-36

Note

Ambisonics operates using a B-format sound field, which is independent of speaker setups. The lettered notation, used for orders 1 to 3, indicates B-format direction channels, not speaker channels. This notation is based on ACN channel ordering with SN3D normalization, but—like FuMa ordering with MaxN normalization—it uses letters rather than numbers. Higher orders use numbers. Refer to Ambisonic Component Ordering for more information.

Auro Bus Configurations
Interface Element	Channels
Auro 9.1	L + R + C + SL + SR + HFL + HFR + HBL + HBR + LFE
Auro 10.1	L + R + C + SL + SR + T + HFL + HFR + HBL + HBR + LFE
Auro 11.1	L + R + C + SL + SR + T + HFL + HFC + HFR + HBL + HBR + LFE
Auro 13.1	L + R + C + BL + BR + SL + SR + T + HFL + HFC + HFR + HBL + HBR + LFE

	Note
	Wwise-supported Auro configurations include the addition of height channels to 5.1 surround and to 7.1 surround configurations. The resulting notation increases the total number of channels (the first digit) ranging from 9.1 to 13.1 indicating the addition of 4 to 6 height channels. For example, Auro 13.1 is the addition of 6 height channels to a 7.1 surround configuration.

Interface Element: LFE
Channel	Suggested Speaker Angle
0.1 (mono)	N/A

Was this page helpful?

Need Support?

Questions? Problems? Need more info? Contact us, and we can help!

Visit our Support page

Tell us about your project. We're here to help.

Get started with Wwise

Wwise Help