Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation - What Now?
In our article, What Happens When Audio Software And Plugins Become Unavailable? one of the discontinued products we looked at was the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation. Even though it has been discontinued, the workflows it provided solutions for are still needed. In this article, we look at some of the alternatives that are being put forward.
YouTuber Hugh Hou has produced a tutorial in response to META stopping support for the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation, which he says is “one of the best FREE tools for 3D Spatial Audio post-production”. He goes on…
“Why not take this opportunity to learn the NEW 2022 workflow? It is a lot easier and will give you professional sounding 360° spatial audio for Meta Quest, DeoVR, and YouTube VR release. This workflow works perfectly for the Canon EOS R5C / R5 with Canon dual fisheye lens and the Insta360 camera like the One RS 1" 360 or Insta360 Titan.”
0:00 - Immersive Filmmaking 101: Spatial Audio
1:18 - The Free solution & download link
2:59 - Preparation: Premiere Pro
3:55 - How to manually sync audio in Premiere
5:29 - Mono video proxy from 3D 360 or VR180
6:23 - Tools: Reaper + Noisemakers Ambi Bundle HD
7:20 - Where is Video Window inside Reaper
8:25 - Ambisonic audio routing
9:17 - Binaural audio preview
10:50 - 8D audio tutorial
12:46 - How to set up your VR headset for live monitoring
13:45 - Spatial audio limiter
14:22 - Spatial reverb
15:20 - How to combine VR Video and 3D Audio together
16:23 - How to export for Meta Quest 2 and DeoVR
17:42 - How to export for YouTube VR
What Is Needed?
The 2 key elements of software you will need to use Hugh’s workflow are Reaper from Cockos and the Ambi HD bundle from Noise Makers.
Learn More About Reaper…
Learn More About Noise Makers Ambi HD Bundle…
Ambi Bundle HD is a suite of plugins for creating 3D audio scenes, ready to embed in 360 videos. It contains…
Ambi Pan HD : position input sounds in the 3D scene
Ambi Verb HD : add 360 reverberation
Ambi Limiter HD : control peak level of the ambisonic bus
Ambi Head HD : render ambisonic to binaural audio
Ambi Eyes : monitor 360 video (compatible with VR headsets)
Other Suggestions
Other recommendations from the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation Facebook Group include IEM, O3A Core and Sparta for free. Paid for software includes Audioease 360, Dear VR Pro or Noisemakers Ambi Pan.
Still Want The Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation Software?
As we covered in our article What Happens When Audio Software And Plugins Become Unavailable? Despite META announcing back in March 2022…
“The team will continue supporting external downloads of the Audio360 Encoder application for preparing 360 videos for upload to Facebook, and it will be available on Windows and macOS for the foreseeable future.”
There still is no sign of an official source from which to download the Audio 360 Encoder. However, all is not lost.
For example, Angelo Farina has archived all versions of FB Spatial Workstation, and he has also curated all the required additional libraries too.
YouTuber Hugh Hou offers another source for v3.3 of the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation software and adds this…
“For anyone having a tough time installing the FB360 Encoder - FFMpeg error or can't render correctly - please try these fixes:
Install FFmpeg in the FB360 folder, NOT the system directory (or follow this guide to use Ubuntu. Note: Only works on Windows 10 (not 11) and Mac.
FFmpeg has to be version 3.2, not higher or lower.
GPAC version has to be 0.08.1
Python version has to be 2.7.x, not 3.x.x. Hopefully, all these tips help anyone having trouble. Mac, it is easier than PC as well. So if it is still not working, borrow an old Mac from your friends :)”
We Hope That Helps
We hope this will help those working in 360 video and ambisonics to be able to continue working, whether it be using Hugh’s alternative workflow or continuing to use the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation unsupported by META.
Please be aware that we haven’t checked these workflows or downloads, so we cannot be held responsible for any issues or provide any support.
If you have any experience, then please do share using the comments below to help others. Thanks.