Sound in Space

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Sound in Space

WHO: Fernando Lopez-Lezcano Douglas McCausland (TA)

WHEN: Tue/Thu 12:30PM – 1:50PM

WHERE: somewhere in the zoomniverse

WHERE: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/courses/222-winter-2021/

and of course in Canvas...

● what has happened so far? (a bit of history)

● perception fundamentals

● microphone techniques

● ambisonics

● panning (and others: granular, spectral spatialization, etc)

● reverberation

● loudspeaker orchestras

● binaural, transaural, hrtf

● large scale diffusion systems

● wave field synthesis (brief overview)

● microphone building and calibration (if there is time)

● master classes (stay tuned...) ● concerts somewhere in the CCRMA network...

● assignments (readings, experimental stuff)

● project (start thinking about it now)

● Listening Room – 22.8 3D array, decodes up to 3rd order Ambisonics ● The Stage – 56.8 3D speaker array, up to 6th order Ambisonics ● Studio D / E – ring of 8 2D arrays

● Surrounded @ Home

● Surrounded @ Home – z606 5.1 speakers – cheap studio light stands (& 3d printed adapters) – 7.1 usb audio interface & cables (16 bit!) – audio recorder, binaural microphone, headphones...

● Surrounded @ Home

● Surrounded @ Home – REW (Room Equalization Wizard) ● measure impulse responses ● calculate generic parametric filters – Design a Faust based speaker processor ● incorporate crossover and filters ● compile into a VST (to use in Ardour or Reaper)

● Surrounded @ Home

● reading: “a short history of spatial music”: http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/7_4/zvonar_spatialmusic.html (written by Richard Svonar)

Symphonie pour un Homme Seul (1950), Pierre Schaeffer

Gesang der Jünglinge (1956), Karlheinz Stockhausen (5 channels!)

Poème Electronique (1958), Edgard Varèse

Hibiki Hana Ma (1970), Ian Xenakis (Osaka) (12 channels)

● some milestones – San Marco, Venice, “spatial antiphonal” works (mid 16th century) – many examples of orchestral spatial music – Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), Schaeffer (1948), real-time diffusion (4 channels, F-L-B-Overhead)

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 1951 Music 222, Sound in Space nothing new under the sun (50's ... tape recorders!) – John Cage: Williams Mix (1952) for 8 mono tapes – Stockhausen: Gesang der Jünglinge (1956), 4 + 1 tracks – Stockhausen: Kontakte (1960), 4 channels

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space nothing new under the sun – Philips Pavilion, World Fair (1958) Varese – Xenakis – Le Corbusier ● projection, film, 450 speakers, 3 track sound – Expo 70, Osaka Xenakis, Hibiki Hana Ma, 12 channel, (Japanese Steel Pavillion)

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space nothing new under the sun – German Pavillion: Stockhausen, 55 speakers in 7 rings, soloists in balconies, audience seating in a grid (enveloping sound)

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space nothing new under the sun – German Pavillion Stockhausen, 55 speakers in 7 rings soloists in balconies audience seating in a grid (enveloping sound)

“To sit inside the sound, to be surrounded by the sound, to be able to follow and experience the movement of the sounds, their speeds and forms in which they move: all this actually creates a completely new situation for musical experience. 'Musical space travel' has finally achieved a three-dimensional spatiality with this auditorium, in contrast to all my previous performances with the one horizontal ring of loudspeakers around the listeners.” (C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space nothing new under the sun – 4 track tape recorders – quad – analog panners (ex: Subotnick + Buchla) – digital systems (CCRMA) Max Mathews – John Chowning (Turenas, 1972) – Pierre Henry, acousmatique diffusion ● GRM (Paris) ● BEAST (Birmingham) – Stan Shaff, Audium (San Francisco, 1960+) ....

