Ambisonics with Mixbus, Ardour and Ray Session

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LodeRunner
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Ambisonics with Mixbus, Ardour and Ray Session

Post by LodeRunner »

Hi all,

recently I made a live recording of an acoustic ensemble. I placed an Ambisonics Recorder on stage and also recorded some additional close Mics. Now, I want to piece everything together and deliver it as an UHJ or binaural Mix. My Setup is as follows:
  • All tracks are played back by Mixbus32C. It can play back 4ch tracks but the mixer is strictly stereo.
  • The Ambisonics recording is routed to tetraproc for conversion to B-Format and then routed to Ardour
  • Close Mics are also routed to Ardour
  • All Ambisonics panning is handled by Ardour, then routed to AmbDec for decoding to the Speakers.
This obviously calls for Session Management, and (using LibraZiK), I decided to try @houston4444's Ray Session. It seems to be a great tool with (among other things) excellent documentation in 3 languages and a wonderful patchbay.

Now, I have some questions: ;)
  • I'd like to start Mixbus through Ray Session. How can I do that?
  • When I start Ardour through Ray Session, it is configured to use a two channel Master Bus. How can I circumvent that?
  • Would it be possible to start Mixbus before Ardour? This way Mixbus would grab the Controller.
  • Do you have suggestions for a flexible monitoring solution to switch between Quad output, UHJ-Encoded stereo out and a binaural Headphones Mix?
There seems to have been a script (mentioned here) to import an existing Ardour session into Ray Session, but this seems gone. Could this help with the first two Questions?


Thanks a lot in advance!
Loderunner
houston4444
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Re: Ambisonics with Mixbus, Ardour and Ray Session

Post by houston4444 »

Hi. first, thanks for your thanks !
  • to start Mixbus through RaySession, simply click on "executable" (Ctrl+E), and type 'mixbus' (or 'Mixbus')
  • unfortunately there is no possibility to use directly directly ardour templates in RaySession, but you can just launch Ardour in RaySession, setup your Master Bus, save, and save the ardour client as template (right click on ardour client -> save as template). Then your template is available in RaySession applications window with the good properties
  • yes it is possible, I see two ways:
    • add to your ~/bin/ a bash executable named 'slow_ardour.sh', inside write this

      Code: Select all

      #!/bin/bash
      sleep 2 # wait 2 seconds
      exec ardour "$@"
      set this file executable, and configure 'slow_ardour.sh' as executable for ardour client (in RaySession)
    • use session scripts
      make a folder named 'ray-scripts' in your session
      inside make a file 'load.sh' with this contents:

      Code: Select all

      #!/bin/bash
      ray_control open_session_off
      ray_control client mixbus open
      ray_control client ardour open
      replace 'mixbus' and 'ardour' with the client_ids of your clients.
  • If you mean, in the ardour session, without closing/re-open an ardour session, I suggest to try to work with Ardour Lua Scripts, or via OSC (for example with oscsend CLI).
houston4444
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Re: Ambisonics with Mixbus, Ardour and Ray Session

Post by houston4444 »

I forgot to say that ardour session import script has been moved to https://github.com/Houston4444/RaySessi ... ty-scripts
That said, on Librazik, you will find this script in

Code: Select all

/usr/share/raysession/scripts/
.
The script has been moved because next RaySession release will contain menu entries in GUI to run this kind of scripts.

I think you can use also the script for your Mixbus session, simply at the end, change the executable in the client properties.
LodeRunner
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Re: Ambisonics with Mixbus, Ardour and Ray Session

Post by LodeRunner »

Hello @houston4444,

thanks a lot for replying. The script actually was not on my computer, but it was no problem to download it from github. If I understood that correctly, it doesn't add an existing Ardour session to a existing Ray Session but creates a new Ray Session named like the Ardour Session.

So, in the future, I will create an Ardour Session with four channels on the Master Bus first. Then run the script. This will create a Ray Session and open it. Here, I can add Mixbus as an executable and the other Programs. Does that seem correct? When I launch Ardour in Ray Session I cannot setup the Master Bus.

As for the delayed Ardour start: The load.sh doesn't change anything. Ardour starts up faster and grabs the controller. I'm not sure how I could change the Ardour executable in the existing Ray Session so I didn't try the slow_ardour-approach. The problem was that I wanted to start/stop playback even if the Mixbus window didn't have the focus. I solved this by syncing Mixbus and Ardour via Jack.

All in all: Thanks a lot for your help! Now everything starts up and gets connected with a single click. Just how it should be.
houston4444
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Re: Ambisonics with Mixbus, Ardour and Ray Session

Post by houston4444 »

If I understood that correctly, it doesn't add an existing Ardour session to a existing Ray Session but creates a new Ray Session named like the Ardour Session.
Yes. I have done this script this way because it seems to me to be the most common case. But adding an option to the script to load an existing ardour session to the running ray session would be very fast and easy, do you want me to do that ?
When I launch Ardour in Ray Session I cannot setup the Master Bus.
I think you can. In the mixer, in the master track click on the second button just below the track name, in the context menu, choose "Routing Grid'. The routing dialog appears, right click on the bottom "Master In" and choose "add audio port".
As for the delayed Ardour start: The load.sh doesn't change anything. Ardour starts up faster and grabs the controller.
It should works. are you sure the load.sh has execution rights ? Are "session scripts" enabled in RaySession ? but TBH, I think the solution changing the ardour executable is simplest.
To change ardour executable, click on Ardour icon client in RaySession -> client properties. A dialog appears, in the NSM tab, you can change the ardour executable.
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