Ginger Audio Sphere v2

Screen 1: Sphere 2’s main screen

Whether you’re mixing or mastering in stereo, surround or immersive formats, this powerful virtual monitor controller could soon become indispensable.

The term ‘monitor controller’ used to refer to a hardware box that sat on your desk and provided volume control, output selection, some channel matrix options, a headphone socket or two, and maybe a talkback mic. But although hardware monitor controllers are still very much ‘a thing’, monitor control has also moved into the software realm. When paired with a suitable audio interface, software can offer all the same functionality — including, if you add an external controller, a big volume knob.

Ginger Audio’s Sphere 2, though, offers much more besides. In this review I’ll be focusing on the Immersive edition, but Stereo (2.0, 2.1) and Surround editions are available for a lower price, offering most of the same features but being constrained in terms of channel formats. All three editions are available via subscription, or you can pay once for a perpetual licence.

Sphere is a standalone macOS app that sits between the computer’s audio apps (a DAW or Apple Music, for example) and the audio interface’s outputs. When describing the full scope of its features and functionality, it’s tempting to resort to the cliché that it would be easier to list the things it doesn’t do. That’s because almost the first thing to strike you on launching Sphere is just how much it brings to the monitor control function. So steel yourself — there’s a lot to take in if we’re to explore Sphere in detail!

Key Functions

The first thing to note is that Sphere Immersive offers not only 12 multi‑channel virtual outputs (that can be fed to an audio interface’s outputs) but also eight virtual multi‑channel inputs. You can (as I did) have a Dolby Atmos input from Apple Music routed to one Sphere 2 input and another routed from Pro Tools, or the Dolby Atmos Renderer app. These inputs comprised 7.1.4 Atmos streams in my case but can range from mono all the way up to 9.1.6. The same variety of channel formats is available on each of the 12 outputs, but along with offering channel formats that simply reflect the inputs (which will mean, for example, that a stereo output from an Atmos input will comprise just the front left and right), outputs 5 to 12 can additionally comprise downmixes to various formats, including Apple Spatial binaural.

This is particularly significant in the world of Atmos music mixing because, until recently, the processing that an Atmos mix undergoes when submitted to Apple before it’s made available in binaural stereo on Apple Music was something of a mystery. It would sound somewhat different from a binaural downmix created using the Dolby Atmos Renderer, and this resulted in Atmos mix and mastering engineers berating Apple for, effectively, messing with their work. Apple have now made the Apple Spatial binaural processing algorithms available to developers, so Sphere isn’t the only route by which Apple Spatial binaural can be auditioned while mixing or mastering, but it is a great facility to have, and along with the Apple Spatial binaural downmix, Sphere offers personal HRTF and head‑tracking integration.

You simply send the client a Sphere 2 streaming link and they can listen, in real time, from pretty much anywhere that has a reasonable Internet connection.

Somewhat unexpected to me was that Sphere is able to connect with multiple audio interfaces simultaneously — this feature appears to be aimed at users who perhaps want to get into Atmos mixing but don’t yet possess a single interface with an adequate output count. A further unexpected feature is the incorporation of Ginger Audio’s Authentic Audio network streaming technology. An output can be selected and bussed to Sphere’s streaming module, where it can be downmixed if required and made available as a stream (with or without video) that remote users can access in a web browser using a link generated by Sphere 2. This is incredibly simple to use and, again, a quick audio‑only check confirmed that it works well. Network streaming is not normally a function expected of a monitor controller, but it could be hugely useful, because it can potentially turn any mix or mastering session into an ‘attended’ event. You simply send the client a Sphere 2 streaming link and they can listen, in real time, from pretty much anywhere that has a reasonable Internet connection. And if they want to hear how the work will sound in Apple Spatial format, that’s just a couple of mouse‑clicks away too.

Settings & Controls

Returning to the core functions of Sphere, once installed and licensed (using a simple licence code) Sphere launches to display its main screen, as illustrated in Screen 1. Pretty much everything required for day‑to‑day operation is presented on the main screen, so once all is configured, there’s little need for hopping between windows. To the left of the main screen are 12 input slots arranged under two tabs. In each slot are a text field for a custom input name, an input level meter, input gain adjustment, a lock function (which effectively toggles the input on/off), a plug‑in slot, and finally a cue send with an on/off button and output gain knob. The plug‑in slot enables just one AU plug‑in to be inserted, and said plug‑in will then be installed across all the input channels. If the plug‑in and input channel format don’t match, either some channels will be muted, or Sphere 2 will flag with a red exclamation mark that plug‑in channel mapping is an issue. The same flag will appear if the plug‑in is otherwise inappropriate.

Also in each input slot is a ‘settings’ icon, that opens a channel mapping window. Here, specific inputs can be assigned to numbered Sphere channels. Screen 2 shows assignments for my Audient ORIA interface, and I’ll explain them shortly. But first, the reason for the SPHERE 16 name in the Channel column is that, when installed, Sphere 2 creates three virtual audio devices (SPHERE 16, SPHERE 32 and SPHERE 64) that can be specified as the output device for the audio source apps (in my case, Pro Tools or Apple Music), and one of those devices then becomes the input for Sphere. The further explanation required for channel assignments arises because, while the ORIA offers 16 surround outputs for monitoring layouts up to 9.1.6, my layout is ‘only’ 7.1.4. The ‘missing’ monitors are Left Wide, Right Wide, Left Top Mid and Right Top Mid, which would nominally be numbered 9, 10, 13 and 14, so my channel assignments omit those numbers. Along with channel assignments, the Input Settings screen also enables channel gain trim, solo and mute functions.

