Spatial Mode Overview
Spatial Mode lets you position each audio track in 3D space around the listener. When played back on AirPods or other spatial audio-capable headphones, each track appears to come from a distinct physical location — front, rear, left side, ceiling, and more.
What is Spatial Audio?
Spatial audio uses head-tracking and positional rendering to place sound sources in a three-dimensional field rather than the flat left-right stereo panorama of a conventional mix. In Homecrate, each track can be assigned one of nine spatial positions. On export, the mix is encoded as APAC (Ambisonics) on iOS 26 and later, or falls back to a stereo file tagged with full spatial position metadata on earlier iOS.
Enabling Spatial Mode
- Stop all playback and recording
- Tap ⋯ (more menu) in the header
- Tap Spatial mode
[SCREENSHOT: More menu with Spatial mode option highlighted]
A green banner appears below the transport confirming Spatial Mode is active: ”🎧 Spatial Mode — assign positions below · recording disabled”
[SCREENSHOT: Spatial mode banner visible below transport bar]
Note: Recording new audio is disabled while Spatial Mode is active. To record, switch Spatial Mode off, record your takes, then re-enable Spatial Mode to mix.
Spatial Positions
Each track can be assigned one of the following positions:
| Position | Description |
|---|---|
| Front Center | Directly in front of the listener |
| Front Left | Forward-left, similar to a left speaker |
| Front Right | Forward-right, similar to a right speaker |
| Side Left | Directly to the left |
| Side Right | Directly to the right |
| Rear Left | Behind and to the left |
| Rear Center | Directly behind |
| Rear Right | Behind and to the right |
| Global | Stereo track mixed without spatial processing — useful for the main mix bus, reverb sends, or stereo instruments that shouldn’t be anchored to a point |
Assigning a Position
In the mixer, each channel strip shows a position picker instead of the pan slider when Spatial Mode is active.
[SCREENSHOT: Channel strip in spatial mode — showing position picker label e.g. "Front L"]
Tap the picker to open the position selection modal.
[SCREENSHOT: Spatial position picker modal with all nine positions listed]
Tap any position to assign it. The current position shows a green checkmark. Changes take effect immediately during playback.
The Global Track
The Global position bypasses the spatial environment node and plays as a standard stereo signal. Assign Global to:
- Tracks with stereo reverb or ambient textures that should surround the listener rather than come from a point
- Click tracks, reference mixes, or scratch vocals you don’t want spatially anchored
- Any track where stereo imaging should be preserved as-is
Spatial Playback
Tap ▶ Play to start spatial playback. Homecrate uses the shared audio engine to render all positioned tracks through the spatial environment in real time.
For best results, wear AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, or another spatial audio-capable headphone. On regular stereo headphones, you’ll still hear the effect as a headphone-mixed approximation.
Mono Sidecar Files
For accurate spatial rendering, Homecrate automatically generates a mono version of each recorded stereo clip in the background. The spatial engine uses mono source files for positioned tracks (stereo material anchored to a point creates phase and width artifacts).
This happens automatically after recording. You don’t need to do anything.
- Positioned tracks (not Global) use the mono sidecar during playback and export
- Global tracks use the original stereo file
If a mono sidecar hasn’t been generated yet (e.g. immediately after recording a very long take), the engine falls back to the stereo file and performs a real-time downmix.
Live Parameter Updates
While spatial playback is active, you can adjust volume and mute for each track in real time and the changes take effect immediately:
- Drag a track’s volume fader — the position in space stays constant, only the loudness changes
- Tap a track’s Mute button — the track disappears from its spatial position immediately
Exporting Spatial Audio
See Exporting Spatial Audio for the full export guide, including APAC vs. stereo fallback, sharing, and metadata.
Tips
- Lead vocals typically work best at Front Center, directly in front of the listener
- Rhythm guitars often sound good at Front Left / Front Right for spread
- Bass and kick are usually Global — low frequencies don’t localize well and benefit from stereo width
- Panned instruments (shakers, counter-melodies) can be vivid at Side Left / Side Right
- Reverb returns and ambience tracks work well at Rear Center to create a sense of depth
- Use Rear Left / Rear Right sparingly — material directly behind the listener can feel disorienting