Monitoring Preferences

Pick how Orbit drives your speakers or headphones. The Monitoring panel selects between the four monitoring modes — 7.1.4 speaker, Binaural headphones, Stereo fold-down, Apple Spatial Audio — and exposes the per-mode options that only make sense once that mode is selected. For a deeper guide on when each mode is appropriate, see Monitoring Modes.

Monitoring Mode

Four buttons in a 2×2 grid. The selected mode is highlighted; switching is instantaneous and does not interrupt playback.

7.1.4 — drive a full-immersive speaker rig directly. The audio engine renders to the 7.1.4 bus and routes channels straight to the device per the Audio panel's channel mapping. This is the reference monitoring mode — what the mix is supposed to sound like.

Binaural — render the same 7.1.4 bus to a stereo headphone feed via HRTF convolution. Useful when a 7.1.4 rig isn't available, or for cross-checking that a mix translates to headphones. Configurable below.

Stereo — fold the 7.1.4 bus down to stereo. Useful for translation checks and for monitoring on simple two-speaker setups. Stereo uses its own dedicated fold-down algorithm — it isn't one of the editable formats in the Downmix panel.

Apple Spatial Audio — route the 7.1.4 bus into the system's Apple Spatial Audio renderer (AVAudioEnvironmentNode). Plays back through AirPods or other Spatial-capable Apple devices with their native head-tracking. Configurable below.

Binaural options

Visible only when Monitoring Mode is set to Binaural.

HRTF Profile

The head-related transfer function used to convolve speaker signals into a binaural feed. Orbit ships several built-in profiles (Orbit Reference, Orbit Studio, Harman, KEMAR, KU100) that differ in their measurement source and tonal balance. Custom SOFA-format HRTFs can also be loaded from the sidebar. Default is Orbit Studio.

Picking a profile

The measurement-based profiles (Reference, SADIE II KU100, SADIE II KEMAR) faithfully reproduce what you'd hear monitoring on a real 7.1.4 rig — including a slightly quieter centre channel that any physical room produces. Studio is synthesised to be level-balanced and is the easier read for centre-critical QC. See Monitoring → Why the centre sounds quieter on measurement-based HRTFs for per-profile numbers and picking guidance.

Rendering Mode

Legacy uses a fixed lookup table at the 12 ADM speaker positions and applies the nearest one for each source — fast and predictable. Interpolated smoothly interpolates between adjacent measured directions so an object moving across the sphere produces a continuous spatial cue rather than discrete jumps. Default is Interpolated.

Binaural Limiter

A short look-ahead limiter (5 ms, −1 dBTP threshold) on the binaural output. Catches transient peaks from HRTF convolution that might otherwise clip headphones. Leave on unless you have a specific reason to bypass it.

Binaural Trim

Applies a −3 dB compensation to account for the multi-channel summing that happens when 12 speaker feeds collapse into two ears. Without it, binaural can feel hot relative to the 7.1.4 source. Leave on unless you're calibrating against a specific reference.

Apple Spatial Audio options

Visible only when Monitoring Mode is set to Apple Spatial Audio.

Mode

Three options that map to AVFoundation's spatial audio modes:

• Headtracked Personalized — the default. Uses the device's head-tracking and the listener's personalized HRTF (set up via Settings → Bluetooth on iOS / macOS) for the most accurate spatial image.
• Static — same renderer, but head-tracking disabled. The image stays locked to the device rather than the world.
• AUX — bypasses Apple's spatial renderer and outputs the stereo fold-down to AirPods as if they were a regular stereo pair.

Volume

A −60 dB to +12 dB gain offset applied before Apple's renderer, in 0.5 dB steps. Apple's spatial renderer is a closed system whose internal level can be slightly different to the speaker bus; this control gives you a way to compensate when comparing across modes.

Solo behaviour

Solo in Pairs — when soloing a stereo-paired channel (L, R, Ls, Rs, etc.), automatically include its partner. Off by default. Useful when you want to audition the side channels in isolation without losing stereo information; off when you want truly per-channel solo control.

See also

• Monitoring Modes — the feature guide, with notes on which mode is appropriate for which task.
• Headphone EQ — the EQ chain applied after binaural rendering.
• Head Tracking — head-tracking sources and sensitivity (active in Binaural mode with head tracking enabled).
• Audio — the device and channel mapping that the speaker mode uses.
• Downmix — the fold-down coefficients that the Stereo mode uses.