title: VBAP Panner
---
-<div class="well notabene">
+<p class="warning">
Ardour's VBAP panner is currently in development, and its semantics may
change in the near future, possibly affecting your mixes. Please do not
rely on it for important production work while the dust settles.
-</div>
+</p>
<p>
- <strong>VBAP</strong> is short for <em>Vector-base Amplitude Panning</em>,
- a versatile and
- straightforward method to pan a source around on an arbitrary number
- of speakers on a horizontal polygon or a 3D surface, even if the speaker
- layout is highly irregular.
+ <dfn><abbr title="Vector-base Amplitude Panning">VBAP</abbr></dfn>
+ is a versatile and straightforward method to pan a source around over an
+ arbitrary number of speakers on a horizontal polygon or a 3D surface,
+ even if the speaker layout is highly irregular.
</p>
<h2>Basic concepts</h2>
above.
</p>
<p>
- A horizontal VBAP panner has one parameter, the <strong>azimuth
- angle</strong>. A 3D panner offers an additional <strong>elevation
- angle</strong> control.
+ A <dfn>horizontal</dfn> VBAP panner has one parameter, the <dfn>azimuth
+ angle</dfn>. A <dfn>full-sphere</dfn> panner offers an additional
+ <dfn>elevation angle</dfn> control.
</p>
-<div class="well">
+<p class="note">
More elaborate implementations of VBAP also include a
- <strong>spread</strong> parameter, which will distribute the signal over a
+ <dfn>spread</dfn> parameter, which will distribute the signal over a
greater number of speakers in order to maintain constant (but no longer
maximal) sharpness, regardless of position. Ardour's VBAP panner does not
currently include this feature.
-</div>
+</p>
<h2>Speaker layout</h2>
<p>
- Each VBAP panner is specific to its <strong>speaker layout</strong>
+ Each VBAP panner is specific to its <dfn>speaker layout</dfn>
— the panner has
to "know" about the precise location of all the speakers. A complete VBAP
implementation must therefore include the possibility to define this