Recording - October 2021 - 48

REVIEW
L-Acoustics
L-ISA Studio
Spatial audio for stage and studio, all in the box
REVIEW BY ALEX HAWLEY
L
-Acoustics arrived at the cutting edge of live immersive audio with
the highly-regarded L-ISA (Immersive Sound Art) processor. The list of
international touring artists using L-ISA is growing and includes groups
like alt-j, Mark Knopfler, and Soundgarden; Bon Iver just announced two
dates in Los Angeles at the YouTube Theater on October 21 and 22 using
L-ISA technology. To expand on the powerful L-ISA hardware processor,
L-Acoustics recently unveiled L-ISA Studio, a software bundle that allows
you to create immersive audio experiences entirely on your computer. Its
potential uses range from pre-production for immersive sound installations to
spatial music mixes or multi-channel broadcast formats for post-production.
Overview
L-ISA Studio is a platform for object-based
immersive mixing that scales to
whatever your end goal may be: stereo
binaural, 5.1, 7.1.4, or 12.0. The beauty
of working with an object-based system is
that it keeps your mix independent from
the speaker layout, which allows you to
mix for a multi-channel playback system
even if you are working primarily on
headphones. Once you're ready to bring
a mix to the venue or studio and hear how
it translates in the real world, it can quickly
scale to setups with up to 12 discrete outputs,
or can be paired with the L-ISA hardware
processor for live events at FOH.
The software bundle includes several
components: L-ISA processor desktop,
L-ISA Controller, L-ISA OSC Bridge, and a
pair of plugins to write automation in your
DAW. While quite a bit of mixing happens
in the L-ISA Controller software, it doesn't
replace your DAW; in fact, they work harmoniously.
Once everything is configured,
you can select the L-ISA Audio Bridge for
your DAW's playback engine and route
individual tracks from your DAW to any
of the 96 digital inputs for the standalone
L-ISA Controller software.
There are three main processors to dive
into: Spatial Processing, Room Engine,
48 RECORDING October 2021
and Binaural Monitoring (with optional
head tracking). There are additional features
for live sound pre-production uses,
such as Scale Simulation,
to
virtually
place yourself in the venue and hear the
mix from various seats in the house, but
the scope of this review will focus on the
features best suited for studio use.
Binaural Engine
The Binaural Engine is an excellent
place to start; for most, it will likely be the
first thing to enable (unless you happen
to be mixing in a 7.1.4 or 12.0 control
room). Located in the L-ISA Controller, the
monitoring tab within the Settings menu
offers quite a bit to dig into. Once you
enable Binaural Parametric, L-ISA Studio
goes one further and allows you to make
adjustments for head size and ear angle.
The Binaural Engine is also compatible
with head tracking. This is designed to
track and compensate for your head orientation
via Yaw, Pitch, and Roll. This is
an exciting feature if you plan to bring
your headphone mix to the venue or
multi-channel control room, but it likely
won't be a huge benefit to those who
wish to create binaural music mixes.
L-Acoustics sent the head tracker
(available at many online retailers) for
testing, and in use, it felt like an augmented
reality form of mixing. The ability
to turn your head and 'look' at the
guitars panned to the right is a unique
experience! Head tracking is likely more
practical for FOH engineers using Scale
Simulation than the post-production
side. While you'd likely be mixing on a
purpose-built VR engine if you work with
First or Second Order Ambisonics, the
head tracker offers a similar experience
to decoding mixes on those formats. The
head tracking center seemed to drift in
some cases, but the software allows you
to re-center it easily.
Your Virtual Soundscape
The Soundscape tab in the L-ISA Controller
software is where the majority of
spatial processing is done. You can select
sources and place them anywhere
in the virtual space for both horizontal
and vertical planes. The parameters for
each source include Pan Spread (for
stereo sources), Pan, Width, Distance,
Elevation, and Aux Send.
I found the spatial placement precise
and accurate with Binaural monitoring,
without anything sounding too phasey
(like I've experienced with other binaural
plugins in the past). I took an old stereo
Recording - October 2021

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