Table of Contents Show
For those who don’t know the tool: Sequoia is Boris FX‘s Windows-only DAW for mastering, broadcast, classical recording and post audio. It exchanges projects through AAF/OMF and hosts VST3 and ARA workflows. In Boris FX’s wider ecosystem, SoundApp plug-ins also run in Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro and Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve, while Sequoia’s ADM Editor and Dolby Atmos integration address immersive delivery.
A panner, not a new renderer
Boris FX released Sequoia 2026.5. Its principal addition is the Spatial Panner, a unified control environment for mono, stereo, surround and immersive routing. It handles configurations from mono through 22.2 and presents stereo, surround, Dolby Atmos and ADM targets within the same workspace. The practical aim is to stop engineers rebuilding or revisiting the same placement decisions in separate format-specific windows.
This is a new artist-facing interface and routing workflow, not a newly disclosed panning algorithm, rendering engine or public API. Boris FX releases new visualisation, source management, target linking and control behaviour. The Spatial Panner is not a new renderer, but it is more than a visual redesign. Sequoia 2026.5 introduces new spatial-panning algorithms and control behaviour for surround and immersive formats, while the established stereo-panning processing remains available. Rendering and metadata delivery still pass through Sequoia’s existing audio engine, ADM Editor and Dolby Atmos workflow. Routing is still routing, but it has stopped pretending that each delivery format lives in a different building.
One room, all routed sources
The Spatial Panner can display every routed source feeding the selected target, rather than limiting the engineer to one isolated track. Each source retains its track colour and carries a live peak meter plus solo and mute controls. Sources can be hidden when a dense session becomes visually unhelpful, and multi-selection is supported. The 2D view offers front, top and side perspectives, while an optional 3D cube adds the missing axis and shows the relationship between sources and the active speaker layout.
One decision, several deliverables
A chain control links a source’s panning across several target buses. With the link active, a movement can update stereo, surround and immersive routes together. The engineer can break that link for an individual target, after which panning and automation apply only to the selected route. This is shared editing state with format-specific overrides, not an automatic downmix.
Main, surround, spot and room microphones become visible together, allowing the Atmos placement to follow the recorded stage layout. A two-channel stereo target represents only the left-right axis; depth and height positions have no direct spatial equivalent there. While an individual source, such as a glockenspiel or a vuvuzela (Random example; don’t read too much into it), can be unlinked and moved into the height layer only for the immersive target.
For post and broadcast work, the production consequence is fewer duplicated projects and fewer opportunities for one version to acquire an undocumented routing change. It does not remove the requirement to monitor each target, verify fold-down behaviour, inspect automation and validate the rendered ADM master.
Controls for mono and stereo
Mono and multichannel sources can be moved along the left-right, front-back and bottom-top axes. Speaker Snap places a source directly on a loudspeaker position rather than leaving it between destinations. The panel also exposes centre divergence and an independent LFE level, plus rotation tools, movement modifiers and position presets. Sources can therefore be placed numerically or visually, snapped to the reproduction layout, or automated through movement in the spatial view.
Stereo material receives a handle that lets the pair move as one source, a Spread control that changes its occupied width, and three symmetry behaviours. Parallel preserves the pair’s alignment, Angle turns it towards the listening position, and Independent permits separate placement of the two channels. These are direct artist controls, not hidden decisions imposed by the renderer. Sequoia also retains Matrix mode, panning presets and support for external VST panners where a production requires a specialised third-party tool.
VST3 is a software interface through which hosts load compatible plug-ins. Boris FX has not announced a separate Spatial Panner SDK in the 2026.5 material. API support and an artist-facing plug-in selector are related, but they are not interchangeable nouns.
ADM remains the delivery layer
The Spatial Panner controls positions and routes, but it does not replace ADM. The EBU defines ADM as a metadata model describing the technical properties of audio so that attached material can be handled correctly. Sequoia’s ADM Editor creates files following the general EBU specification and the requirements documented for Dolby Atmos distribution. The Dolby Atmos Renderer then combines audio and authored positional metadata for monitoring and master-file creation.
Boris FX’s Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 template contains a 7.1.4 bed represented as a direct-speaker object, separate object tracks, a renderer on the surround master and both loudspeaker and binaural monitoring paths. The documentation also notes that Atmos objects cannot contain LFE content directly, so an auxiliary send routes the required low-frequency material into the bed’s LFE channel.
ARA goes deeper
Sequoia 2026.5 also expands ARA support. Compatible ARA plug-ins are automatically detected rather than individually integrated or whitelisted, and full clips can be analysed and processed from the arranger. The bundled workflow highlighted by Boris FX is SoundApp ARA, which brings stem separation and denoising into the Sequoia session without an intermediate export and re-import.
