myHRTF with foobar2000

foobar2000

foobar2000 is a software music player for the Windows operating system for stereo and multichannel recordings. It can be extended with various digital signal processing (DSP) components that can be downloaded for free. In principle, foobar2000 is also available for macOS but the required DSP component is not ready at this point in time. More information about foobar2000 can be found here.

The software presented on this webpage has been tried and tested by us. However, please do note that it comes from a third party that is not connected to myHRTF in any way. Hence, we cannot guarantee that this software will work on your PC or laptop as described below.

Installation

Download the latest version of foobar2000 here and install it on your PC or laptop.
Download the VST 2.x/3.x Adapter DSP component for free here.
Start foobar2000, go to the File menu and select Preferences

Go to Components and install the VST 2.x/3.x Adapter in foobar2000 by clicking Install... and selecting the downloaded foo_dsp_vst3.fb2k-component located in the Windows Downloads folder.

After restart of foobar2000 the VST 2.x/3.x Adapter is available in the list of Installed components.
For stereo applications we recommend the Convology XT plugin by company Wave Arts since it allows easy switching between different myHRTF filters with visual support. Download Convology XT here for free and install it.

Configuration for Stereo

Open the File menu and select Preferences.

Go to Playback and in the Preamp section set the gain to approx. -10 dB and confirm by clicking Ok. More information why this is required can be found in the FAQ.

Go to Playback and select DSP Manager.
Select VST 2.x/3.x Adapter under Available DSPs and add it to Active DSPs by clicking +.
Configure the VST 2.x/3.x Adapter by clicking ...

Load the plugin of choice by clicking Folders.... Typically, plugins can be found under
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3

Confirm by clicking Ok.
Information about the configuration of Convology XT can be found here.
In order to change the myHRTF filter inside Convology XT, open the View menu, select DSP and then ConvologyXT_64.

Configuration for Multichannel

foobar2000 supports playback of multichannel music, but unfortunately, the VST 2.x/3.x Adapter doesn't support complex multichannel routing. Hence, for the use of myHRTF Personalized Filters with multichannel music additional software is required. We recommend the Hang Loose DSP Software Suite for both ease of use and performance. Alternatively, individual software solutions can be used:

Virtual audio cable software in order to route multichannel audio signals to a plugin host software, for example VB-Cable for Windows or BlackHole for macOS. Set this virtual audio cable as output for foobar2000.
Plugin host software in order to host plugins and process audio in realtime, for example Hang Lose Host for both Windows and macOS. Set the virtual audio cable as input to the host software.
Plugin for multichannel matrix convolution, for example Hang Lose Convolver for both Windows and macOS. Route the audio signals from the input to the convolution plugin and from there to the output.
Information about the configuration of Hang Loose Convolver can be found here.

Signal clipping

Setting the preamplifier to approx. -10 dB (i.e. 10 dB attenuation) as described above, the clipping of audio signals is virtually impossible since the required headroom has been taken into account during the design of myHRTF Personalized Filters.

Sampling rate

Stereo: using Convology XT with myHRTF Personalized Filters as described above, the filtering will be adapted to the sampling rate automatically by means of the high-quality sampling rate converter integrated in Convology XT. In order to avoid the loss of resolution, the filters contained in myHRTF for Convology XT feature 96 kHz sampling rate.