Audio Preferences

The Audio panel is where you tell Orbit which physical output device to use, what speaker layout to render to, and how the rendered channels map to that device's outputs. It's the first place to check whenever you plug into a new interface or move between studios.

Output device

Pick the audio interface you want to monitor through. The grid lists every device CoreAudio reports, with each card showing the device name and its channel count. Selecting a device with fewer channels than the active output format triggers a "Mode Unavailable" warning — that's your cue to either pick a different format or pick a different device.

Refresh Devices rescans CoreAudio without restarting Orbit. Useful after hot-plugging a USB or Thunderbolt interface.

Output format

Choose the speaker layout Orbit renders to. The picker covers everything from full immersive (7.1.4) down to stereo (2.0).

The active format becomes the source of truth for the rest of the audio pipeline — meters, downmix coefficients, and the channel mapping grid all key off it. Switching formats is non-destructive: you can move between layouts mid-session without reloading the file.

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The 7.1.4 bus is always rendered internally regardless of the chosen format. Smaller formats are derived from it via the Downmix algorithms, so what you hear in stereo is the same mix you'd hear in 7.1.4, summed deterministically.

Channel mapping

The mapping grid shows each channel of the active output format on the left and the device output it routes to on the right. By default, channels map 1:1 to the device's outputs in the standard ADM order (L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs, Lrs, Rrs, Ltf, Rtf, Ltb, Rtb).

If two channels accidentally map to the same device output, the conflicting rows highlight in orange and the affected output won't render correctly until the conflict is resolved. Reset to Default restores the canonical 1:1 mapping for the active format and clears any custom routing.

Stereo output routing

When Orbit folds 7.1.4 down to stereo — either for the Stereo monitoring mode or as the carrier for the Binaural rendering — the L and R channels need to land on a pair of physical outputs. The Stereo Output Routing pickers let you choose which two outputs to use.

This section is hidden on devices with fewer than two outputs. On a multi-output interface this is how you route the binaural feed to a dedicated headphone amp output that's separate from your speaker rig.

Routing presets

Channel mappings, format choices, and stereo routing combine into a lot of state — and that state typically wants to follow you between studios rather than be re-entered every session. The preset menu saves the whole bundle as a named entry.

• Save — overwrite the currently-loaded preset (or save a new one if none is loaded).
• Save As — save with a new name, prompting for input.
• Load — pick a previously saved preset. If the saved device isn't connected, or the connected device has too few channels, Orbit warns you and offers an alternative device picker rather than silently failing.
• Delete — listed under each preset's submenu in the Load menu.

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A typical preset library: one preset per studio you visit, plus a "headphones" preset for working from a laptop. Switching between them takes one click.

See also

• Downmix — the algorithms that derive smaller layouts from the 7.1.4 bus.
• Monitoring — switching between speaker, binaural, stereo, and Apple Spatial monitoring.
• Monitoring Modes — the feature itself, including when each mode is appropriate.