Orbit Docs

What's New in v1.4.0 ​

Released 2026-04-28 — the largest update since launch.

Orbit 1.4 introduces Orbit Pro, the first edition of Orbit that authors as well as inspects. Pro starts that journey with IAMF / Eclipsa export so you can render Eclipsa-compatible deliverables straight from your ADM master, and adds full video sync and multi-track editing, a robust Sessions project format, per-track markers, and multi-format outputs below 7.1.4.

Everyone — Standard and Pro — gets native IAMF / Eclipsa playback, Higher-Order Ambisonics, a parametric Headphone EQ with 18+ new presets, a redesigned Preferences window, and a DAW-style waveform view that scales from full-file overview to single-sample inspection.

A 14-day Pro Trial is also available so any account can evaluate the full Pro feature set.

How to read this page

Sections labelled (Pro) are part of Orbit Pro. Everything else is included in the free Orbit Standard edition. See the overview for a full Standard / Pro breakdown.

Highlights ​

  • IAMF / Eclipsa Audio — native v2.0 import and playback for everyone; (Pro) export with mix presentations, scalable layers, and per-target loudness.
  • Video sync & multi-track editing (Pro) — full timeline with up to 4 lanes, fades, razor, drag-and-drop import, scrub-while-paused.
  • Higher-Order Ambisonics — playback, monitoring, 3D visualisation, and BS.2076-3 ADM metadata for ambisonic content.
  • Sessions overhaul (Pro) — track-waveform pre-scan, broken-bundle detection, automatic media relinking, session lockfile.
  • Markers & comments (Pro) — per-track markers with stable numbering, ⇧M shortcut, CSV / PDF / IAMF-PDF report export.
  • Headphone EQ — parametric compensation engine, 5-band user tone stack, ±18 dB range, 18+ new presets.
  • Preferences redesign — full Cmd+, window with 11 sections, visual grids, inline camera preview for Head Tracking.
  • DAW-style waveform view — unified renderer across all views, sample-accurate detail at deep zoom, configurable indexing speed.
  • Pro Trial — 14 days of full Orbit Pro for any account.

Authoring (Pro) ​

This is the headline shift in 1.4: Orbit Pro can now produce deliverables, not just inspect them. Authoring starts with IAMF / Eclipsa.

IAMF / Eclipsa Audio export (Pro) ​

A complete IAMF v2.0 export pipeline arrives in Pro, with everything needed to ship Eclipsa-compatible deliverables:

  • Mix presentations, scalable layers, contextual render targets, optional rendered Channel-Based Audio Element.
  • Quality presets for Opus (low / medium / high) with sensible defaults.
  • Pan-law picker, 7.1.4 promotion toggle, and explicit opt-in for scalable layers (so files only get them when you want them).
  • Per-target measured loudness displayed in the post-export summary, labelled "per target layout".
  • Listen-as preview card with in-card transport, scrubber, and time readout — audition any mix presentation before exporting.
  • Pro binaural export toggle writes a stereo binaural rendering of your selected mix presentation alongside (or instead of) the multichannel master.
  • Cmd+R shortcut for the export sheet, settings persist on Cancel, partial files are deleted on failure.

See ADM to IAMF Exporting for the full walkthrough.

Video sync & multi-track editing (Pro) ​

A complete video subsystem replaces the earlier video preview with a full timeline-style editor:

  • Multi-track composition — up to 4 video lanes with snapping, undo/redo, lane-aware razor, fade tool with handle line and triangle preview, instant drop geometry, marquee select, and a clip colour picker.
  • Drag-and-drop import from the video sidebar straight to the timeline, with optimistic move geometry that snaps on release.
  • Filmstrip thumbnails are cached per-segment, so scrubbing stays instant when you reopen a session.
  • Scrub-while-paused, frame-accurate seeks, and an end-of-timeline cursor.
  • Show black during gaps — the composite clears to black when no clip is under the playhead.
  • Right-click context menu on clips: Show in Finder, Remove from Project.
  • Pop-out video window for second-display monitoring.
  • Video Playback Quality preference — Better Quality (full-resolution compositing) or Better Performance (half-resolution upscaled on display).
  • Proxy media and batch import keep large projects fluid to load and edit.
  • Audio imports are blocked when a video is already loaded — keeps the project's intent clear.
  • Clean session reset — re-opening a session always starts from a clean slate.

Video export (Pro) ​

  • Render fades and multi-lane crossfades when exporting muxed MP4 with IAMF or PCM audio.
  • A long-standing crash on session load is fixed.

Project & inspection (Pro) ​

The QC features that need a project on disk to make sense.

