Since 2012, Penteo Audio Plugins have provided a high quality method to upmix and downmix audio content in a way that maintains 100% ITU downmix compatibility. They do this using some very clever ‘phaseless’ technology which guarantees that nothing is artificially added, altered or removed from the source.

Penteo is available in three different versions, with the most fully featured being Penteo Pro+. This has just received a significant update (version 6) which adds a number of additional features and presets. We have the full details.

Innovative Creative & Workflow Controls: Introducing new sound shaping modes plus Universal Music Group Atmos presets which provide unparalleled creative upmix/downmix workflow control.

With over 10 years solely focused on the upmix/downmix audio reversioning market, Penteo has seen upmixing grow from just being a utility function to now being an essential part of any sound design or composer’s creative workflows.

Working closely with Penteo’s customers, every new creative control has come from user requests by adding:

• Autodetect Mono – to centre dialogue to the centre channel

• Stem Upmix and Passthrough – Penteo now offers 3 different upmix modes which modify how the input signal is upmixing into the output signal that can reduce or eliminate the need for post-upmix panning and EQ.

• 3-Level independent Diffuse effects for Rear, Upper and Bottom channels with any downmix impact indicated on Penteo’s Downmix Compatibility Monitor

• Rear shelf to apply a high-pass filter to the rear channels with any downmix impact indicated on Penteo’s Downmix Compatibility Monitor

• Full Phantom center channel added in addition to Default, Discrete and Composite sound shaping modes

• Multi-link faders – Penteo adds the ability to independently or group-link up to 5 faders together

• Upmix DSP Auto-default – Penteo offers two upmix DSPs optimized for Legacy (Surround) and Decorrelated (Immersive) upmixing. Penteo auto-defaults to the correct upmix DSP based on the output format selected.

• Peak Signal Meters – added to all input / output meters.

• Universal Music Group Atmos Presets - Penteo’s UMG presets provide a fast starting-point for UMG’s Atmos V1.1.2022 spec by automating a Phantom Center, LFE cutoff for 7.1.4, 7.1.6, 9.1.2, 9.1.4, 9.1.6 audio formats.

Highest Order Ambisonics up to 64 channels: Penteo adds 2ch / 3ch / 4ch UHJ plus 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th order AmbiX Ambisonics for advanced multispatial automatic encoding/decoding.

Penteo introduced automatic encoding/decoding for 1st – 3rd Order AmbiX and FuMa formats in 2021. Since then, Penteo has seen exponential growth in the use of Ambisonics particularly for social media audio, live-art installations gaming and VR/AR applications.

To meet this need, Penteo version 6 adds 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Order AmbiX up to 64 channels, plus Ambisonics 2ch, 3ch, 4ch UHJ. All can also be outputted in Binaural.  

Any supported Ambisonics format can be reversion to any of the 62 audio formats that Penteo now supports. This makes fast work to reversion any Atmos format up to 9.16 with Ambisonics, or reversion other immersive formats like Octophonic Cube or 360 Reality Audio with Ambisonics.

Direct Binaural Renderer:  Directly convert any of 62 audio formats to high-quality Binaural without the need for intermediate upmixing.

In response to the explosion in headphone use at the start of the pandemic, Penteo added the ability to upmix and then output high-quality binaural in 2021.  

Penteo version 6 adds a new direct binaural renderer to directly output any of the 62 supported audio formats without upmixing first by selecting the same input format as the same output format then enabling binaural.

Using an upmixer to output Binaural separate from Binaural in the Dolby Atmos or DAW Renderer has numerous benefits such as:

• Preview before render – ensure that the selected upmix will render in Binaural as desired.

• Remote monitoring – give the ability for stakeholders to hear and reference an immersive mix using headphones without needing to be in an expensive, physical studio.

• For composers the ability to compose directly in any immersive format and monitor on headphones.

• Home audiophiles can enjoy deeper immersive effects by listening to their music collections in higher formats than their installed speaker layout.

Advanced Immersive Sound Design Formats:  Penteo version 6 supports Octophonic 8ch Cube, hybrid Sony 360RA 16.0 and Atmos 7.0.7, plus non-LFE 9.0.6 and 7.0.6 formats broadening the possibilities for advanced gaming/VR/XR audio creation.

Penteo has seen tremendous growth in demand for Gaming and VR/XR audio creation in the past few years and based on customer requests have added:     

• Octophonic 8ch Cube (0.0.4+4B) – which utilises Rear fader to shift sound back/front and Upper fader to shift sounds from the top to bottom of the cube with additional controls for group/solo and muting.