ARA extends interfaces such as VST with direct access to audio and arrangement information. Celemony also warns that the available feature set varies between hosts. The new element here is the integration and automatic host workflow.
Video and supporting changes
The video work needs similar version discipline. Sequoia 2026 introduced the underlying engine for full-resolution 4K playback up to 60 fps, AVC, HEVC and AV1 support, and GPU acceleration on Nvidia, AMD and Intel hardware. Native Apple ProRes support also arrived in that base release.
Sequoia 2026.5 refines this existing engine with improved timecode synchronisation, more flexible Blackmagic hardware support, multistream audio capability and a revised preview. The GPU backend is inherited; the sync and I/O work is new. It also says Audio Plugin Union tools are faster, smoother and more responsive.
Other additions include waveform calculation during playback, improved sMax11 True Peak filtering, greater EUCON stability and 32-bit integer export for mastering and archive delivery. EUCON is Avid‘s Ethernet control protocol for compatible surfaces and applications.
Windows and processing boundaries
Sequoia remains a 64-bit Windows application supporting Windows 10 and Windows 11. Boris FX lists a minimum of four CPU cores, at least an eighth-generation Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 2 GB for installation, a current integrated GPU and WDM- or ASIO-capable audio hardware. Its recommended configuration increases that to eight to sixteen cores, 32 GB or more RAM, 14 GB for included content, NVMe storage and a current Windows 11 ASIO driver.
Audio runs through Sequoia’s Hybrid Audio Engine, including its low-latency and high-latency processing paths, with 32-bit floating-point recording at sample rates up to 384 kHz. The documented GPU acceleration applies to the video engine.
Licensing and deployment
Boris FX publishes Sequoia at $95 per month or $595 per year as subscriptions. A perpetual licence costs $1,695 and includes one year of Upgrade and Support, while an upgrade from a previous Sequoia version costs $595. The monthly option is still described by Boris FX as a subscription, not as a separate rental licence.
Perpetual purchases and upgrades include a complimentary 12-month Upgrade and Support contract. A perpetual licence remains functional when that contract expires, although subsequent releases require renewed entitlement. Boris FX provides hardware and software Wibu containers, with a third-generation Wibu dongle required for hardware activation. Floating licences are offered only for annual subscriptions, require at least five annual licences per product and carry what Boris FX describes as a flat discounted fee of $500.
Test the release on representative production assets, including panning automation, ADM metadata, plug-in recall, AAF/OMF exchange, video I/O and the intended monitoring chain, before deployment.
https://borisfx.com/free-trial/?product=sequoia
| Product | Sequoia 2026.5 |
| Developer | Boris FX |
| Release status | Available; released 6 August 2026. |
| Application type | Standalone professional DAW for mastering, broadcast, recording and post-production. |
| Operating systems | Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit. |
| Spatial formats | Mono through 22.2, Dolby Atmos and ADM. |
| Exchange and delivery | AAF/OMF import and export, with AAF recommended; ADM Editor; 32-bit integer export. |
| Audio processing | Hybrid Audio Engine; 32-bit floating-point recording at up to 384 kHz. |
| Video processing | GPU acceleration on Nvidia, AMD and Intel hardware for AVC, HEVC and AV1; native ProRes support; 2026.5 improves sync, Blackmagic hardware support, multistream audio and preview. |
| Minimum hardware | Four to eight CPU cores, minimum eighth-generation Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 2 GB installation storage, current integrated GPU and WDM/ASIO audio hardware. |
| Recommended hardware | Eight to sixteen CPU cores, 32 GB or more RAM, 2 GB application storage plus 14 GB content, NVMe project storage and a current Windows 11 ASIO driver. |
| Licence models | Monthly or annual subscription, perpetual licence and previous-version upgrade; hardware or software Wibu activation. |
| Floating licensing | Annual subscriptions only; minimum five annual licences per product; published flat discounted fee of $500; VM or physical server with USB dongle options. |
| Trial | 15-day trial; the core application is described as unrestricted in the product FAQ, while add-ons and third-party content are excluded. |
| Update entitlement | A perpetual licence or upgrade includes 12 months of Upgrade and Support; perpetual licences remain functional after support expires. Plan details. |
| Documentation | Official Boris FX documentation |
| Download | Boris FX Hub and Sequoia installer |
| Pricing | Official store: $95/month; $595/year; $1,695 perpetual including 12 months of Upgrade and Support; $595 previous-version upgrade. No promotion stated. |