Sessions (Pro) ​

Sessions (.orbsession) become a robust project format:

  • Track-waveform pre-scan — when you open a session, every track is indexed in advance so timeline scrolling and inspect views are immediate.
  • Broken-bundle detection with automatic media relinking when files have moved.
  • Session lockfile prevents two Orbit instances from corrupting the same bundle.
  • Cache integrity — waveform and peak data live alongside the session and are tidied up on save-as.
  • Autosave off by default with an explicit dirty indicator (it can still be re-enabled in Preferences).
  • Auto-load first track when opening a session; restored loop regions are clamped to the file duration so they're always valid.
  • Session files save as .orbsession — the previous double-extension bug on new / save-as is fixed.
  • Session sandbox extends to recents — sessions are filtered out of the Standard-tier recents list.

Markers & comments (Pro) ​

A first-class markers system:

  • Per-track markers with stable creation-order numbering.
  • ⇧M shortcut to drop a marker at the playhead.
  • Marker CSV export for spreadsheet review.
  • Marker PDF export with creation-order # rows linked to objects/tracks.
  • IAMF PDF report — structural cover, IAMF-native object cards, real position graphs, full marker list, and channel-based preview drawn from the bed configuration at load time.

Looping (Pro) ​

Looping was already a Pro feature, but the toggle is now properly disabled in Standard preferences with a clear "Looping requires Orbit Pro" hint. The playhead also teleports on loop wrap instead of sliding back, eliminating a one-frame visual glitch.

Object detail / Inspect (Pro) ​

  • Object detail waveform view with tabbed timeline (waveform, position, width).
  • Correct zoom up to 64×, fixed Y-axis inversion, yellow path line.
  • Tiered height, dismissable tabs, zoom-correct seek; the panel is now called Inspect.

Multichannel output formats (Pro) ​

5.1.4 / 5.1 / Quad and other formats below 7.1.4 remain Pro-gated, with a format-aware gate, auto-clamp, and real post-downmix meters in the loudness panel.

Standard — included for everyone ​

Everything below ships in the free Orbit Standard edition.

IAMF / Eclipsa Audio playback ​

Native, format-aware decoding for IAMF / Eclipsa content:

  • Full v2.0 spec-compliant decoder — substream demuxing, layer reconstruction, mix renderer.
  • Streaming decode — no full-file load, even for large files.
  • Substream sharing for memory-efficient multi-element files.
  • Scalable layer monitoring — audition any layer in real time.
  • Per-element waveforms in the sidebar, using the same indexing pipeline as ADM.
  • Auto-select Distributed for HOA-only or small-bed imports.
  • Format-aware terminology — ADM vs IAMF labels are no longer mixed.
  • Refuse import of v2.0 files Orbit can't render correctly, with a clear error.
  • IAMF Position Smoothing toggle in Preferences for object trajectories.
  • Sphere room shape for IAMF 3D visualisation.
  • Solo / mute labels are format-aware for IAMF content.

Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA) ​

Inspection, monitoring, and visualisation for ambisonic content up to high orders:

  • BS.2076-3 metadata parsed and shown in the sidebar — order, degree, normalization.
  • 3D ambisonic field visualisation.
  • Concentric ring visualisation in the 3D scene.
  • Auto-switch to polar view when HOA content is detected.
  • Sidebar Ambisonics card with collapsible groups, smooth expand/collapse, and ACN channel names.
  • Ambisonics groups in the Activity grid and PDF exports.
  • AllRAD weighting toggle — None / Single Band / Dual Band — in Preferences.
  • Ambisonic sphere colour-by-volume — Off / Theme / Heatmap / Viridis.
  • Inspect view for Ambisonics with unified detail-waveform indexing.
  • HOA → Ambisonics rename throughout the UI; FOA reserved for first order.

Headphone EQ ​

  • Parametric compensation engine with a curated preset library.
  • 5-band user tone stack with a live response-curve overlay.
  • ±18 dB range per band.
  • Inline search in the preset picker, with a wider Preferences sidebar.
  • 18 new presets — Meze, HiFiMAN, Slate VSX, Sony MV1, Audeze, Focal, Neumann, DCA, Shure, plus the existing studio reference set.
  • Future preset additions ship with engine updates.

Preferences window ​

A dedicated window (Cmd+,) replaces the old menu-driven settings:

  • 11 sections — Audio, Downmix, Spatial, Monitoring, Headphone EQ, Appearance, Metering, Timecode, Head Tracking, Sessions, Performance.
  • Card-based design with coloured section icons, full-width sidebar, dark theme.
  • Visual grids for output devices, channel routing, room shapes, waveform themes, and meter scales — picking a theme shows you the colours, not just the name.
  • Audio device picker grid with smart icons and a refresh control.
  • Inline camera preview for Head Tracking, with face / eyes / nose / centroid detection and live tracker output.
  • Audio and monitoring settings persist across sessions.
  • Pro-only controls greyed out with clear "requires Orbit Pro" hints in Standard.
  • Pro trial users get the full Pro Preferences experience for the trial duration.
  • Configure Outputs menu now opens the Preferences → Audio section instead of a separate window.

