meet Ora the world's first immersive audio interface and monitor controller in this video we're going to show you how to get started and cover the basics of using Ora in your workflow whether you're using it on its own or as a monitor controller in a more complex configuration firstly we're going to download the drivers for Ora from the audience website the link is down in the description and can also be found by going to audi.com and finding AA in the menu under products and monitor controllers
and then going to the download section found in the sub menu make sure to select the driver that matches your OS Oro supports both Mac and windows we highly recommend you download the drivers even when using AA as a monitor controller it's worth noting in order to access all of Ora's imersive monitor control Ora needs to be connected to a computer via USB double click on the install icon and follow the instructions to get the software installed next Once the software is installed open the Oreo
software power on Oreo and plug in the USB cable at this point a dialog box May pop up recommending that you update the firmware to the latest version We highly recommend that you do so as there may be new features simply follow the instructions on screen as seen here the process takes a couple of minutes and once up updated the Oreo software will initialize and the controls will become available now follow the onscreen setup process you will be asked to set your desired brightness settings usin
g a control wheel the brightness control affects how bright Ora Hardware LEDs are next you will be prompted to select your desired function button setting choose the function you desire and select finish setup is now complete before we start using AA now is a good time to plug in the rest of the cables and get Ora installed in place the surround outputs can either be connected via TRS or AES outputs depending on your preference if you are using the TRS surround output connections your analog spe
akers are connected bya TRS Jacks the same applies to both dedicated stereo outputs connect the speakers matching each speaker position to its designated output connection found on on the rear of Ora if you're using a setup such as 7.1.4 which doesn't use every connection you will notice that there are some gaps in the speaker layout to match the Dolby Atmos standards as in this example you wouldn't be using wide speakers or Central height speakers if you're using the AES outputs be aware that o
ur setup uses eight male XLR outputs on the same db25 Loop boom to provide 16 outputs which is different from the usual AES specifications we will cover how to configure custom AES routing in the software overview video linked down in the description if you are planning to use AA as a monitor controller taking Source signal from an external interface via Adat plug this in now using the Adat inputs however if you are using Ora as an all-in-one inter interace and would like to use the Adat inputs
for adding external preamps connect these now via the Adat inputs if using multiple pieces of digital equipment to ensure your clocking is stable we recommend using word clock over BNC so connect the word clock cables now at this point ensure Ora is powered on and Power on your speakers open up the Oreo software app we will cover this in more detail later but the first thing we need to do is Select our input source and outputs look at the monitoring panel found in the top left of the Oro softwar
e this is where we choose the input source if using Ora Standalone as a USB interface taking the audio Source directly from the computer select USB if using AA as an external monitor controller via the Adat inputs select the Adat option from the dropdown menu in the monitoring panel you will also find the master output volume control we can turn up the volume with the volume control here or with the control wheel on the front of the unit be careful not to turn this up too high before testing for
audio signals if you are using AA in a monitor controller configuration it will also be necessary at this point to open up the system tab at the top right of the software and find the preferred clock Source section and change this to either ADOT or word clock depending on your preferred setup as the lock will likely be determined by your master interface now we have our inputs and outputs connected we recommend testing your system's outputs to ensure everything is connected correctly there are
several ways to generate test signals one way we recommend is using a door you can use a signal source as test material such as an oscillator or a noise sample in this example we're going to use Pro Tools and generate the signal via its oscillator if you are more familiar with another door this process will work in any modern door with a new project in Pro Tools we have to go to the setup menu and Playback engine and make sure that audience Ora is set as the playback engine and hit okay here nex
t for our testing we will make mono buses in our IO section for each one of our outputs this is just for testing purposes and may not be needed later on let's go to the setup menu and IO and in the output section at the top tab we can add new paths with the New Path button here create 16 new mono outputs add default Channel assignments and autocreate related bus paths let's hit create and we can select all of these with shift and click and drag them along so that they are all defined using the o
utputs 1 to 16 from from Ora we can also delete all of the other paths out of the output if we are testing if you already have enough paths in your Protools IO to be testing all 16 outputs then do so as your setup requires firstly create a new audio track and load the oscillator into the insert effect section which is under multim mono Plug-In or the signal generator and then we will change the output of this oscillator track to be mono using output One Mono in this case we can hear a sine wave
being generated by the signal generator I could change this to a noise sample and if I turn up the master volume on Oreo in the case of the surround outputs this should generate audio via the front left speaker and if everything is working correctly then you should hear sound from the front left now repeat this process methodically if you change the output of the oscillator track from output one to Output two this should change the output to the audio to the front right channel both on the meter