● important: – create “space” for multiple sounds (“streaming”, “cocktail party effect”) ● http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/11_4/thigpen_spatialization.html (#4, #8) ● movement can translate into: – tension, relaxation – surprises – tell a story – focus the attention of the listener – help articulate gestures ● soundscapes – create multidimensional layers in a sound scene – take the audience “somewhere else” (C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space how do we use it?

● use speakers as individual voices (very precise) (ej: “Polychromie”, Koenig)

● create virtual sound sources, move them in space (it is an auditory illusion and depends on the method used, there is always a “sweet spot”)

● use speakers as individual voices (very precise) (ej: “Polychromie”, Koenig)

● create virtual sound sources, move them in space (it is an auditory illusion and depends on the method used, there is always a “sweet spot”)

● create a soundscape that surrounds the audience with real or synthetic sounds

● use speakers as individual voices (very precise) (ej: “Polychromie”, Koenig)

● create virtual sound sources, move them in space (it is an auditory illusion and depends on the method used, there is always a “sweet spot”)

● create a soundscape that surrounds the audience with real or synthetic sounds

● move the audience to different soundscapes (ej: “Dreaming in Darkness”, Parmerud)

● use speakers as individual voices (very precise) (ej: “Polychromie”, Koenig)

● create virtual sound sources, move them in space (it is an auditory illusion and depends on the method used, there is always a “sweet spot”)

● create a soundscape that surrounds the audience with real or synthetic sounds

● move the audience to different soundscapes (ej: “Dreaming in Darkness”, Parmerud)

● use the speakers as an orchestra (acousmatique diffusion)

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space fundamentals of sound perception ● how do we know where a sound comes from? – low frequencies ● ITD (phase differences between the two ears) – higher frequencies (> ~700Hz) ● ILD (amplitude differences) – even higher frequencies (> 5KHz): ● HRTF: filtering effects of the outer ear shape...

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space fundamentals of sound perception ● how do we know where a sound comes from?

● how do we know where a sound comes from? – horizontal plane: ● combine ITD / ILD – vertical plane ● HRTF, filtering effects of the outer ear... – movement; horizontal and vertical localization plus: ● doppler effect – distance ● volume ● direct versus reverberated energy ratio ● high frequency filtering (C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space fundamentals of sound perception ● how do we know where a sound comes from?

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space fundamentals of sound perception ● how do we know where a sound comes from? – as if this was not enough: ● small head movements ● visual cues (it is very difficult to fool the brain) ● auditory “learning” – resolves conflicting cues ● Haas effect (first wavefront to arrive)

● two main types: – loudspeaker orchestras the speakers are “instruments” ● Acousmonium

● two main types – loudspeaker orchestras the speakers are “instruments” ● Acousmonium ● BEAST

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space diffusion systems ● two main types: – loudspeaker orchestras ● location of speakers (distance, reflections) ● loudspeaker type (all different) ● diffusion mixer ● requires learning each piece in each venue before the concert (the diffusion artist “mixes” the piece in real-time)

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space diffusion systems ● two main types: – soundfield reconstruction systems we try to create a soundfield that approaches a real one, it is difficult to create that illusion ● speakers are all the same or very similar ● the audience coverage is limited (or the reconstruction highest frequency is limited!) ● there is an underlying system that simulates the virtual sound sources

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space diffusion systems ● two main types: – soundfield reconstruction systems ● WFS (Wave Field Synthesis) – http://fouraudio.com/en/references/wave-field-synthesis.html

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space diffusion systems ● two main types: – soundfield reconstruction systems ● WFS (Wave Field Synthesis) – http://gameoflife.nl/en

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space diffusion systems ● two main types: – soundfield reconstruction systems ● speaker arrays (2D or 3D)

(C) Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 2021 Music 222, Sound in Space diffusion systems ● two main types: – soundfield reconstruction systems ● speaker arrays (2D or 3D) and the underlying spatialization system: – VBAP / VBIP (panning, amplitude or intensity) – DBAP (distance based amplitude panning) – High Order Ambisonics – Granular spatialization or just use the speakers as sound sources and create your own way of spatializing...