ADM Playback Engine

See What You Hear

Professional ADM visualization and QC in three dimensions. From full 7.1.4 systems to headphone binaural — experience immersive audio without complexity.

Standard Orbit Standard interface showing 3D visualization
Pro Orbit Pro interface — full session view with IAMF export, video, and Pro tooling
What's Inside

24 features — Pro adds 11

Every Orbit edition shares the audio engine and the spatial QC suite. Pro layers on the finishing tools — sessions, video, IAMF / AXML export, multi-track playback, and the bigger workflow surfaces.

Click any feature for the full breakdown below
Pro Sessions

Save Your Place,
In One File

Save the full state of your work as an .orbsession file — loaded ADM or IAMF (Eclipsa), video clips, markers, loop regions, layout, the lot. Open it tomorrow, on another Mac, in another studio, and pick up exactly where you left off.

A .orbsession file as it appears in Finder — single document, 2.04 GB, kind 'Orbit Session'
Show package contents
The .orbsession bundle expanded — .orbit-lock, AudioFiles folder, session.json, session.json.bak, VideoSources, Waveforms

Self-contained

Audio, video, markers, layout, settings — packaged into a single portable file.

Sharable

Hand a session to a colleague, open it on the studio iMac, archive for next year — the state goes with it.

Resumable

Loop region, scrub position, marker selections — every UI state restored when you reopen.

Pro Video

Picture & Sound,
In One Timeline

Sync video to your ADM masters, then cut, trim, and arrange clips on a multi-clip video timeline with scrub, loop, and snap. Export an IAMF + MP4 bundle ready for delivery to platforms that accept the format — ideal for creators working across sound and picture.

Video editing view in Orbit Pro with clip bin, video preview, scene view and timeline
Pro Export

IAMF / Eclipsa,
Bit-Identical

Take your ADM BWF masters straight to IAMF — the new immersive audio standard powering YouTube's Eclipsa Audio. Pick your codec, profile, and render targets in one window. Bit-identical playback to Orbit's desktop reference, every time.

Orbit Pro IAMF Export window showing encoding, profile, scalable layers, render targets, and the export queue

Codecs

Opus, AAC-LC, FLAC, LPCM — pick the trade-off that fits your delivery target.

Profiles

Simple, Base, or Base Enhanced — spec-compliant IAMF for every platform tier.

Render Targets

Stereo, 7.1.4, binaural — every render bit-identical to what you hear in Orbit.

Pro Export · ADM

AXML, Standalone
For Round-Trips

Extract the structural metadata of any ADM master as a standalone AXML file — the same XML that lives inside a BWF, pulled out so you can read it. Brilliant for confirming the file actually got encoded the way you expected, and a fantastic teaching tool for showing people exactly what makes an ADM tick.

Exported AXML opened in VS Code showing the typeLabel, organisationDetails, audioFormatExtended, and audioObject elements

Shown opened in VS Code · A built-in AXML viewer is coming soon

Spec-compliant XML

Pure ITU-R BS.2076 AXML — exactly the structure that lives inside the BWF, nothing added, nothing lost.

Verify encodes

Confirm a deliverable actually got the channel layout, object count, and metadata it was supposed to carry — before it ships.

Teaching tool

Show students, clients, or new engineers exactly what makes an ADM tick — every audioObject, every block, every reference, plain XML.

Pro Workflow

Tight Loops,
Deep Zoom

Drop a loop region around any section and let it cycle while you tweak parameters or check a difficult passage in context. Zoom deep into the waveform to isolate transients, debug crossovers, or scrub fades sample-accurately.

Loop region with start/end timecodes highlighted on the spatial waveform
Pro Review

Notes That Travel
With The Mix

Drop markers anywhere on the session, link them to specific objects, and add comments. Each marker carries the time, the linked objects, and your note. Export the full marker map as a shareable PDF for stakeholders or as CSV for issue trackers and spreadsheets — review without ever opening Orbit.

The New Marker dialog with title, time, colour and linked-object picker
Numbered colour-coded markers on the spatial waveform timeline
Pro Playback

One Mix Down,
One Click

Queue multiple ADM and IAMF tracks and let Orbit roll through back-to-back. Auto-advance moves to the next track when one finishes — perfect for album reviews, batch QC, or letting clients hear the whole shortlist without you driving the transport.

Track playlist sidebar showing queued ADM and IAMF files, each with a format badge and waveform preview

Queueable

Drop ADM and IAMF tracks into the playlist, drag to reorder, save the queue with the session.

Auto-advance

Track ends, the next one starts. Or pause between for client check-ins. Toggle per session.

Mix-down friendly

Album QC in one sitting — loudness check the whole record, then the singles, without re-loading.

Pro View

Every Track,
Side By Side

Show every track's waveform at once — beds and objects stacked vertically — so you can scan an entire session in a single view. Find the one track with a level issue, the one object with a silent gap, without drilling through each one individually.

