Immersive Master Pro 1.5 with Eclipsa Audio™
Immersive Master Pro 1.5 with Eclipsa Audio™ Authoring
Today we’re releasing Immersive Master Pro 1.5 with native IAMF and Eclipsa Audio authoring. You can now encode immersive WAV files as IAMF (.iamf) or Eclipsa Audio MP4 (.mp4), upload them directly to YouTube, and share immersive mixes with clients and audiences in minutes. No gatekeepers and no subscriptions needed.
New in version 1.5:
Eclipsa Audio™ Authoring
Video & Image MP4 Mux
Immersive Master Pro Visualizer
Try a fully-functional 30-day demo – 1.5 is a free upgrade for all 2nd Gen license owners
WHAT IS ECLIPSA AUDIO?
Eclipsa Audio is an open-source immersive audio technology developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). Eclipsa Audio MP4 files combine immersive audio and video into a single file and can be uploaded directly to YouTube. We believe Eclipsa Audio is an important new pathway for user-generated content and independent music and film.
WHAT IS IAMF?
Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) is the technical name for the underlying audio spec that powers Eclipsa Audio. This is a brand new, forward-looking specification with support for lossless and lossy audio presented as channel-based immersive, Ambisonics, and binaural. Mix presentations can support multiple mixes and/or language selection. High-end features like objects and head-tracking are not currently supported, but they are in the development roadmap. We see IAMF as a mezzanine format. Immersive Master Pro 1.5 can take channel-based mixes from stereo 2.0 all the way up to immersive 7.1.4 and encode them as native IAMF (.iamf) files.
HOW DO I MIX FOR ECLIPSA AUDIO?
The best pathway into the format is to mix in a channel-based way. If you can monitor in 2.0, 5.1 or 7.1.4, set up your master bus for that monitor width, and get to work. When you’re done, take the resulting WAV and use Immersive Master Pro 1.5 to encode and do QC playback.
HOW CAN I SHARE MY ECLIPSA AUDIO MIX?
Immersive Master Pro 1.5 can batch encode any number of WAV files to Eclipsa Audio MP4 files. Those MP4s can be uploaded to YouTube, where they will play as immersive content in Google Chrome Canary on macOS and Windows, as well as recent Samsung televisions and soundbars. Most other devices will play as stereo at this time. Because these are video files, you can add your own custom video, a still image (your studio logo, for example), the new Immersive Master Pro Visualizer, or just a plain black frame video. We expect IAMF support in regular Google Chrome very soon. For more sharing information, read our guide, “How to listen to Eclipsa Audio on YouTube.”
WHAT ARE THE TECHNICAL DETAILS I SHOULD KNOW AS A PRODUCER?
An IAMF file can be a Simple, Base, or Base-Enhanced profile. Immersive Master Pro 1.5 supports Simple and Base. In Simple, there is (1) Mix Presentation, (1) Audio Element and a maximum of (16) audio channels. In Base, there are (2) Mix Presentations, (2) Audio Elements and a maximum of (18) audio channels.
Inside the file, Audio Elements are arranged in groups as Mix Presentations. Only one Mix Presentation can play at a time. Immersive Master Pro provides independent loudness reporting, playback, and QC for each Mix Presentation. When packaging an immersive mix along with an intentional stereo master, the immersive mix (for example, a 7.1.4 mix) will go in one Mix Presentation, and the stereo master will go in the other. YouTube will then select the appropriate presentation based on the capabilities of the playback device. This preserves the kind of format-aware switching commonly heard on platforms such as Apple Music and Amazon Music.
As a producer you can decide if an Audio Element should or should not be delivered as binaural when on headphones. As of this writing, Immersive Master Pro will write the binaural flag and let you audition what it sounds like, but the binaural listening pathway will be coming in a future update to YouTube.
IAMF has a good-sounding automatic down-mix matrix when rendering a higher-channel mix to a lower-channel loudspeaker layout; for example when playing a 7.1.4 mix into a 3.1.2 soundbar. But here at Immersive Machines, we believe that producers and engineers should have creative control over down-mix. Watch this space for future developments…
Loudness guidelines for Eclipsa Audio content will likely be shaped by each platform, but there are no official rules around loudness as of this writing. We think the conventional -18 LKFS targets typically sound excellent, but there’s nothing stopping you from experimenting in this area.
IAMF and Eclipsa Audio MP4 files exported from Immersive Master Pro 1.5 are lossless PCM (ie. uncompressed audio, and can have sampling rates as high as 96KHz). But when your mix is playing on YouTube, it’s using the lossy Opus codec for each loudspeaker channel. Our recommendation is to hold on to your lossless IAMF master files. More listening pathways will be coming in the future.
You and your clients can use the Chrome web browser on macOS or Windows to audition your mix in stereo, 5.1, and all the way up to 7.1.4.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT IN THE FUTURE?
Because IAMF and Eclipsa Audio are open-source and royalty-free, we expect a large number of consumer electronics companies, smartphone manufacturers, and streaming platforms to support the format. The format will be especially appealing to social media creators, indie record labels, indie filmmakers, and academics. Historically, YouTube was not a platform associated with high-resolution audio delivery. Thanks to Eclipsa Audio, this puts YouTube in a whole new light and gives the audio industry a compelling pathway for sharing new work. The IAMF roadmap includes technologies such as object-based audio, binaural rendering, and head-tracking. Unusual multi-modal combinations, such as Ambisonics with channel-based audio are possible. Email us at info@immersive-machines.com, and tell us what you want from Eclipsa Audio.
Ready to try it for yourself?
Try a fully functional 30-day demo here →Immersive Master Pro 1.5
For more information, contact us at info@immersive-machines.com.