ing in the Oro software and from our front right speaker repeat this process for each output in turn checking that the level appears correctly in the Oro software and comes from the correct speaker if you are using Oro in a monitor controller configuration keep in mind that the channel numbers in your door may be offset as an example here I have an id44 as an external main interface and we can see that the first eight outputs are the id44 analog outputs then the optical outputs are designated fo
llowing that in this example Ora's first output channel is rooted from Channel 9 on the id44 and we can see here in Protools that this output output 9 is labeled as matching with a one make a note of the channel number configuration as when we're setting up the Dolby Atmos renderer we will need to know the channel layout for the renderer speaker assignments once your channel outputs are tested we recommend recommend setting up your Dolby Atmos renderer for use when mixing immersive audio in this
video we will firstly focus on the Standalone Dolby Atmos renderer and connecting it to AA in a single computer setup and in this case on Mac firstly change the audio engine in Protools to be Dolby audio bridge this will send audio either as a bed Channel or an object depending on your working method for the purposes of testing audio set the oscillator to channel one leave Protools open in the background open the Dolby audio renderer and open its preferences menu select Dolby audio Bridge as th
e audio input device and select AA as the audio output device unless using Ora as a monitor controller in which case select your main interface here at the bottom of this setup page make sure speaker outputs are on then close the preferences by pressing accept then we're going to setup and room setup in the top menu bar from here Define the speaker setup that you are using by default the layout for 91.6 is lit up by clicking on the speakers that you are not using you can set the renderer to matc
h your speaker configuration for example if I were to deselect the wide speakers and the top mid speakers this would now reflect a 7.1.4 setup go to the rooting tab at the top of this window and you can see the speaker number definitions which should match the corresponding outputs on Ora if in the monitor controller configuration change these numbers to reflect the chosen output channels on your your master interface as noted in the previous section click accept go to file new master file and m
ake a test file press okay from here the monitoring path should be set to physical and the input master switch should be set to input switch back to Protools and now test the oscillator through channels one and two by default the Dolby renderer has a bed of 7.1.2 so test the first 10 output channels in Protools to test the respective channels in the Dolby renderer so we can change those here and confirm that these are outputting audio in the correct places in the audio field in Protools it may b
e also necessary to create output buses in the bus selection of the io window if you need to see the additional outputs in this method additionally we can now connect Ora's down miix functionality to the Dolby audio renderer to do this with the Dolby audio renderer open open the Ora desktop software and open the system tab at the top right in here select the renderer tab the Dolby Atmos renderer should be selected and in the Target drop-down menu select the local renderer which should match your
computer name which should now appear in this menu by closing the system menu we can now see at the top right of the Oro desktop software that the renderer status is now shown press the down miix button on the Ora front panel to test cycling through this function in our second example we will use the internal Dolby Atmos renderer in Protools this process works for both Mac OS and windows first ly open prot tools and open a new session once this is open go to the setup menu and select playback e
ngine and make sure ARA is selected as the playback device press yes next we need to set up Ora to make Pro Tools aware that you have immersive audio output channels open the setup menu after pressing okay open up the setup menu and select IO in the output tab of the io panel we can see that by default Protools has defined all of Ora's outputs and in this case we need a single immersive audio output instead shift and click all of these outputs from 1 down to 16 and then press the delete path but
ton now we need to define a multi-channel output press the New Path button to create one New Path we can see its name in this box I'm going to name that Atmos and here is where you select the number of output speakers and layouts that you have for example 9.1.3 or 7.1.4 if you are using a 91.6 setup this when we hit create will have automatically assigned the speaker outputs in the order as labeled on the rear of the AO Hardware although the lettering standard in Protools is slightly different i
f you are using another layout such as 7.1.4 be aware that Protools by default will have a mismatch between its default output routing and Ora's connections to correct this move the speaker routing icons to match the connections on the AA Hardware by dragging and dropping the icons into the correct slots once this is done at the bottom right of this window change the monitor path and audition path to be the new Atmos path at the top of this I/O setup window there is a Dolby Atmos tab select this
and enable the Dolby Atmos tick button at the top of the page and ensure that internal renderer is selected in the drop- down menu next to this button if your window here is not populated with a list of objects press the default button at the bottom here with create stereo objects selected in the drop-down menu next to it close the aisle window and create a new track with One Mono output in the insert effect section add the sound generator effect from the other plug-in menu this will output acr
