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Article in App of the Week category.
Odio Brings 3D Audio to Your Ears
A couple years ago, Apple introduced this new feature for AirPods and AirPods Pro called Spatial Audio. Basically it’s 3D audio that can be spatially…
A couple years ago, Apple introduced this new feature for AirPods and AirPods Pro called Spatial Audio. Basically it’s 3D audio that can be spatially placed anywhere around your head. Odio is an audio app that creates these 3D soundscapes using Apple’s Spatial Audio technology to help you relax.
Audio is cued up with trippy visualizers. They remind me of my old Windows PC that had this abstract colors moving around as audio played. These ones though, are interactive. You can tap on the different images to change the audio positioning and playback, making it more immersive than anything else.
Odio partners with various artists to create these soundscapes and provides new ones each month. They can be over two hours long depending on the creator. While a track plays, it minimizes at the bottom of the screen while you peruse for your next session. The minimized track changes color based on the artwork and can quickly go full-screen with just a tap.
Most of the sounds in Odio aren’t new. It’s full of waterfalls, rain, electronic washes, and more that will help you chill. Since it is for relaxing, the whole app is dark with no light option available. Just listen to it in a dark room, focusing on the audio coming from all around you.
I love seeing apps make use of Apple’s technologies and this is the first app I’ve seen to create an entire experience just around Spatial Audio. It supports head tracking too, meaning the audio can be fixed in virtual space, keep its position as you move your head around. If you play back a waterfall and it is coming from in front of you, that’s where it will stay no matter if you turn your head to the left or the right.
This app looks great, sounds great, and has very little competition when it comes to the 3D spatial audio.
But enough about other people's apps.
