Strata Help

The following image shows the Composite tracks in white. Note that the Stereo composite is routed to the parent Composites track, while none of the other composite tracks are routed to an output. This is the default configuration of all the Ambience collection ambisonic projects. Depending on your monitoring system and your needs, you can unmute a desired composite track and route it to the parent Composites track. Don’t forget to either mute the Stereo composite or disconnect its routing to the Composites track. The Composites track is in turn routed to the Master track, which is configured for 16 channels. The black subtracks of the composite tracks have an IEM plug-in configured to decode the output of the main mix to the desired multichannel output configuration. The IEM Decode plug-in is configurable to provide any channel format and speaker position up to the current Reaper maximum channel count of 64 channels and speaker positions. Due to limitations of the VST3 specification, the maximum ambisonic order that the IEM plug-ins support is 6th order. 7th order is possible within REAPER with the VST2 version of the plug-ins.

For ambiences, which have bed tracks that are not usually highly positional by design, listening experience and quality testing have shown 3rd-order ambisonics to be optimal in terms of CPU usage, channel count, memory footprint, and common speaker monitoring systems. This applies to most current generations of video game hardware.

The following image shows the routing of the Stereo composite track to its parent Composites track.

The following image shows the IEM plug-in decoding the 3rd-order main mix to stereo and its parent composite track, Stereo, routed to its parent, Composites.

If you unmute any Composite track, select one or more regions, and then render them, the selected regions are rendered to the Rendered folder in an automatically generated subfolder named after the Composite track name and configuration. The names of the files are the same, but they contain metadata that indicates the channel count.

The following image shows some automatically generated folders.

This track is the parent of the Rain Background Mix track. It encodes the Octo3d 8 channels that make up the sounds of all the layers in the subproject into 3rd-order ambisonic format.

The ambisonic encoding is performed by the IEM MultiEncoder plug-in. The track is positioned at the top of the hierarchy of layer tracks. The output is routed to the composite tracks, where the 3rd-order Main Mix is decoded to multiple track configurations simultaneously. In most cases, it is not necessary to make any adjustments to these tracks.

The Intensity and Wetness control track envelopes exercise control over multiple parameters of a layer's subtracks and their plug-ins. The envelopes are designed to allow a significant adjustment to the sounds of the layer while maintaining a balanced mix across the layers. This means with one slider, you can achieve the equivalent of many individual edits of many parameters. Modifying these envelope values is highly encouraged as a start towards customization of the sounds. Applying changes to selected individual regions on the timeline allows customization of those regions.

This track is the parent track for all subsequent layers and has control envelopes that operate simultaneously on multiple child tracks and their plug-ins. The control envelopes provide a flexible method for rapid customization of the sound and are named to describe their perceived audible effect on the sound. The PRESENCE, STRENGTH, and MASS, envelopes perform multiple actions simultaneously. You can use them to make complex changes, for example, transitioning from an intense downpour to a drizzle. We encourage you to experiment.

The High Pass and Low Pass envelopes perform equalization roll off of High and Low frequencies. This is useful for creating perspective.

The Base Texture Layer 1 includes two tracks, each with four channels, that make up the audio representation of the Octo3d recording. These tracks provide the basic layer for the rain of the various regions defined on the timeline.

All Layer 1 tracks use custom colors, alternating between light and dark shades.

The Reverb Texture Layer 2 provides the early reflection and diffusion aspect of the rain sounds.

The Intensity 2 and Wetness 2 pairs of tracks are controlled by the Intensity and Wetness control track envelopes. There is also a Volume automation envelope that controls the overall level of the layer. Layer 2 tracks use custom colors for each pair of Low and Hi Octo3d layers, alternating between light and dark shades.

The Drop Texture Layer 3 provides a distributed sound field of raindrops. They add intimacy to the rain sounds and could be used for subtle rain or post-rain sounds as rainwater continues to drip. The Intensity 2 and Wetness 2 pairs of tracks are controlled by the Intensity and Wetness control track envelopes. There is also a Volume automation envelope that controls the overall level of the layer. Layer 3 tracks use custom colors, for each pair of Low and Hi Octo3d layers, alternating between light and dark shades.