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What's New in v1.5

Orbit 1.5 is the biggest release since launch — a full timeline, a built-in video editor, a completely rebuilt IAMF / Eclipsa export, a rebuilt QC PDF report, and, in 1.5.2, OSLS — a customisable speaker output system that drives any layout up to 64 channels.

This page covers the whole 1.5 line: 1.5.0, 1.5.1, and 1.5.2.

How to read this page

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


Highlights

  • A full timeline (Pro) — your entire master on one timeline: beds, objects and stems as colour-coded waveforms, with per-track soloing, looping and markers.
  • A built-in video editor (Pro) — fast scrubbing, proxy generation and up to 4K, with text and graphic tools, for material bound for IAMF / Eclipsa.
  • A rebuilt IAMF / Eclipsa export (Pro) — a full audio-routing graph, auto-route presets, and Mix Presentations for alternate mixes.
  • OSLS — the Orbit Speaker Layout System — output to any custom speaker layout up to 64 channels, from one open-source .osls file. Read more.
  • Per-speaker solo, mute & groups (Pro) — a new Monitor view with top-down, side and 3D layouts.
  • A rebuilt QC PDF report — proper A4 pagination, a live preview, and (Pro) a full album workflow. Read more.
  • Loudness, powered by Cota — the footer loudness section rebuilt on Cota's engine, with a reworked 5.1 re-render pathway. Read more.
  • New privacy controls — optional, first-party usage data via Downlink, opt in or out any time. Read more.
  • Performance across the board — lower CPU and memory use throughout.

1.5.0 — the biggest release yet

Released 2026-06-22.

A full timeline (Pro)

Orbit Pro 1.5 puts your entire master on one timeline — beds, objects and stems as colour-coded waveforms, with per-track soloing, looping and markers. Spot a silent object, read automation, scrub anywhere. The 3D scene and activity grid dock to the right, live as the file plays. See Timeline & Transport.

A built-in video editor (Pro)

Cutting a music video or podcast bound for IAMF / Eclipsa? Orbit Pro 1.5 includes a genuinely capable editor — fast scrubbing, proxy generation and up to 4K, with text and graphic tools. Don't need to edit? Drag your video in and go. See Video.

Quite possibly the world's most advanced IAMF export (Pro)

Take an ADM, EBU or Atmos master to IAMF / Eclipsa through a full audio-routing graph. Go fast with auto-route presets — YouTube, the upcoming Esfera platform, Full Master — or take complete control. Hear exactly how the file will sound as objects fold into First-Order Ambisonics elements, and craft Mix Presentations for alternate mixes: no-vocals, different languages, and more. See ADM to IAMF Exporting.

Read any master at a glance

The Overview has been refined — session waveforms across the top, the activity grid and 3D scene side by side, full metering below — plus a brand-new real-time analyser: fluid, clear and detailed.

Object Activity (Pro)

Not new to 1.5 — it's been in Orbit Pro since 1.4 — but it deserves a mention. Object Activity is a dedicated Pro window that lays out every object in your master and traces its movement in real time. View trajectories top-down or in polar azimuth/elevation, alongside each object's waveform and live position. It's the fastest way to understand what a complex mix is actually doing.


1.5.1 — a rebuilt QC PDF report

Released 2026-06-24.

A brand-new QC PDF report

The PDF report has been rebuilt from the ground up: cleaner, more readable pages with proper A4 pagination, polished loudness and waveform graphics, and a live preview as you set it up.

  • Orbit (Standard) gets the full rebuilt report for per-track export.
  • Orbit Pro adds the complete album workflow — an album cover and contents page, whole-album export, and batch exporting.

See QC PDF Report for the full walkthrough.

New privacy controls

Orbit can now share optional, privacy-first usage data — purely to help us see which features matter most. It's never tied to your account, name or projects, and it stays in-house: the data goes to Downlink, our own analytics platform built specifically for Orbit. No third parties, and we will never sell or share your data.

You'll see a one-time notice on first launch, and you can opt out (or back in) any time under Preferences ▸ Privacy. See Data & Privacy.

Smoother session handling

  • Double-clicking a session in Finder now opens it correctly.
  • Opening a file cleanly replaces what you had open — offering to save first if there are unsaved changes.
  • There's now a clear way back to the home screen.

1.5.2 — "Anything Is Possible"

Released 2026-07-03.

OSLS — the Orbit Speaker Layout System

OSLS is a fully customisable speaker output system. Any layout you can describe, Orbit will output to it — up to 64 channels. 10.1.4, 22.2, Auro, a 30-speaker dome: if you can describe it, Orbit can drive it. Format mapping from ADM and IAMF is automatic.

OSLS replaces hardcoded, duplicated speaker tables with one human-readable .osls file per layout plus a small SDK — a single source of truth across native, browser, Windows and mobile. Build your own in the browser 3D designer at osls.io.

OSLS is fully open source under the Apache 2.0 license. The spec, JSON Schema, blessed layouts and reference SDKs (TypeScript, C ABI, Swift, WASM) are on GitHub. See OSLS.

Solo, mute and group — right on the speakers (Pro)

The new Monitor view in Orbit Pro lets you solo, mute, and build custom groups across the new multichannel output system. Top-down, side and 3D views; click any speaker to solo it, or use the sidebar. The footer carries your custom solo groups across every view. See Monitor View.

Loudness, powered by Cota

The loudness section in the footer has been restyled and rebuilt to display Powered by Cota. Cota is our dedicated loudness plugin and framework — we've brought its look, feel and clarity into Orbit, and reworked the 5.1 re-render pathway for more accurate metering. See Loudness.

On immersive loudness

Orbit uses its own renderer — exactly what lets it play back any immersive format independently (Atmos masters, EBU ADM, IAMF, and more). Loudness won't line up perfectly with another renderer such as the Dolby Atmos Renderer; that's the nature of immersive, so test on every renderer you can. Orbit's loudness is verified against the standard tests in ITU-R BS.1770, EBU R128 and more.

Also in 1.5.2

  • The PDF viewer has been refined — bed- and object-only loudness selection has been removed, and everything from the 1.5.1 beta has been pulled across.
  • You can now delete cable connections between ADM sources and IAMF elements in the IAMF / Eclipsa export window — hold Option and click a connection to delete it.
  • Performance updates across the board — CPU and memory usage kept as low as possible.

Orbit, or Orbit Pro?

The marquee additions in 1.5 — the full timeline, the built-in video editor and the rebuilt ADM → IAMF export — are part of Orbit Pro. Orbit (Standard) lands the 1.5 foundation too, including OSLS output layouts, the rebuilt QC report for per-track export, and performance refinements across the board — and remains the most flexible way to play back, inspect and QC ADM and IAMF masters in 7.1.4, binaural and stereo.

See the overview for the full breakdown.


Upgrading

Orbit 1.5 is a free update for existing users. The minimum macOS version is unchanged (macOS 14 Sonoma); Apple Silicon native, with Intel via Rosetta where available. Existing Pro licence keys continue to work; Standard licences remain Standard and can upgrade to Pro at any time.

Looking for the previous release notes? See What's New in v1.4.0.

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