Dear Reality has ceased operation, and all 11 plugins focusing on immersive audio are now available as free downloads.
Immersive Audio is a big topic in music production due to more affordable hardware and software for it. For example, you can enjoy it on consumer headphones. Dear Reality, founded in 2015, was an early adopter of its plugins.
Four years later, in 2019, Sennheiser acquired the company and continues to do so today. But the Dear Reality story is now coming to an end. Sennheiser has announced consolidating all Immersive Audio initiatives within the group, including the cessation of Dear Reality’s business operations. In short, DR will no longer continue as an independent company.
Dear Reality Plugins
This business plan change also affects plugins. From now on, all Dear Reality plugins will no longer be developed or maintained, and their licenses will be deactivated on July 31, 2025.
At the same time, Sennheiser also announced that most of the DR plugins are available for free download. Upon registration for the Sennheiser AMBEO newsletter, you can download the plugins for free and use them without restriction.
The following plugins are available for free:
- dearVR Pro 2: state-of-the-art spatalizer plugin with mixing in stereo, multi-channel up to 9.1.6, binaura, and Ambisonics options.
- Exoverb: natural stereo reverb plugin with 50 true-to-life sounding acoustic scenes with unheard three-dimensional depth and width.
- dearVR Ambi Micro: mix, monitor, and render Ambisonics tracks up to 3rd order right out of the box.
- dearVR micro: easy-to-use spatalizer plugin
- Exoverb Micro: compact reverb plugin powered by the same Exoverb engine but with eight crafted acoustic scenes
- dearVR Mix: a monitoring plugin that turns any studio headphones into a world-class stereo mix room with support for 55 different studio headphones.
- dearVR MIX-SE: ultimate mixing environment for your HD 490 PRO reference studio headphones.
- MIYA: creative re-synthesizer plugin adjustable harmonics.
- dearVR spatial connect: an innovative VR controller for spatial audio productions
- dearVR music: turn your DAW into a 3D audio powerhouse
- dearVR Unity: create ultra-realistic acoustic environments in Unity with a true perception of direction, distance, reflections, and reverb
The dearVR Music plugin will remain useable for owners through Plugin Alliance and doesn’t need a new version. The Unity plugin only offers a legacy installed that is depreciated since 2024.
Existing Customers
During the transition period between March 25, 2025, and July 31, 2025, support will be available at support@dear-reality.com to assist you with any questions or concerns.
First Impression
It’s a shame that Dear Reality is ending, but that’s often the case when a major venue takes over a smaller one. See Apple with Came Audio.
It’s positive that Sennheiser is offering the Dear Reality plugins for free. So they’re not lost, and many people can use them for free and discover Immensity Audio.
The Dear Reality plugins are now available for free download. To take advantage of this offer, you must register for the Sennheiser AMBEO newsletter. They run as a VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
More information here: Sennheiser
It is nice to get these for a free use. Yet, I found their quality extremely bad sounding and saw same comments from colleagues as well. Saying so, this surly depends on your taste, your genre, style and what you want to achieve. As I am on the neutral sounding but powerhorse side, I can’t recommend spending too much time with them. 🙂