DAW-style waveform view ​

A unified renderer powers every waveform view:

  • Pinned label gutter that stays fixed while the timeline scrolls.
  • Resizable label gutter with a grab-handle affordance.
  • Min/max stroke rendering — Reaper-style two-tone peaks.
  • Wheel-zoom stays responsive at all zoom levels.
  • Sample-accurate detail at deep zoom — beyond peak-cache resolution, Orbit reads PCM directly.
  • Peak caches persist between launches — opening a previously-indexed file is instant.
  • User-configurable indexing speed — Smooth / Balanced / Fast.
  • All Tracks view with DAW-fluid resizable rows.
  • Spatial waveform per-group tiles, with fast solo toggling.
  • Multichannel default palette that matches the spatial gradient family.
  • Tracks panel — IAMF support, sorting, and a dedicated Audio Bin.
  • Multichannel waveform now renders correctly for HOA and other non-7.1.4 content.

Visualisation & UI polish ​

  • Responsive header — icon-only buttons at narrow widths.
  • Responsive timeline toolbar — two-row layout when space is tight.
  • Always-compact header with two-row timeline.
  • Compact 2-column bed grid in the ADM sidebar.
  • Wider Solos & Mutes panel with single-row speakers and stacked Solo/Mute buttons.
  • Head tracking widget moved from the header to the sidebar Monitoring tab — only shows in binaural mode.
  • Suppress Bed UI for non-channel-based files; grey out unavailable Solos & Mutes tiles.
  • Polar/Cartesian rendering is now consistent on the unit sphere; manual turntable orbit pins to the listener with a level horizon.
  • Master fader drag responsiveness restored.
  • Track auto-advance defaults to off to match expectations on multi-track playlists.
  • Welcome screen is now shown to all editions, with a docs-site link and a Pro entry screen for licensed users.
  • Early Access (Beta) marker on beta builds.

Performance ​

  • High-DPI fluidity for the spatial waveform view.
  • Synchronised 60 Hz updates — playhead, metrics, and 3D scene stay in lockstep.
  • Jitter-free window resize.
  • Smoother 3D drag — playhead and solo/mute animations are suppressed during drag for a cleaner interaction.

Licensing & trial ​

  • Pro Trial edition — 14 days of full Pro features for any account, started from the Welcome screen or the License pane in Preferences.
  • Pro app icon swaps in automatically when a Pro license is detected, and persists across launches.
  • Clock-tamper guard keeps the trial period honest without grief if your system clock changes.

Existing Pro license keys from 1.3.x continue to work. Standard licenses remain Standard — upgrade to Pro at any time without reinstalling the app.

Notable fixes ​

  • IAMF export "Merge All" now produces correct object names, positions, and ordering.
  • Object solo now matches the right object even when names collide.
  • ADM bug that misplaced objects after HOA components on import is fixed.
  • IAMF v1.1 object-position support and import display fixes.
  • IAMF Opus multi-layer demixing and channel routing fixes.
  • Eliminated a double-seek when scrubbing IAMF content.
  • Failed IAMF imports now roll back instead of leaving a broken sidebar entry.
  • IAMF sidebar waveform now indexes correctly for all element types.
  • The main view no longer becomes unresponsive after an IAMF export.
  • Session files now save as .orbsession, not .orbsession.orbsession.
  • Better resize-handle grab affordance; scrubbing is suppressed during a resize.
  • Playhead snaps to the current transport time when the layout changes.
  • Fade triangle now aligns correctly with the handle line.
  • Long-fade waveform tile seams fixed; the idle 3D scene no longer re-renders unnecessarily.
  • Video frame is cleared when playback stops or segments are removed.
  • The macOS Gatekeeper first-launch warning carried over from 1.3.1 stays fixed.

Upgrading ​

Orbit 1.4.0 is a free update for existing users. The minimum macOS version is unchanged (macOS 14 Sonoma). Apple Silicon native; runs on Intel via Rosetta where available.

  • From 1.3.x with a Pro key: existing license continues to work, full Pro features unlock.
  • From 1.3.x without a Pro key: you stay on Standard; start a 14-day Pro Trial from the Welcome screen if you want to evaluate Pro.

Orbit documentation by South Loop Studios

© 2026 South Loop Studios