8DM8

Modes

STATIC

Place a sound relative to the listener: to either side, toward the front or rear, or above or below ear level. Drag the source in the scene to find a position that works for your track.

You can also automate the position from your DAW to create your own movement. At the exact center of the head, 8DM8 preserves the latency-aligned original signal. The spatial effect comes in as you move away from the center.

MOTION

Set two endpoints and let the sound travel from A to B and back. Move the endpoints to create a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal path. The movement follows a straight line, with softened turns at each end. The default path crosses the head from left to right.

ORBIT

Send the sound around the listener on a circular path. Move the circle, adjust its diameter, and tilt or rotate its plane to try different directions of movement. You can orbit a single instrument, an effect, or a complete stereo mix.

Controls

ROOM

Adds simulated reflections and ambience to help give the sound a stronger sense of surrounding space. Turn it up to bring more of the room into the effect. As distance increases, the reflections become slightly stronger relative to the direct sound. At 0%, simulated reflections are off.

COLOR

Adjusts the direct-sound filtering that helps create directional cues, particularly for height and front-versus-back placement. Lower settings retain more of the source's original tone, but can make some spatial cues less distinct. Timing and level cues remain, and ROOM works independently of this control. COLOR also controls the slight treble reduction at greater distances.

COLOR is not a conventional dry/wet mix.

CYCLE (MOTION and ORBIT)

Sets how long one complete movement takes: A–B–A in MOTION, or one full revolution in ORBIT.

TIME runs the cycle in seconds, from 1 to 120 seconds. HOST follows your DAW's tempo and beat position, with cycle lengths from 1/4 to 64 quarter-note beats. Use HOST for beat-based movement or TIME for a fixed duration. Both follow the DAW playhead when the host supplies the relevant position.

DIAMETER (ORBIT)

Changes the size of the circle, on a relative scale from 0 to 100. The scale is relative, not a distance measurement in meters or feet.

BYPASS

The amber lamp switches processing on and off. Lit means 8DM8 is active; unlit means bypassed. A short, latency-matched crossfade makes comparisons smooth. Your DAW's standard bypass control uses the same setting. Built-in factory presets preserve it.

VIEW AND POSITIONING

Rotate the scene or switch between 3D, Front, Side, and Top views. These change how you see the scene, not where the sound is placed. CENTER acts on the Static source, the selected Motion endpoint, or the Orbit center. PLANE aligns the Orbit circle. Click an endpoint marker in Motion to select it for centering.

Click a knob's value to type it without units. Drag the lower-right corner to resize the plugin. The view and size are saved with the DAW project.

Setting it up

Insert 8DM8 on a track or bus in your DAW and listen on headphones. It accepts mono or stereo input and produces stereo output.

1. Start with STATIC and drag the source away from the center. Listen for how the direction and sense of space change.
2. Try ROOM to add ambience, then adjust COLOR to balance the positioning cues against the source's original tone.
3. Switch to MOTION for a back-and-forth effect, or ORBIT for circular movement. Shape the path directly in the scene.
4. Set CYCLE to match the feel of the track. Choose HOST for tempo- synced movement, or TIME for a cycle measured in seconds.
5. Use the BYPASS lamp to compare the result with the original sound.

For a stereo recording or full mix, 8DM8 treats the stereo signal as one spatial source. It does not move individual instruments inside an already mixed track independently.

How 8DM8 behaves

8DM8 uses binaural processing based on measured head-related transfer function (HRTF) data, including data derived from the HUTUBS database. It combines timing and level differences between the ears, directional filtering, and simulated reflections to suggest positions around the listener through stereo headphones.

The spatial effect depends on the source material, headphones, and listener. Sounds with a broad frequency range often reveal positioning cues more clearly than bass-heavy or narrow-band sounds. Dense mixes can also make those cues harder to hear.

Height is particularly sensitive. While left/right positioning relies largely on timing and level differences between the ears, elevation depends more on subtle high-frequency filtering by the outer ear. These cues vary between listeners, so above/below placement may be less distinct. Lower COLOR settings can make height cues weaker still.

8DM8 is designed for headphone listening rather than multichannel surround production.

The plugin reports 24 samples of latency at 44.1 kHz (about 0.54 ms), scaled with the sample rate. The DAW can compensate for this delay. Bypass keeps the original signal latency-aligned.

When using HOST timing, the movement follows the DAW's tempo and beat position. Consistent playback and export depend on the host providing valid song-position information.

Features

• Three modes: STATIC positioning, MOTION along an A–B–A path, and circular ORBIT movement.
• Direct 3D editing with Front, Side, and Top views.
• Spatial positioning cues beyond conventional left/right panning.
• ROOM ambience and COLOR control.
• TIME and DAW-synced HOST cycles for moving modes.
• DAW automation for custom movement in STATIC.
• Mono or stereo input, with stereo output.
• Latency-matched bypass linked to your DAW's bypass control.
• VST3 for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
• Audio Unit (AU) for macOS.

Installing

VST3 (Windows)

Copy the supplied VST3 plugin to:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\

VST3 (Linux)

Copy the supplied VST3 plugin to:

~/.vst3/

macOS

Install the supplied VST3 and/or Audio Unit plugin using the installation method included with your download.

Your DAW may need to rescan its plugins or restart before 8DM8 appears.

8DM8 also comes as a Windows standalone app for processing audio files without a DAW.