Software and APIs

HDFView: Generic SOFA file viewer

SOFA files are based on netCDF-4. NetCDF is based on HDF5. HDFView is a generic viewer for HDF5 files running in Java.

Thus, SOFA files can be loaded and edited in the HDFView. This is a generic viewer; it allows browsing through all metadata and data in a numeric format only.

SOFA Toolbox for Matlab/Octave (previously SOFA API Matlab/Octave)

SOFA Toolbox for Matlab/Octave aims at providing a basic interface for handling SOFA files in Matlab and Octave.

The releases are provided at SONICOM Ecosystem (versions on Sourceforge are not updated anymore). The sources are stored at github

SOFA API for C++

An API for C++ is available online. The version 1.0 is in accordance with the AES69-2015 standard.

The sources are stored at github.

If you have questions about this API, please send an email to the mailing list. You don't have to be a member of the mailing list to send a message to the list moderator.

pysofaconventions: SOFA API for Python

pysofaconventions is a SOFA API for Python made by Andrés Pérez-López (UPF/Eurecat, Spain). It is a full implementation of SOFA including reading and writing SOFA files, taking the C++ API as a reference. It supports automatic installation via the pip system.

pySOFA: Lightweight SOFA API for Python (read-only, FIR only)

pySOFA is a SOFA API for Python made by Jörg Encke (TUM, Munich). The API is currently read-only and implements the FIR Datatype. It was implemented for a specific project and only implements a limited amount of features. If you have question about this API, feel free to contact Jörg Encke or to submit an issue report.

SOFASonix: Lightweight SOFA API for Python (read/write support, all conventions)

SOFASonix is another lightweight SOFA API for Python made by Ioseb Laghidze (ISVR, Southampton University, UK). It supports both reading and writing of SOFA files for the conventions defined at the time of writing. The API is a full implementation of SOFA with built-in validation-checks for compliance with each convention and a generator of convention templates for quickly creating SOFA files. SOFASonix runs on an SQLite database, making it backwards compatible with previous versions of each convention.

sofar: Maybe the most complete Python package for the SOFA file format (read/write support)

sofar is a SOFA API for Python made by Fabian Brinkmann. It supports both reading and writing of SOFA files. The API allows adding custom data & attributes to SOFA files and verifying its content with respect to the data type and shape.

libmysofa: Lightweight SOFA API in C (reading)

Libmysofa is a light weight C-library intended to read SOFA files for spatial rendering.

It hardly has any library dependencies and is suitable for embedded devices. It can read SOFA files and check whether the data comply the "SimpleFreeFieldHRIR" conventions. In addition, provides functions to look-up and interpolate the filters for a given orientation and to normalize the HRTFs to a reference level. It compiles unter Linux (CMake) and Windows (Visual Studio 2015).

WebSofa: SOFA API in JavaScript

WebSofa is slightly based on the libmysofa research for loading HDF files without much dependencies. However, in contrast to the low level c library this library is meant to be executed in a JavaScript environment (such as any modern browser or Node.js). So far it is not completed as it's just a hobby project, but it already allows to display properties of a given SOFA file. Try it out in the online demo.

sofa~: SOFA for Max

SOFA for Max is a collection of objects made by Dale Johnson and Hyunkook Lee (University of Huddersfield, UK) for using and creating SOFA files in Max. It is based on libsofa C++ API and enables SOFA files to be utilized in patches designed for spatial audio reproduction. The binaries are available for [ https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3269271 MacOS and Windows].

Application: IRCAM Spat

Spat is a software suite for sound spatialisation in real-time in music creation, post-production, and live performances. It supports SOFA for binaural rendering.

Application: IRCAM Panoramix

Panoramix is a standalone application for spatial audio mixing and post-production. It supports SOFA for binaural rendering.

Application: SOFAlizer plug-in for VLC player

SOFAlizer is a simple demo of an audio engine as a plugin for the VLC-Player.

Currently, Windows binaries of the VLC-Player 2.1 compiled with the SOFAlizer plugin are available. Details on the installation can be found here.

The source code is available here. The file sofalizer.c can serve as an example of how to load SOFA files in C++.

Application: DirPat

DirPat is a set of tools aiming at the analysis and visualization of the directivity of acoustic sources like loudspeakers, microphones, singers, talkers, and music instruments. DirPat consists of user interfaces, signal-processing tools, and a database of measured directivities which are handled as SOFA files.

Application: 3D Tune-In Toolkit

3D Tune-In Toolkit is a standard C++ library for audio spatialization via headphones. It was developed within the 3D Tune-In project aiming at using 3D sound and simulating hearing loss and hearing aids within virtual environments and games.

Application: Anaglyph VST

Anaglyph VST is a VST effect plugin for binaural rendering with SOFA files in a digital-audio workstation. Anaglyph includes a personalizable morphological ITD model, near-field ILD corrections, and HRTF parallax selection, among other features.

Application: Binaural Audio

The Binaural Audio project aims to introduce people to binaural audio. It provides audio samples (including HRTF and SOFA files) within its large database.

Application: Webcam Headtracker

The Webcam Headtracker Application by the Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil) and the ISVR in Southampton is software-based, which means you don't need any special hardware attached to your head, only a webcam video feed, so the model can infer the listener's head orientation and positioning, making it a handy approach to many applications involving spatialized audio.

Application: Individualized HRTF App

The Individualized HRTF App by the Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil) is a MATLAB-based app capable of generating HRTFs in SOFA and HeSuVi WAV formats by providing personal measurements of head and ears. More info about the Individualized HRTF Synthesis project can be found on Github.