Dear Reality has announced the introduction of dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT, a new virtual reality mixing controller that’s designed to extend the Dolby Atmos capabilities of Steinberg Cubase 12 DAW software.
The VR application is engineered to enable extensive in-headset control of the most-used DAW functions, while the dearVR PRO spatializer plugin — dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT — facilitates positioning and automation of audio tracks via gesture control in a virtual 360-degree environment. In combination with Dear Reality’s dearVR MONITOR headphone monitoring plugin for multi-channel speaker setups, Cubase users can now benefit from a professional toolset that brings spatial productions to the next level.
“With the latest dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT update, we make our VR mixing solution available to a wide range of music producers mixing Dolby Atmos in Cubase 12,” says Dear Reality co-founder Christian Sander. “This combination enables them to experience a revolutionary way of working with spatial audio. By optionally adding our dearVR PRO spatializer and the dearVR MONITOR virtual headphone mix room, engineers benefit from a complete spatial audio ecosystem where they can spatialize, control, and monitor spatial audio sessions.”
By linking a VR headset such as the Meta Quest and/or HTC Vive with their DAW, users can position and automate audio tracks in the virtual space by pointing at them with two handheld controllers. dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT enables direct VR access to the position, channel volume, solo and mute, and the automation status. This gesture-controlled process is intended to speed up the mixing workflow and lead to more lively automations.
“When positioning and automating sounds, we shouldn’t be limited by drawing automations in the DAW with the mouse or copy and paste automation lines,” states Felix Lau, product owner at Dear Reality. “When mixing spatial audio content, we should explore the space without any restrictions.”
In addition, dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT provides overlay modules for extended navigation and control in the VR headset. The main control module enables direct control of Cubase 12’s transport functions like start, stop, and rewind.
Further, users can directly jump through the timeline and set markers and loop points. The meter bridge module brings the traditional mixing console we all know and love to the VR world. In this module, users control each audio channel’s volume, solo, and mute status. When the mixing session grows in complexity, the “minimap” module provides a detailed overview of all audio sources in the scene. It is an interactive, miniature view of the whole session and reflects the surrounding VR space, the audio sources, and their automation in real time.
Based on the selected operating system, dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT can run on the same Windows machine as the DAW or in a two-machine setup. This allows the user to run the VR application on a Windows machine while running Cubase 12 on a Mac OS. dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT now supports Apple M1/M2 processors and connects with Nuendo 12, Cubase 12, and Reaper.