All Tracks view in Orbit Pro showing every bed and object as a stacked waveform timeline

Stacked

Every bed and object on its own row, time-aligned, time-locked to the master scrubber.

Scannable

Spot anomalies — silent gaps, level mismatches, dropped objects — in seconds, not minutes.

Pro Inspection

One Track,
Every Trajectory

Drill into any track to see its waveform alongside the X / Y / Z position trajectories — the spatial movement of an object visualised against the audio that drives it. Catch trajectories that don't match the audio energy, find dropped automation points, sanity-check spatial design before render.

Per-track inspection showing waveform plus X/Y/Z position trajectories
Pro Calibration Coming Soon

Match Your Room,
Not The Spec

Calibrate Orbit to the physical positions of your monitors — wherever the speakers actually sit, the binaural and stereo fold-down compensate so what you hear matches what would play back on a perfect 7.1.4 rig. Currently in development; ships in a future Pro update.

In development

Beta testers will get the calibration view ahead of public release. Ships under the same Pro licence — no extra purchase, no upgrade fee.

Targeting a Pro point release later in 2026.

Pro Appearance

Dark Theme,
Studio Mode

Pro unlocks the dark theme that's been the studio standard since Orbit launched. Lower glare in dim mix rooms, deeper contrast for waveform and timeline detail, and a UI that disappears when you're focused on the audio. Drag the slider below to compare.

Orbit Pro dark theme
Orbit standard theme
Standard
Dark · Pro
Also in Standard

The shared baseline.

Every Pro licence inherits these — and Standard ships with them at the lower tier. Same audio engine, same fidelity, same QC suite.

01 — Visualization

Three Dimensions,
Zero Guesswork

Watch audio objects move through space in real-time. A coordinate gizmo shows X, Y, and Z axes so you always know your orientation — just like a game engine.

Multiple room modes Real-time tracking Object soloing

Room Modes

Choose the visualization style that works best for your workflow

Position Tracking

Follow object automation as it plays back through your mix

Object Soloing

Isolate individual elements to verify positioning accuracy

02 — Ambisonics

Scene-Based Audio,
Fully Supported

Orbit 1.4 ships with first, second, and third order Ambisonics — in both ADM BWF and IAMF (Eclipsa). Sound fields decode alongside your beds and objects, rendered through the same 7.1.4 speaker bus and binaural pipeline as everything else.

FOA / 2OA / 3OA Reactive soundfield sphere Mixed beds + objects
Orbit 1.4 Track View showing Ambisonics channels rendered as waveforms alongside object tracks

FOA, 2OA & 3OA

First, second, and third order Ambisonics decode and render through Orbit's speaker and binaural outputs

Mixed Scenes

Beds, objects, and Ambisonics together in one file — ADM or IAMF. Orbit handles the lot in a single session

Metadata You Can Trust

Normalisation badges, per-channel source tags, and pack IDs — see exactly what the file declared

Orbit sidebar showing Ambisonics group with normalisation badge, audioPackFormatID, and per-channel source tags
03 — Activity View

Every Object,
At a Glance

See all beds and objects in a single view. Active channels light up, silent ones stay dim — spot missing content instantly without scrubbing through your entire file.

Real-time Activity

Active objects pulse with color — beds in blue, objects in your theme color — while silent channels stay dimmed

Click to Locate

Click any object to highlight it in the 3D view — double-click to solo and hear it in isolation

Instant QC

Quickly verify all expected objects are present and active — spot missing content without scrubbing

Object activity view showing hexagonal grid with 10 beds and 108 objects, with active objects highlighted
04 — Waveform View

Your Content,
In Detail

High-quality waveform timeline packed with information. Two view modes show you exactly what's happening in your immersive mix.

Spatial View

See the left/right weight of your content across the spatial field

Spatial waveform view showing left/right spatial distribution
Multichannel View

Full 7.1.4 waveform — see exactly what's coming out of each speaker

Multichannel waveform view showing all 7.1.4 channels
Solo Channels

Solo any speaker group and see it highlighted instantly in the waveform

Waveform view with surround channels soloed and highlighted in yellow

High Resolution

Crystal clear waveforms

Toggle Views

Switch between Spatial and Multichannel instantly

Visual Solo

Soloed channels highlight in the timeline

05 — Monitoring

Four Ways to
Experience Sound

From full speaker systems to headphones, Orbit adapts to your monitoring environment.

Coming soon: 5.1.4 and 5.1 output modes — with even more formats on the way.

7.1.4
Featured

Full Immersive

Output to physical 7.1.4 speaker systems with flexible channel routing. Map any speaker to any output for complete studio integration.

Configurable positions Custom routing Reference mode

Binaural

HRTF-based headphone monitoring with head tracking support for AirPods and camera.

AirPods Camera tracking

Stereo Fold-down

Intelligent downmix to standard stereo. Perfect for quick reference checks.

One-click Preserves balance

Apple Spatial Audio

Hear what your audience hears on Apple Music with Apple's own spatial renderer.

