B360 Ambisonics Encoder: Surround Tool by Waves

The core job of B360 is conversion. It takes mono, stereo or surround material and encodes it into the four-channel Ambisonics format. Once converted, the signal can be combined with other Ambisonics content in the same session.

Waves says the plugin is designed around the industry-standard B-format, so the output follows the common AmbiX file convention. The package also includes AmbiX-to-FuMa and FuMa-to-AmbiX utilities for working with projects that use the older FuMa convention.

Placement is handled with width, rotation and elevation controls. These let you shape where a source sits around the listener and how wide it spreads. The panning is described as accurate across up to seven image sources.

Because the interface is familiar to people used to traditional mixing, the learning curve is shorter for engineers coming from stereo or surround work. Positioning controls sit alongside the conversion settings, so a single channel can be placed and checked without leaving the session.