Thank you Embody for sending us a year's license of this software for review, along with an Audeze Maxwell 2 ANC for testing the head tracking!

We were blessed to be able to review Embody's Immerse Gaming HIVE back in 2021 when it was originally released.  It's neat software, and at the time I reviewed it, it was one of the best surround virtualization software stacks I had tried. With HIVE 2.0, they are bringing in head tracking for the first time, along with other improvements. Having reviewed the Audeze Mobius (coincidentally, also in 2021) with its integrated head tracking, I was excited to see how this new software stack works. Hive 2.0 also has special support for the Audeze Maxwell 2 ANC model, and can use the integrated (but not easily accessible) head tracking that the new headset also offers. For non-Maxwell headsets and all other headphones, it can instead use a webcam to offer similar functionality.

For those unfamiliar, head tracking is a neat feature where the position of your head relative to the center actually shifts the audio image to match where you're looking. So, if you turn your head sharply to the left or right, the sound will be 'pointing' towards the center. The idea with this is that naturally we move our heads slightly to help us locate objects in the real world. By having the gaming audio track that head movement, we should more instinctively be able to tell where things are in 3D space.

Most headphones and headsets don't offer built-in head tracking. For those that don't, Immerse Gaming HIVE 2.0 can use a webcam to track your face and figure out where you're facing. I tried this with my audiophile wired headphones, and the effect was pretty convincing. It no doubt has a small computational cost, and since most webcams don't work much faster than sixty frames per second, there is at least some delay as the camera catches up with your movements.

However, for some headsets, they have head tracking built-in. In this case, the Audeze Maxwell line should have some support, and Embody was kind enough to send us an Audeze Maxwell 2 ANC to evaluate HIVE 2.0 on. Here, the head tracking was much more precise, and quicker as well. The older Audeze Mobius supported head tracking at 1,000Hz; I don't know if it remains that quick here, but it does work well. The only issue I noticed is that sometimes Immerse Gaming HIVE would get a bit out of sync, so I had to press Alt+0 in order to reset it to center once again. Otherwise it works well.

While I do believe the older Mobius' head tracking is a bit more reliable and snappier than it is here, it still is a very convincing effect. How much the positioning effect helps with the surround sound emulation that HIVE is known for is difficult to say. But it's certainly more fun with it on!

Embody's Immerse Gaming HIVE 2.0 isn't just about head tracking. With the 2.0 release, it is the biggest new feature, but HIVE is really all about virtual surround sound. For many, the ideal surround sound environment is a home theater with eight speakers: a center, a left and right, a surround left and right, and rear left and right. The eighth is a subwoofer. In my personal home theater, I have this setup along with Dolby Atmos height speakers. However, since most headphones cover each ear with one driver, some simulation needs to happen to emulate surround sound. The process to do this is called 'HRTF', or Head-Related Transfer Function. This mathematical model is a critical part of surround sound emulation.

However, rather than just simply using a standard or normalized HRTF for everyone, HIVE takes it to the next level by customizing it for each user. When you click the big 'Personalize' button, it asks you to scan a QR code with your phone, which then takes you to a special, account specific URL, where you take a quick video of your ear and turn your head, after which you upload it to Embody's cloud. I must say this is really cool. It analyses your ear, creates your custom HRTF based on the ear shape, and associates the results with your account. Once the ear analysis was complete, I was able to see that I used up one of my five ear image submissions. You can also install it on up to ten devices, which is great, since I have a lot of computers. I've already installed it on two, and could easily add a few more.

Once the software is installed, you need to do two things: make sure your default audio device is set to 'Immerse HIVE', and make sure the Immerse HIVE app is running. If you have two monitors like I do, then keep the app on the secondary one, so you can note the status of what is going on from the app at a glance. You used to be able to enable/disable the Spatial Audio emulation by pressing alt+2, but that shortcut no longer seems to work, so you have to move your mouse over to the window and click on the slider. You can change the audio emulation preset with alt+4, and change the HUD mode with alt+3. If you only have one monitor, you can use the translucent overlay and move it to anywhere you like on your screen, and see which direction the audio cues are coming from. Alt+3 changes between the normal window and this mode. It's called Sonar Map. Because I have two monitors, I can do the same thing without taking up any space on my main display (and leave it in normal window mode while I do so). I can see it being really useful, though.

There are three different surround modes: Close Combat Mode, Immerse Mode, and Awaken Mode. Close Combat Mode pulls the sounds close to your head, and promises to be the best for RPGs, Horror games, and Racing. Immerse Mode is the default, and promises to be the best for FPS games and a good all-around standard choice. It promises a larger sound field, with better front to back separation. Awaken Mode promises to have the largest sound field, with off-screen awareness. It's the best for MOBAs and Isometric games. I tried them all, but I stuck with the Immerse Mode when I wasn't sure, or was playing a genre not otherwise covered.

Before gaming, I did try listen to music using Immerse Gaming HIVE. It's surprisingly not bad, though normal Stereo is more to my preferences. Of the three Surround modes, Immerse Mode seems to sound the best to me, followed by Close Combat Mode (barely). Awaken Mode does offer a wide sound stage, at the cost of a lot more echo/reverb, which might be fine for some songs, but I didn't prefer it. The good news is that compared to what I noted in the original HIVE release, it didn't seem to cut the highs nearly as much, though I can't be certain since I don't have the older and current versions side-by-side.

One thing I did note is that when enabling Spatial Audio, it brings up the volume of everything you hear. This is true in all modes and when listening to any source. If your headphones are just a bit too quiet, as strange as it may seem, Immerse Gaming HIVE 2.0 can help. However, it can introduce additional pops or other artifacts, but it's thankfully pretty rare.

Most music is in Stereo, with just a left and right channel. However, I am not your normal consumer. I have a few digital rips of some DVD-Audio disks I bought several years ago; one of them is multichannel release of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. The process to rip the audio is unpleasant and complex; I never took the time to get the whole album ripped and converted to multichannel FLAC, but I did do it for one of the tracks, the famous introductory section of Tubular Bells. It turns out that even without the Spatial Audio modes enabled, you can still listen to 5.1 or 7.1 encoded audio through Immerse Gaming HIVE. Listening to that surround sound music through headphones, and having it sound so good, was an absolute treat. While you can enable Spatial Audio, I preferred it disabled for listening to that surround sound album, as you get the pure song while still enjoying the surround effects from the driver's built-in 7.1 emulation.

That preference for Spatial Audio disabled carried through to most of my music listening. It's not that the effects aren't neat, but I just prefer listening to as natural of a means as possible. This preference also carried over to single-player RPGs which only present in Stereo. They tend not to be produced in more than two channels anyway, so there is little benefit.

One thing that really helps in HIVE is that it displays how many channels are being used at any one time. Spatial Audio has to be enabled to see this, but it's still quite handy. When playing some games, you'll see just the left and right dots glow; that's normal for menu music, but if it stays that way in-game, then there is no surround sound. However, if many of the little bulbs around the head glow, then you can likely enjoy the full Immerse Gaming HIVE experience.

The funny thing is, I didn't realize how many games actually do offer a good surround sound experience. It's not just modern games also - even Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from 2004 supports it! I also learned that the Unreal Tournament from 1999 (aka UT99) release on oldunreal.com also includes a surround sound driver. Very cool!