Using the u-BACCH Plug-In with Foobar

The goal of this documentation is to provide a step-by-step guide for users applying u-BACCH in both the 32-bit and 64-bit installations of Foobar for Windows.

Instructions

32-bit and 64-bit Foobar

Download and install the latest stable version of either 32-bit or 64-bit Foobar found here. [Note: 64-bit is preferred.]
Download and install the latest u-BACCH Plug-In. Can be purchased here. [Note: install the correct plug-in based off of your choice of Foobar installation.]
Download the Foobar “VST 2.x/3.x Adapter” here.
Open Foobar and add the VST Adapter to your plug-ins.
1. Go to File->Preferences-> Components
2. Click “Install…”
3. Navigate to the VST Adapter you just downloaded called “foo_dsp_vst3.fb2k-component”
4. Click “Open”
5. Click “Apply”
6. Restart Foobar

The Components list with the VST 2.x/3.x Adapter correctly installed.

Add the u-BACCH Plug-In to your active DSPs.
1. go to File->Preferences->Playback->DSP Manager.
2. In the “Available DSPs” column on the right, click the ‘+’ next to the “VST 2.x/3.x Adapter” to add it to the Active DSPs column. [Note: if “VST 2.x/3.x Adapter” is not an option in your “Available DSPs” step 4 was not completed correctly and must be redone.]
3. Click the three dots next to the VST 2.x/3.x Adapter in the active DSPs column. A window called “VST Effect Configuration” will open.
4. Click the drop-down and add the intended version of the u-BACCH plug-in. [Note: if no VST effects are found, u-BACCH was not installed correctly. Follow the steps in the u-BACCH installer again.]
  VST Effect Configuration with uBACCHaudio plug-in selected.
5. When the u-BACCH interface pops up, add your license key
6. Adjust your u-BACCH Angle as desired based off of your speaker set-up. Then close the u-BACCH interface and the VST Effect Configuration page.
7. Click “Apply” and then “Ok”.
The u-BACCH plug-in will now be applied to your audio path. To remove u-BACCH, click the “X” to remove it from the “Active DSPs” collumn. To re-add u-BACCH to your audio path, click the “+” next to “VST 2.x/3.x Adapter”. It should show up as “VST: uBACCHaudio”. If it doesn’t, re-initialize u-BACCH by repeating Step 5.
To bring up the u-BACCH tuning interface again, simply navigate to File->Preferences->Playback-> Components and under “Active DSPs” click the three dots on the right of “VST: uBACCHaudio“.

Walkthrough Video

Tuning u-BACCH in Foobar

Import the “L” and/or “R” pink noise files above into Foobar.
Right click the ‘Play’ button in Foobar and select “Playback Order”.
Select “Repeat (track)” in the drop-down. This is how you ‘loop’ audio files in Foobar. Once finished with the tuning procedure, turn this off to prevent audio files from continuing to loop.

Click play on the pink noise track.
Go to File->Preferences->Playback->DSP Manager, click the three dots next to uBACCHaudio

Adjust the u-BACCH Angle to fit your audio setup and then close the u-BACCH interface and VST Effect Configuration windows.
Finally, click “Apply” in the ‘DSP Manager’ window to save the changes to your u-BACCH Angle.

Tuning Recommendations: To tune u-BACCH simply change the angle (you don't need to open the tuning window at all) until the noise sounds clearly and cleanly outside the speaker, off to your right or left, and preferably up next to your ear, depending on your setup. If one side is more obvious to you, it is recommended to just tune on that side and go with that angle setting.

Ballpark examples (not exact, just where most fall into):

Desktop studio monitors: 20-40º
Far field/floor standing speakers: 15-30º
Film configuration L/R: 20-25º
Laptops: 12-18º
Soundbars 10-16º

Known Foobar Issue

Foobar does not follow standard VST plug-in formatting and procedural calls, thus, it can be sensitive to crashing when running VST plug-ins. One such Foobar crash occurs when aggressively scrubbing the playback head. This crash shows the error window below. If this crash occurs, simply close the error window and restart the selected audio track.