Harpex-X

Harpex is a signal processing algorithm designed to extract the maximum amount of spatial information from sound field recordings. With the Harpex plug-ins, content creators use this technology to transform sound field recordings in A-format, B-format or AmbiX into the standard surround and 3D surround formats used in film and television, coincident, non-coincident and binaural stereo, or higher-order AmbiX for VR and AR applications.

Technology

Unlike traditional ambisonic decoders, Harpex is an active matrix processor for sound field recordings. This allows Harpex to do some unique things.

Surround decoding for cinema and television

Harpex can produce surround decodings with far greater channel separation than what is possible with passive matrixing, which in turn leads to a much larger sweet spot, allowing sound field recordings to be used in large venues like movie theaters, even supporting modern 3D surround formats like Dolby Atmos, IMAX and Auro 3D. Another advantage of the higher channel separation is the virtual elimination of phasing - an unpleasant sound coloration that changes as listeners move inside the listening space.

Non-coincident output.

In addition to total freedom in choosing between any coincident stereo recording technique in the comfort of your post production studio, Harpex can generate direction-dependent delays like near-coincident microphones do. Audio engineers will debate about the warm openness of near-coincident microphone recordings versus the spatial precision of coincident microphone recordings. With Harpex, you can switch back and forth between the two, all with a single sound field recording as the source.

Binaural reality

With its binaural decoding mode, Harpex is able to produce headphone-adapted stereo similar to artificial head recordings. In virtual reality applications, where the sound field needs to be rotated to match the user's head orientation, the standard audio format is AmbiX. Harpex is able to produce up to 3rd order AmbiX output from sound field recordings.

Post production shotgun

If you need to isolate a single sound source, or split a recording into single-instrument tracks, the shotgun mode allows you to do this in post production. Combined with the sound field display, it is easy to point and click on the sound sources you want to isolate.

Plug-Ins

The plug-ins are available in VST, AAX and AU format for 32- and 64-bit Windows and Mac OS X. They support all major DAWs with surround sound capabilities, i.e. Reaper, Nuendo, Pyramix, Logic, Pro Tools HD etc.

A 30 day free trial is available. A permanent license for the plug-ins allows you to install them on two computers at the same time. No dongle or internet access is required, and you can transfer the license to a new computer every year.

The Harpex-X plug-in supports input in AmbiX, which is emerging as the standard ambisonic exchange format, B-format, which is the format used by older Soundfield microphones, and double MS. Additionally, it supports the direct input from the most popular models of tetrahedral microphone arrays. The currently supported models are the Sennheiser Ambeo, SoundField SPS-200 / NT-SF1, Core Sound TetraMic and Zoom H3-VR. It can produce a number of output formats, including first- and higher-order AmbiX.