An Exploration of Creative Audio Spatialisation Tools for Ableton Live

Electronic music composers working within Ableton Live lack integrated spatialisation tools that give
global control over spatial behaviour. Popular spatialisation tools like GRM Tools Spaces (2011) and
Ableton Live’s Surround Panner are tied to specific speaker layouts presenting several drawbacks.
Firstly, the tools cannot be chained together as is standard practice with stereo plugins, limiting their
creative potential. Secondly, Ableton Live channels are restricted to stereo, making the setup of these
tools a complicated and slow process, requiring many additional channels to route spatial audio signals.
Other spatialisation tools such as the IEM Plug-in Suite (2020) and Envelop (2020) use ambisonics to
enable the chaining of effects but are not sufficient for composers, primarily due to their utility-focused
nature or unintuitive user interfaces.

This thesis proposes a solution utilising the Max for Live device format and 5th order ambisonic audio
encoding to decouple the spatialisation from a specified speaker layout and enable chaining of spatial
effects. The new tools integrate effects into the spatialisation process and enable a more rapid
workflow for composers. Audio examples demonstrate the creative potential of the tools.