Cavern is a fully adaptive object-based audio rendering engine and (up)mixer without limitations for home, cinema, and stage use. Audio transcoding and self-calibration libraries built on the Cavern engine are also available. This repository also features a Unity plugin and a standalone converter called Cavernize.
Cavern goes beyond fixed-channel audio systems by rendering any number of audio “objects” in three-dimensional space, tailored to the listener’s speaker arrangement or headphone output. It is also supported by a standalone conversion tool, Cavernize, which allows users to convert spatial mixes into conventional channel-based PCM formats while maintaining positional accuracy.
Key Features and Capabilities:
Object-Based Rendering Cavern supports an unrestricted number of audio objects and output channels. This allows precise spatial placement and movement of sounds in 3D space, independent of specific channel layouts.
Codec and Container Support The engine and its companion tools support a wide range of codecs and containers, including those commonly used for immersive audio delivery. Traditional formats such as WAV and common multimedia containers are also supported.
Calibration and Room Correction Cavern includes tools for self-calibration and room equalization. These can flatten frequency response, compensate for acoustic irregularities, and help unify tonal characteristics across speakers.
Headphone Virtualization Through HRTF-based processing, Cavern enables spatial rendering over stereo headphones. This simulates direction, distance, and spatial cues to reproduce the effect of multichannel speaker setups in a binaural listening environment.
Real-Time Up-Mixing Legacy stereo or multichannel content can be up-mixed into fully rendered 3D scenes. This provides an immersive experience even when the source was not originally produced as object-based audio.
Integration with Game Engines Cavern offers integration with Unity, enabling developers to incorporate real-time positional audio into games, simulations, and interactive media.
Use Cases
Home Cinema and Media Playback Cavern can render object-based audio tracks for users who do not have commercial hardware processors. It allows accurate spatial playback through both speakers and headphones.
Headphone-Focused Listening The binaural virtualization system benefits users who rely on headphones for movies, music, gaming, or general media consumption.
Game and VR Development Developers can use Cavern inside Unity to produce dynamic, spatially accurate audio scenes in interactive applications.
Archiving and Conversion Cavernize converts object-based audio into standard PCM or channel-based formats, preserving positional intent while enabling playback on conventional systems.
Speaker Optimization Its calibration tools provide a software-based approach to room correction and multi-speaker alignment without requiring dedicated hardware processors.
Limitations and Considerations
Some supporting utilities are not fully open-source and may be distributed under separate licensing terms.
Spatial rendering benefits depend on input quality; poor-quality stereo sources will not yield true immersive results.
Speaker hardware, room acoustics, and HRTF compatibility affect the perceived accuracy of spatialization.
Integrating Cavern into custom software projects requires familiarity with its API and spatial-audio concepts.
Why Cavern Matters
Cavern stands out by making advanced spatial-audio technology accessible without requiring specialized hardware or proprietary processors. By combining open-source rendering, a flexible object-based architecture, codec support, calibration tools, and developer integration, it provides a versatile platform for enthusiasts, researchers, and media creators.
For users interested in experimenting with immersive audio workflows, whether for home cinema, headphone listening, archiving, or game development, Cavern offers a free, comprehensive and adaptable approach.
A fully free and self-contained modular synthesizer based on the popular VCV Rack. Available in AudioUnit/CLAP/LV2/VST2/VST3 plugin formats and as a standalone app for FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, Windows and the Web.
Measures Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in sound cards, speakers and headphones.
Applies matched filters for maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the presence of additive stochastic noise.
Supports microphone calibration files.
Supports full range of sample rates from 44.056 kHz up to 384 kHz. All sample rates are supported without resampling to avoid any possible loss in accuracy.
Filtron is a 12dB state variable filter that can smoothly transition between lowpass, bandpass, and highpass. It is capable of self-oscillation with resonance levels that can reach up to 11! Filtron also features a fat sounding internal saturation algorithm and a sizzly post overdrive with two modes to choose from: cold and hot.
12db state variable filter
Transition smoothly between Lowpass, Bandpass, Highpass
J-Scope is a VST oscilloscope plugin, which can prove invaluable to anyone who develops audio software and has a need to diagnose problems or visualise waveforms.
In operation it is very similar to a real oscilloscope, and most controls will be familiar to anybody who has used a hardware ‘scope. The addition of a control for phosphor decay time allows the examination of rapidly changing waveforms as well as slowly evolving sound envelopes.
J-Scope accepts a stereo signal, and can display it in several modes:
The plugin is very unique in the sense that it gives you full control over all aspects of the modelled circuit. All values of all the capacitors, resistors etc. can be tuned by the user.
This is a free plugin. It comes in all the usual plugin formats (VST/VST3/AU/AAX), for 32 and 64 bit hosts, and for Mac Intel & Silicon.
The Audio File 