Voyage Audio Spatial Mic Dante First Look & Listen

FOR BEST LISTENING EXPERIENCE, PLEASE USE HEADPHONES!
(The field tests won't sound correct otherwise, as they are processed into binaural audio.)

A first look and listen of the Spatial Mic Dante from Voyage Audio. This is a second-order ambisonic microphone introduced in 2023. At 3000USD (at the time this video was posted), it is three times as expensive as the USB/ADAT variant that came out in 2020. Included in this video is a discussion of the differences between the two variants, as well as field test recordings and an overview of how the raw mic recording was processed into binaural audio using Reaper, the Voyage Audio Spatial Mic Converter plugin and additional ambisonic plugins from the SPARTA project.

Make no mistake, this microphone fulfills a niche use case. For the price, it is something you'll probably rent instead of own, unless you do a LOT of spatial audio recording on a regular basis.

This video is rather long, but I've provided chapter markers so you can skip around as you like.

00:00 Intro
01:42 Included items
04:42 Simple overview of ambisonics
05:20 Binaural audio requires headphones
08:33 Ambisonic order
10:48 Spatial Mic Dante compared to the USB version
13:16 No physical controls
14:21 USB distance limitation digression
15:05 No gain knob frustration
17:41 Powering via PoE in the field
20:21 Spatial Mic Dante DSP feature
22:18 Value proposition compared to the USB version
23:53 Introducing the field test recordings
25:07 Field test setup
26:49 Field test with included foam windshield
30:14 Field test with Rycote Windjammer
35:02 Spatial processing plugins didn't work in DaVinci Resolve
36:30 Basic Reaper project settings
37:21 MicNet Control app overview
41:20 AmbiX Type A vs. B
42:37 Spatial Mic Dante in Dante Controller
44:52 Plugin processing setup in Reaper
47:34 Spatial Mic Converter plugin overview
50:35 SPARTA Dynamic Range Compressor for ambisonics
51:20 SPARTA Binaural Processor for ambisonics
51:39 AmbiDRC visualization of the fire truck getting compressed
52:34 Rendering out the processed binaural track
53:52 Outro