Screen 2: Sphere 2’s input channel setup and assignments.

To the right of the input slots you find the features that comprise the bulk of Sphere’s conventional monitor control functionality. The 3D map of monitors reflects the input channel configuration and, depending on the solo/mute switch setting, each monitor can be soloed or muted. Monitors can also be soloed or muted in Front, Wide, Surround, Rear, Top or Sub groups, or in custom groups (combined by Shift‑clicking monitors). At the bottom left of the monitor display are options for left and right front channel mono, Mid and Sides functions, but these only affect the front left and right channels so seem somewhat academic in a multi‑monitor context.

Below are Sphere’s loudness analysis functions. Pressing Play starts loudness analysis, and pressing Reset returns it to zero. A drop‑down menu on the left provides a list of the streaming platforms whose loudness specifications Sphere 2’s analysis can be set to reference. The peak loudness meter to the right of the output metering will show the loudness peak level for the streaming platform selected. To the right of Sphere 2’s output level metering is its master output level control. Sphere 2 is EuCon, StreamDeck, MIDI and OSC compliant for control by external hardware, so if you miss the tactile feel of a big volume knob, that can be sorted. Around the volume control are dim and mute buttons along with three reference level selection buttons that can be set via a settings display, launched by clicking on the three dots above each one.

Again looking right, Sphere offers cue and talkback functions that can be routed to any output, and then sub‑routed to specific channels offered by the output device. Both the cue and talkback feature an AU plug‑in slot (a smidgen of reverb for the singer?), and the cue function additionally offers Dolby or Apple downmix functionality.

Beneath all this, you’ll find the Sphere 2 Authentic Audio network streaming controls, but before we dive into those we’ll head right again to the output section. As with the input section, Sphere’s outputs are found in 12 slots across two tabs. Each output can be configured with any channel format up to 9.1.6 and each one offers an AU plug‑in slot. Output slots 5 to 12 are slightly different from slots 1 to 4 in that they offer downmixing rather than simple channel muting. For example, if audio in 7.1.4 format is routed to output 4 but stereo is selected in the output format, all but the left and right channels will be muted. However if the same 7.1.4 audio is routed to output 5 and stereo is selected in the output format, the 7.1.4 will be downmixed so that the 5.1.4 channels are folded into stereo in compliance with the Dolby Atmos algorithms.

In common with a Sphere input plug‑in, an output plug‑in operates across all channels, and the same constraints apply: strap a stereo plug‑in across a 7.1.4 output and Sphere will give you the red exclamation mark and mute all but the left and right channels. To my way of thinking, the nailed‑on application for the Sphere output plug‑in slot is Sonarworks SoundID Reference. I say this because, somewhat frustratingly, the multi‑channel version of Sonarworks operates as a DAW plug‑in only — there’s no ‘systemwide’ version that can address and optimise channel formats beyond stereo. Drop Sonarworks multi‑channel into a Sphere output plug‑in slot, and that frustration goes away.

The final image, Screen 3, shows the output side equivalent of the input channel mapping window of Screen 2. It’s accessed by clicking on the settings icon in an output slot and, as with input channel mapping, enables Sphere channels to address the appropriate hardware interface output. But it also provides bass management configuration, for which the term ‘comprehensive’ feels inadequate!

Screen 3: Sphere 2’s output channel setup, assignments and bass management.

Next, we come to Sphere’s Authentic Audio network streaming controls I mentioned earlier, and the functionality is so straightforward in use that there’s not a great deal to say. Streaming simply requires a Sphere output to be selected, its channel format to be specified and, if required, a session name and password to be defined. Once that’s done, pressing the Start Streaming button generates a web link to send to the collaborator; click on that link and the audio will play in a browser. Perhaps the only complication is that simple browser streaming playback is stereo only. If you’ve selected a multi‑channel output, the Sphere 2 stream will play just the left and right channels, so better to select a stereo downmix output. If a full‑fat multi‑channel stream is required, a Ginger Audio Authentic Audio plug‑in is necessary.

Finally, we come to the question of latency and before we talk figures, note that I used Sphere while recording and didn’t notice any significant issues. Still, there is inherently some latency, and you can adjust it in the settings menu. For recording, you’d set it to a low value (which asks more of your CPU) and at its lowest setting (32 samples) I measured 10ms latency. If monitoring a complex Atmos mix you can set it higher to free up your CPU. For the highest setting (2048 samples) latency rose to about 136ms.

I came to this review not quite sure what to expect from Sphere 2... I’m leaving it as a fully convinced enthusiast!

Going Global

I came to this review not quite sure what to expect from Sphere 2, or even why I might find a multi‑channel monitor control app useful. After all, I already have a multi‑output interface with its own control app that together effectively provide monitor control. I’m leaving it as a fully convinced enthusiast. These are complex times for audio production in that satisfying disparate demands of a multitude of consumer formats requires considerable versatility, understanding and agility from us audio engineers. In this context, Sphere 2 is potentially of significant value because the capabilities and qualities it offers so effectively tie all the many contemporary monitoring control functions together in one place. It dots the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s of a session really effectively. It’s a great product, made perhaps more so because I genuinely didn’t realise I needed it.