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About Peter Stitt

Spatial audio.
Built from experience.

I’m Peter Stitt, the founder and developer behind SSA Plugins. I’ve worked with Ambisonics since 2011 across research, software development, sound design and spatial audio production.

My story

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SSA Plugins

Specialist tools, developed by a spatial-audio specialist.

I started SSA Plugins because I wanted Ambisonic tools that combined the technical side of spatial audio with the straightforward workflows audio professionals already know.

Where it started

I got hooked on spatial audio and never really stopped.

My introduction to Ambisonics came in 2011 at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s University Belfast.

My first degree was in Applied Mathematics and Physics, but it was while studying for an MA in Sonic Arts at SARC that spatial audio really grabbed my attention.

SARC’s Sonic Lab is a purpose-built multichannel space with loudspeakers surrounding the listener. Even underneath! Hearing work created for that kind of environment completely changed the way I thought about what audio could do.

For my Master’s project, I decided to build VST plugins for encoding and decoding Ambisonics for playback in the Sonic Lab. That was the start of a connection between spatial-audio research, software development and creative practice that has continued ever since.

Research meets practice

Understanding the maths.
Using it to make things.

My background spans academic research, audio software and creative spatial-audio work. I think each makes the others better.

Research

Ambisonics & spatial hearing

I completed a PhD in 2015 researching Ambisonics for listeners outside the sweet spot. I later worked as a researcher on binaural listening, psychoacoustics, head tracking and dynamic spatial-audio systems.

Creative work

Spatial audio in the real world

I’ve worked with artists on spatialisation and sound design for museum exhibitions, public events and installations. This has included work presented outdoors in the gardens of a French château.

Development

Turning ideas into tools

Software has been part of my spatial-audio work from the beginning. I’ve developed tools for research, artistic projects and professional production as well as the commercial plugins available here.

Interested in the research side? You can find some of my published work on ResearchGate →

Why SSA Plugins?

Make the specialist technology
easier to use.

I launched the aX Plugins under the SSA Plugins name in 2018 to make Ambisonics more accessible to people already comfortable working in stereo and traditional surround.

Ambisonics has a deep technical and academic foundation, but using it creatively should not require you to think like a researcher every time you open a plugin.

That idea guides how I approach SSA Plugins: take the spatial-audio engineering seriously, then present it through controls and workflows that make sense to sound engineers, sound designers and artists.

The aim is not to hide what Ambisonics can do. It is to make that capability easier to put to work.

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Selected experience

Projects & collaborations.

Over the years I’ve worked across commercial, academic and artistic spatial-audio projects. A selection includes:

VideoLabs

Spatial-audio engine used in VLC Media Player and FFMPEG.

Bang & Olufsen

Ambisonic development in Max/MSP.

Sorbonne Université

Acoustic measurements and software development.

Project BiLi

Research into binaural listening and spatial-audio reproduction.

Stuart Leathem

Creative spatial-audio collaboration with the Northern Irish composer.

Seb Jouan

Spatialisation and spatial audio playback for French sound artist.

Want to go deeper?

I wrote the guide
I wish I’d had.

Getting to Know Ambisonics brings together what I’ve learned from research, development and practical spatial-audio work.

Ambisonics can look intimidating when it is introduced through equations and unfamiliar terminology. The free eBook takes a different approach: enough theory to understand what is happening, with the emphasis on how to actually use it.

It’s written for sound engineers, sound designers and artists who want to understand the format without having to become spatial-audio researchers themselves.

Get the free Ambisonics eBook

Ambisonics, made for people who make sound.

Explore the tools I’ve built for recording, creating, processing and monitoring Ambisonic audio.

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