AirPods Head tracking
06 — Apple Spatial Audio

Hear What Your
Audience Hears

Check what your mixes will sound like on Apple Music. Orbit uses Apple's own spatial renderer — the same engine powering Spatial Audio for millions of listeners on AirPods, Beats, and Apple headphones.

Personalised Profiles

Uses your iPhone ear scan for the most accurate spatial rendering

Standard Profiles

Apple's default spatial rendering — what most listeners experience

Native Head Tracking

Works directly with AirPods Pro & Max — no camera needed

Apple Spatial Audio

Check what your mixes will sound like on Apple Music — before they go live.

AirPods Pro AirPods Max Beats
07 — Head Tracking

Turn Your Head,
Sound Follows

Real-time head tracking for truly immersive binaural monitoring. Use Apple Spatial Audio with standard or personalised profiles, AirPods, or your Mac's camera.

Apple Spatial Audio

Standard & personalised profiles

Camera Tracking

Built-in or external webcam

AirPods

Native Pro & Max support

08 — Personalized Audio

Your Ears,
Your HRTFs

Built-in HRTFs for accurate monitoring out of the box, plus custom SOFA import for personalised rendering. Orbit's 1,944-point HRTF grid enables precise binaural rendering for any speaker position.

STD
Orbit Studio

High-quality synthesis HRTF for general listening, tuned for the best experience

REF
Orbit Reference

Flat-response HRTF for accurate monitoring

S-II
SADIE II Built-in

2 SADIE II HRTFs included — no download needed

SOFA
Custom SOFA Import

AES69-2022 — CIPIC, SADIE II, MIT KEMAR compatible

1944
Dense HRTF Grid

Full spherical coverage for accuracy

Learn about SOFA support

1,944 measurement points • Full spherical coverage

Frequency Response

Magnitude (dB) · Normalized at 1 kHz

09 — Headphone EQ

Mix On Anything,
Hear It Honestly

Most of us don't mix on flat headphones — we mix on the cans we own. Orbit 1.4 ships with a Headphone EQ panel that flattens your headphones against a known target so what you hear is closer to what's actually in the file. Curated AutoEq-derived presets for the usual suspects (HD 650, HD 800 S, DT 770 Pro, LCD-X, AirPods Max, MDR-7506, and plenty more), a five-band tone tilt for taste, and a live response graph that draws the lot.

Orbit 1.4 Headphone EQ panel showing compensation preset, five-band tone controls, and the live response graph

Compensation

Parametric correction curves derived from AutoEq, plus an automatic preamp so the total stays below unity gain. Reference (Harman 2018) for monitoring, or Music for a warmer tilt.

Tone

Five knobs — Bass, Lo-Mid, Mid, Hi-Mid, Treble — sit on top of compensation. Nudge for taste without touching the underlying curve. Double-click to reset.

Live Response

The graph at the bottom of the panel draws preset, tone, and combined curves in real time as you adjust — you see exactly what's being applied.

Parametric curves derived from AutoEq (MIT Licence). AutoEq data © Jaakko Pasanen.

10 — Metering

Delivery Ready
Loudness Analysis

ITU-R BS.1770-4 compliant metering with peak hold and waveform theme matching, cross-validated against ffmpeg/libebur128 to within 0.05 dB on integrated LUFS. Broadcast delivery compliance you can trust. Read how we validated it.

INT
Integrated LUFS -24.0
S
Short-term LUFS -18.2
TP
True Peak -1.0 dB
11 — Export

Client-Ready
PDF Reports

Generate detailed reports from ADM BWF files. Visualize bed waveforms, object timelines, and positional automation for fast QC.

BEDS
Bed channel waveforms

Verify content across every speaker position

OBJ
Object timelines & motion

Track X/Y/Z movement and size automation

LU
Measured loudness report

Integrated LUFS, true peak, LRA, and time-series graph — measured by Orbit (ITU-R BS.1770-4)

PDF loudness report showing integrated LUFS, true peak, loudness range, and a time-series graph
QC
Instant QC checks

Spot silent objects and missing content

Explore Advanced PDF Export
12 — Output Routing

Flexible
Output Routing

Full control over every output channel. Map any speaker to any device output — Orbit adapts to your studio setup, not the other way around.

Conflict Highlighting

Instantly spot when multiple channels share the same output — no more silent speakers

Independent Stereo Routing

Separate output selection for binaural and stereo folddown — headphones on outputs 23 & 24? No problem.

Any Device, Any Channel

Works with any Core Audio device — route to the exact outputs your interface provides

Output routing configuration showing channel mapping with conflict warnings
13 — Configuration

Your Room,
Your Setup

Configure Orbit's virtual speaker environment to match your real-world studio layout.

Speaker configuration showing top-down and side elevation views
Custom Positions
Reference Mode
Flexible Routing

Ready to Experience
Orbit?

Start delivering flawless immersive audio today.

Purchase Orbit
Purchase Orbit

Apple Silicon · macOS 14+