Session AM — Perspective · Guide v04 — (1) Chrome requirement made explicit and prominent: the broadcasting opening note now says Google Chrome is REQUIRED (other browsers are blocked at the door, matching the broadcast v76 gate); (2) "← Perspective" home link added as the first item of the sticky TOC nav. Previous Guide v03 — chapter order swapped (Broadcasting first, then Listening; How it works back to paper for alternation), two figures added to the DAW-routing step (Loopback devices grid, DAW+broadcaster side-by-side, img/ folder, JPEG 1600w), figure/figcaption styles. Previous v02 — routing section added. Previous v01

Part 1

Broadcasting

A control room for your stage.

The broadcaster requires Google Chrome, on a desktop-sized window (roughly 1040px or wider). Other browsers are blocked at the door — audio-device handling and WebRTC only behave reliably in Chrome.

1Add your sound objects

Every input — each mic, each channel from your audio interface — becomes one sound object. In the bottom rack:

+ Add Object creates a strip.
On each strip: name it, pick an instrument icon (that's what listeners see on their map), choose the input device, set gain, and hit Connect. Mute and disconnect are per-strip.
Connect All powers up every strip at once.

2Route your DAW — virtual audio devices

The broadcaster's inputs are your system's audio input devices. To stream separate stems from a DAW instead of live microphones, use a virtual audio driver: Loopback (Rogue Amoeba, macOS), or alternatives like BlackHole (macOS, free) or VB-Audio Cable (Windows).

The golden rule: one virtual device per sound object.

In Loopback, create one device per stem — name them predictably (LB A, LB B, LB C…) — each with its Pass-Thru source wired to Channels 1 & 2.
In your DAW, give each stem or bus its own output, routed to the matching virtual device.
In the broadcaster, each strip picks its own virtual device as input.

Loopback: one virtual device per stem (LB A, LB B, …), each with a Pass-Thru source wired to Channels 1 and 2 — Loopback: one virtual device per stem — *LB A, LB B, LB C…* — each with its Pass-Thru source wired to Channels 1 & 2.

Why one device per object, instead of a single big multichannel device: each strip captures its device independently — a clean 1:1 mapping from DAW output → virtual device → object, with per-object gain and mute, and disconnecting one object never touches another.

Mono vs stereo. Each object captures up to 2 channels. A mono stem is the natural fit — a sound object is a point in space. A stereo stem works too: the strip shows a width mode — Mono sum (default, the safest spatial choice) or the Wide modes with a width slider, which spread the L/R image around the object's position.

Once everything is mapped, save the project: device assignments are stored in the project file, so next session the whole routing comes back in one click.

The full chain: DAW stems each on their own output (left), the broadcaster with each strip capturing its own virtual device (right) — The full chain: in the DAW (left) every stem gets its own output, routed to its virtual device; in the broadcaster (right) every strip captures that device — a 1:1 map from session to stage.

3Place them on stage

The big viewport is your stage, seen from above.

Drag objects where you want them.
Stage size (top-left) sets the real dimensions in meters — a 30×10 jazz club and a 60×40 field are very different walks.
Link objects: Shift+click two or more, then Link Selected — they move together (a drum kit, a string section). Unlink All clears every link.
Expand fullscreens the stage view.

4Position presets

Three preset slots in the right rail: arrange the stage, hit 💾 to save, ▶ to recall, and rename them freely. They're stored on this computer — instant scene changes mid-session.

5Room / Reverb

Pick the acoustic space you suggest to listeners — they see a banner and can accept it or choose their own. The Wet slider sets the suggested default amount.

6Stream identity

In the top bar, set the Stream title and upload a Cover image. This is what listeners see on the entry gate while joining — it's your poster.

7Quality

Two Opus rates: Max Quality — 510 kbps (default) or Balanced — 192 kbps for fragile connections.

8Go live

Enter a room id (this names your session) and hit 📡 Go Live. The listener link appears — Copy, WhatsApp, or Telegram it out. ■ Stop Live ends the broadcast.

9Monitor & meters

The Master meter shows your outgoing sum; Monitor On/Off toggles your own local listening without affecting the stream.

10Save / Load project

💾 Save writes a project file with device assignments, positions, room and quality; 📂 Load restores it. Name the project in the top-left field — one session's setup becomes next week's starting point.

Part 2

Listening

Choose where you want to stand.

1Enter the session

You receive an invite link — WhatsApp, Telegram, or a plain URL. Opening it shows the entry gate: the stream's title and cover, sent live by the broadcaster. Tap to enter — that single tap is also what unlocks audio on your device, so nothing plays before you're ready.

Wear headphones. Perspective renders binaural 3D audio (HRTF). On speakers it still works — but the "walking through the band" effect lives in headphones.

2The Space

The main view is a top-down map of the stage. Colored icons are the sound objects — piano, bass, drums, voices, whatever the broadcaster placed. The dot with the light cone is you; the cone shows the direction you're facing.

What you hear is exactly what the map shows: objects to your left sound left, objects behind you sound behind you, and distance is real — walk away from the drums and they recede.

3Moving around

On a phone — the trackpad strip below the room

1 finger — move

2 fingers — look

The strip works like a laptop trackpad — the room view itself stays clean, so a finger never covers it.

On a tablet

Touch the room directly: your finger position is where you stand. A second finger turns your head.

On a desktop

Hover over the room to walk there — you automatically face where you're going.
Click to park yourself in place; click again to release.
Hold the button and drag horizontally to look around; walking pauses while you hold.

4Focus

The Focus button above the room expands the Space view — useful when you just want to wander.

5The dock — Objects · Room · Sound · Connection

Four buttons under the Space open everything else.

Objects — who's in the room. The list of connected sound objects with their colors, matching the icons on the map.

Room — the acoustics. Choose the space you're standing in:

Dry / No Room Forest Theatre 41 St Margarets Church Todd-AO Theatre Jack Lyons Concert Hall Concert Hall (synth) Cathedral (synth)

The red-marked rooms are real measured acoustic spaces (impulse responses); the others are synthetic.

The Dry ↔ Wet slider sets how much of the room you hear.
Distance-linked reverb, when ON, ties each object's reverb to how far you are from it: walk up close and it dries up, step away and it gets roomier — like a real room.
If the broadcaster suggests a room, a banner appears — tap Use this to follow, or keep your own.

Sound — your output. A level meter and live spectrum, plus Master boost (up to +12 dB if the stream is quiet) and Air / Detail, a gentle high-shelf to open up the top end.

Connection — the session. Status of your link to the broadcaster, and a Reconnect button if something drops.

6Quick tips

Headphones on, always.
Keep the tab or app in the foreground — iOS in particular can suspend audio in the background.
If an object vanishes from the map, the broadcaster disconnected it — the Objects panel reflects the room live.