Waves Audio Now Shipping Immersive Wrapper

Waves Audio is now shipping Immersive Wrapper, an innovative utility tool that transforms any Waves mono-compatible plugin into an immersive processor for multi-channel and object-based mixing in Dolby Atmos® or other immersive formats.

Waves Immersive Wrapper brings the benefits of dedicated bus processing to Atmos mixes, solving a challenge faced by immersive mixers who have longed for the ability to shape the overall sound and character of an immersive mix with bus compression, EQ, or saturation just as they are accustomed to applying on a stereo master bus when mixing in two-channel stereo. While the immersive mix is still outputted to the renderer as separate beds and objects, Immersive Wrapper works in a control-linked multi-mono configuration to deliver output channel cohesion and a unified feel to mixes from mono up to 9.1.6 channel configurations.

"I can leverage the sonic bells and whistles that I have collected over decades of stereo experience for Dolby Atmos," shared Engineer and Producer Hans-Martin Buff (Prince, Scorpions, Peter Gabriel), who contributed to the development of Immersive Wrapper. "This allows me to create a unified punch across seemingly unconnected tracks and custom-tailor presets to fit my immersive concepts. Every element of the spatial landscape can interact, functioning as a cohesive whole or as distinct fronts, surrounds, and tops. I can also develop mixing chains and truly immersive effects. With Immersive Wrapper, Dolby Atmos mixing is no longer a sonic workaround; it’s the plug-and-play experience it was meant to be."

Immersive Wrapper opens the mono plugin across all the channels in the multichannel track. The multi-mono configuration, allows all instances of the plugin to be control-linked across beds and objects, functioning as a single plugin—similar to how a stereo plugin operates on a stereo bus. Additionally, the control-linking feature is highly flexible: users can easily link or unlink specific groups, such as tops or bottoms, while maintaining relative control positions for optimal precision—all with just a single click.
For dynamics plugins, Waves has enabled internal sidechains that are shared across all the beds and objects, to allow for a bus compression glue effect – the chosen dynamics plugin effectively behaves like a single processor on the bus. Additionally, the shared sidechain system is highly flexible as well, providing users with complete control with just a few clicks.

With Waves' Immersive Wrapper used across the beds and objects of an immersive music mix, mixers can finally build a master bus processing plugin chain, linked and controlled together, with the option of a shared sidechain where appropriate, using all their favourite Waves mono-compatible plugins.

Producer and mixing engineer Yaron Fuchs (Herbie Hancock, Madonna, Ari Abdul, G-Eazy), who contributed to the Immersive Wrapper as well, commented: "Mix bus processing has long been the foundation of gluing a mix together in the stereo realm, but has been the Achilles heel in the immersive format. Though possible, it was clunky and complex. The Immersive Wrapper solves this issue. No more control-linking multiple tracks or using less-than-ideal plugins. I can simply add my favourite Waves plugins and bus-process in Atmos the same way I would in a stereo mix. Immersive Wrapper allows me to utilise an Atmos 'Mix Bus' approach, replicating my 'glue' across an immersive mix. With the intuitive sidechain and grouping features, I can easily link buses, objects and speaker arrays to follow (or not follow!) Immersive Bed processing."

Fuchs added: "This plugin solves an issue we were all facing. It removes some of the technical barriers and prohibitions in current workflows and allows mixers to get back to creatively mixing. Users will instantly find creative ways to bus-process an Immersive Mix. For example, I’ve grown to love adding various blends of saturation across speaker arrays, independently from my L/R stereo processing. Users will instantly find creative uses for otherwise under-utilised plugin families in an Immersive Mix. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to contribute to this solution."

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