BinauralPanner

A binaural audio panner plugin for spatial audio production using HRTF convolution.

Features

• Two Modes (Stereo and Binaural): Using power conservation law for stereo and HRIR Convolution for binaural
• Azimuth & elevation control: Full spherical positioning (-90° to +90° on both axes)
• Bilinear interpolation: Smooth spatial transitions by mixing 4 neighboring HRIR positions (a, b, c, d)
• Crossfading: Dual convolver sets (A/B) for glitch-free transitions when crossing grid boundaries
• Thread-safe loading: All WAV decoding and impulse response loading happens off the audio thread
• CIPIC HRTF database: 10° grid resolution with embedded HRIR data

Demo

🎬 Watch the demo on Bilibili

Download

Pre-built plugins are available on the Releases page.

Installation

macOS AU: Copy BinauralPanner.component to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/

macOS VST3 (coming soon): Copy BinauralPanner.vst3 to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/

Building from Source

Requirements

• JUCE v8.x
• Xcode (macOS)

Build Steps

1. Clone this repository
2. Open BinauralPanner.jucer in Projucer
3. Set your JUCE module path in Projucer (File → Global Paths)
4. Click "Save and Open in IDE"
5. In Xcode, select Release configuration and build (Cmd+B)

HRIR Data

This plugin uses HRTF data from the CIPIC HRTF Database. The HRIRs are pre-baked into JuceLibraryCode/BinaryData.cpp at 10° resolution for both azimuth and elevation (-90° to +90°).

Regenerating HRIR Data

If you want to use different HRTF data:

1. Obtain a SOFA file from CIPIC or another database
2. Use tools/sofa_to_wav/export_cipic_nc.py to convert to WAV files
3. Add the WAVs to your Projucer project as binary resources
4. Rebuild

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Zuyu Chen

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Acknowledgments

• CIPIC HRTF Database, UC Davis
• JUCE Framework