E4L 3OA Plugin Effect Send and Return
The E4L 3OA Plugin Effect devices are routing utilities that are used to either send or receive audio to or from a VST or AudioUnit plugin that works with 16-channels of 3OA (third-order ambisonics) audio.
Note that these devices typically work best with VST2 plugins. Most VST3 and AudioUnit plugins will not instantiate multi-channel input or output when they are placed on a stereo bus in Ableton.
In this example, the IEM StereoEncoder is used to generate 3OA output from a stereo input. The E4L 3OA Plugin Effect Return is placed immediately after the plugin device on the track. A 16-channel meter displays the received audio and a Gain control can be used to adjust the signal.
The circular button at the top of the left-hand routing bar can be used to manually reinitialize output routing from the plugin, if needed.
In this example, an E4L Mono Panner is used to generate a 3OA signal. The E4L 3OA Plugin Effect Send is placed immediately after the E4L device, and immediately before an instance of the sparta_rotator 3OA plugin. Note that the VST/AudioUnit plugin should be placed in the track chain before placing the E4L 3OA Plugin Effect Send.
The circular button at the top of the right-hand routing bar can be used to manually reinitialize output to the plugin, if needed.
A E4L 3OA Plugin Effect Return device is additionally added at the end of the chain to bring the plugin audio back into the E4L routing domain.
Not all plugins have been tested, and 3rd-party plugins are not guaranteed to work.
Plugins that have been tested:
Plugins that unfortunately do not work due to VST3 incompatibility:
- Audio Brewers ab Decoder / Phaser / Rotator
An alternate approach, developed by Noah Neumark, that embeds a VST plugin effect inside of a Max 4 Live device is available here: https://maxforlive.com/library/device/9862/e4l-vst-loader-fx