oss the front stereo pair of the atmos bed by default and we can change this to be an object so we can test all of our speaker outputs for this example change the object selection here to B object and object 11 as this is the first object available to us below where the object was selected is the button that says bus if we click this that changes to object now that this track is selected as an object we can look at the output selection in the mix window here there is a small slider icon next to
where it says object 11 click on this and it will open the immersive Panner at this point open the Dolby Atmos renderer window which can be found under the window menu and the Dolby Atmos renderer icon now we've opened the Dolby Atmos renderer we need to select the monitoring at the top here and Define which monitoring format we want to be listening in I ear selected 7.1.4 for my speaker setup and so now I can select 7.1.4 from the monitoring here move the oscillator test tone tracks positioning
by looking at the immersive Panner for that track and dragging the dot that represents the oscillator through the immersive field there is a knob here to adjust the height to test your height speakers listen to ensure that the positioning of your object in the immersive Panner match is the panning in the Dolby Atmos renderer and also the metering in AA and the positioning of the audio in your speaker setup on Mac OS it is now possible to listen to Dolby Atmos content through streaming services
such as Apple music which is great for referencing other mixes or simply enjoying immersive content on your system however be aware that this only works natively from Mac OS Ventura onwards let's take a look at how to set this up go to Applications utilities and audio midi setup in here select AA and from there select the configure speakers option from the bottom right of the program from the configuration dropdown select the atmos configuration most suited to your setup please note the 7.1.4 is
currently the maximum configuration supported by Mac OS at the time of making this video next make sure the speaker labeling presented by the audio midi utility app matches the correct speaker output presented by AA you can press the test button for each speaker to test if your speaker routing is correct for example these are not correct for me I need to change these to be ltf RTF LTR and RTR once this is done and you're happy that you're set up is correct press apply now this is set up open Ap
ple music and play a Dolby Atmos supported track you can quickly identify a Dolby Atmos supported track as a Dolby logo will be present if you are not seeing any Dolby supported tracks open Apple Music settings navigate to the playback Tab and ensure that the Dolby Atmos drop down is set to automatic now we have our speakers connected and channels tested let's take a brief look at getting started with the AA desktop software this segment is designed to give you a brief overview however there is
a more in-depth video on our YouTube channel the link is in the description at the top left of the Oro software you will find the monitoring panel here we can see input source and output selection main output volume control alongside Global dim and mute controls mono and polarity moving over to the metering panel we can see the output level metering including pre and post pre shows us the Audio Level straight from your door or the renderer and post mode shows us audio levels after calibration pr
ocessing and after master volume control the metering panel can also be expanded enabling you to use expanded metering window independently of the main software window the expanded metering window provides you with an expanded View and more detail allowing you to keep a closer eye on your metering next is the room panel this is a visual representation of your speaker positions in the room with each speaker being identified with a circular speaker icon all positioned around the user as denoted by
the white user icon found in the center of the section you can use the speaker icon to both mute or solo that specific speaker to mute a speaker simply use a left click on the speaker icon to toggle mute on and off to solo a speaker use the shortcut shift and left click on the speaker icon to Solo or unsolo that speaker to the left of the room panel you will find the groups panel here you can use the mute and solo buttons to quickly mute or solo entire groups of speakers the height speakers sid
es front row subchannel and the front stereo pair lastly we have the profiles panel the profiles panel is used to quickly switch between the calibration profiles you have created for your room and is organized into a list format a total of 32 profiles can be stored on AA itself it is worth noting that although profiles are stored directly on Ora's Hardware they are controlled using the profiles panel or the profile button on the front of the unit at the top of the panel there are four favorite s
lots and when using the dedicated profiles button on the front of Ora a tap of the button will cycle through these four favorites to create a new profile click the plus button found in the top right of the profiles panel name your profile and hit save you are now ready to start entering calibration parameters we have two sep separate videos that cover the calibration process itself one which covers inputting manual room calibration and a second video showcasing our sonar work sound ID reference
integration in depth and those are linked down in the description to summarize you should now have the latest drivers installed have AO updated to the latest firmware have all the speakers and external devices plugged in and working have the Dolby Atmos renderer and Mac OS Atmos playback up and running and be familiar with the layout of the Oro desktop software if you would like to find out more we also have more in-depth videos on our YouTube channel giving you more detail on subjects such as p
rofiles speaker calibration a deeper look into the software and more links to those videos are in the description for more details please consult the Ora manual which is available to download on our site we hope this has helped you get started on your journey into mixing immersive audio with AA hit the like button and subscribe to our channel for more content on Oreo and all the latest audient products thanks for watching good luck and have fun mixing immersive made easy
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