• 360RA 7.0.7+2B hybrid format to provide maximum immersive fidelity to the upper channels.

• Non-LFE Dolby Atmos 9.0.6, 7.0.7 and 7.0.6 formats.  

Faster Audio Restoration:  With added support for LtRt, LCRS, LCRS + LFE, and 2.1 Stereo formats, Penteo version 6 accelerates reversioning of legacy formats to/from all current audio formats.

Many sound designers use Penteo to restore and reversion audio formats from legacy formats such as LtRt and LCRS into modern formats like Dolby Surround and Dolby, Atmos.  Restoration can also need reversioning from one legacy format to another.   

As a response to customer feature requests to allow for direct reversioning from legacy Dolby Pro Logic II formats, Penteo version 6 adds LtRt, LCRS, LCRS+LFE and 2.1 stereo as supported input/output legacy audio formats.

Penteo can now reversion legacy formats with any of the 62 supported audio formats found in Penteo version 6.

Plugin Interface Enhancements: An improved interface with two-level input/output format drop-down menus, multi-link faders, peak indicators and numerous auto-defaults to speed upmix/downmix workflows.

Penteo adds a series or controls and modes to automate repetitive tasks giving the sound designer more control over their audio format reversioning project:

• DAW Channel Order Autodetect – Penteo now automatically detects Pro Tools, Logic Pro and Steinberg DAW channel order formats and will select the correct input/output channel order. 

• Input/Output Channel Menu Improvements - Penteo has improved the DAW input/output channel order menu with expanded displays and labels for 8 different orders for Film, ITU, DTS, ITU/Alt Nuendo, Logic, Sony360RA, SMPTE, Auro

• Penteo supports all Atmos and Ambisonics format widths in Pro Tools for 9.1.6 / 9.0.6, 9.1.4 / 9.0.4, 7.1.6 / 7.0.6, 7.1.4 / 7.0.4, 5.1.4 / 5.0.4, 5.1.2 / 5.0.2 and Ambisonics: 4OA AmbiX / 5OA AmbiX / 6OA AmbiX /7OA AmbiX.

• Penteo supports Pro Tools integrated Dolby Atmos Renderer and is certified for 2024.3 Redesigned Penteo settings panel offering more default control over frequently used settings.

Penteo Pro+ in use

As you can see, this latest version is quite an extensive update, introducing a raft of new features and presets. Importantly though, what is Penteo Pro+ like to use, and how does it sound?

Having used other upmixers in the past, I was very interested to see how Penteo would compare. The key thing which I was never happy with in other upmix plugins was the fact that the sound would be altered. Working purely in surround, this wasn’t always a major problem, but it did create issues when those mixes were subsequently downmixed for stereo playback, as the upmixed components would never sound the same as they did to begin with, often presenting phase problems.

I spent several days trying out the latest version of Penteo Pro+ and quite honestly, it’s the best upmix plugin I’ve used, by quite some margin. I’m in the process of working on a 7.1 mix for a short film at the moment, and the music in the project was delivered to me in stereo. Using Penteo, I was able to spread this music into the surrounds in a way which sounded natural and, on testing the downmix, it does fold back down to stereo perfectly, true to their 100% ITU downmix compatibility claim. Adjusting the faders in the plugin re-distributes the energy from the original audio, not adding or subtracting from it, but spreading it as required while remaining true to the original sound.

Although I have access to a nice studio facility with an S6 and surround monitoring, at home I currently only have a stereo monitoring setup. It was nice, therefore, to be able to utilise the binaural functionality in Penteo to be able to monitor a surround mix over headphones. Whilst I wouldn’t do the final mix in this way, it’s more than good enough for provisional panning and balancing, and gives a good sense of the soundscape in cases where you need to work in a smaller studio or on a laptop. Whilst I didn’t have chance to test it, I can also see that this will be useful when clients need to remotely monitor a mix via headphones. Using Penteo to encode the mix to binaural is a good solution for this.

Penteo includes a visualiser display, which allows you to view a representation of how the sound energy is distributed throughout your room. This includes a 3D view whenever height channels are present. The visualiser supplements the level meters, providing an alternative visual display of what’s going in your mix.

Penteo is really a plugin which you need to try out for yourself to fully appreciate, but I’ve put together a short video showing some of the core functions in action, including the binaural encoding. Check it out: