Spatialization

a critical overview

Henrik Frisk - henrik.frisk@kmh.se

The history of audio spatialization

  • Walt Disney: Fantasia (1940)
  • Stockhausen
    • Gesang der Jünglinge (1955)
  • Maryanne Amacher
    • Adjacencies (1965)
  • Xenakis
    • The many Polytype's for example (early 70's)

Structures

  • IRCAM, Paris
  • ZKM, Karlsruhe
  • SARC, Belfast
  • MUMMUTH, Graz
  • CCRMA, Stanford
  • BEAST, Birmingham
  • HISS, Huddersfield

Structures

  • The GRM Acousmonium

    The point of concert performance is to exploit the possibilities of the work by extending it into physical space.

Ambisonics

Soundfield microhpones and the pioneering work of Michael Gerzon 1967-1971 on the theory of ambisonics.

gerzon.png

(Andrew, Alex M., 2009), (Barrett, Natasha, 2010), (David G. Malham and Anthony Myatt, 1995), (Travis, Chris, 2009)

Ambisonics

  • using technology to simulate concert halls: one of the most sought after functions (Nils Peters and Georgios Marentakis and Stephen McAdams, 2011)
  • points back to the dual nature of compositional practices: first imagine and then render as truthfully as possible.

Ambisonics

this suggests a focus on the performance and experience of the technology, i.e. the means for reproducing the composer's intents rather than on the experience of the spatiality of the sound.

Ambisonics

the spatialization equipment and technology have become readily available, but the users haven’t caught up

Barret in Otondo (2008): Contemporary Trends In The Use Of Space In Electroacoustic Music

Contemporary developments

Spatial aspects of the music is artificially superimposed and the virtual becomes more real than reality: "immersive artworks turn into experience machines." (Mäcklin, Harri, 2021)

mackling_2021.png

Question

What is the specific arena in which art can both make use of, and critically examine, technologies in ways that strengthens social and political conceptions of contemporary technology?

The aim

is to better understand and articulate the experience of spatial properties in both natural sounds and music

…

This has to some extent been overshadowed by the technology of spatialization.

Spatialization

  • It is almost impossible to divorce space from sound.
  • Even lack of space is space
  • Space is embedded in the perception of the sound
  • Theoretical perspectives are limited
  • Technical perspectives have dominated the development

Questions to consider

  • How can spatial information in sound be conceptualized in ways that can inform, inspire and expand the creation of new sound-works?
  • How can a vocabulary for the experience of spatiality be developed that provoke an analytical and critical approach to composition?
  • How can spatial sound-works be staged in ways that encourage listeners to actively engage their listening experience ?

Experience of space

  • The listening mind does not solely rely on the ears, the whole body is listening, not the least when it comes to spatial perception
  • "art is the art of affect" (Grosz, E., 2008)
  • Phenomenology of sound -> Pierre Schaeffer
    • yet, we need to consider not only the sonic properties, but also the whole experience of sound

Vocabulary of spatial properties

  • There is a lack of a vocabulary for spatial sound

born.png

Vocabulary of spatial properties

  • Such a vocabulary should allow for a wide range of definitions of place and direction as well as immersive sounds that may have a place but not a position

  • Allow for an analytical engagement with spatial sound
  • Can spatial sound be described verbally, or in other forms for representations?
    • Notation is a sub question here

Vocabulary of spatial properties

Bottom line:

what is the epistemological aspect of sound?

what can we say about it that goes beyond what we can say about sound in general?

Audioparus techniques

catena_2021.png

Audioparus techniques

… indicate a composition mode in which musical data originate from sound. We can formalize several audioparous procedures that can shape and define different aspects and timescales of the compositions

(Catena, Stefano, 2021)

RealTime Algorithmict Imbral Spatialisation: Compositional Approaches And Techniques

Harmonic Space

tenney_three_five_seven2.png

Aesthetics of spatial sound

  • What is the artistic purpose of spatial sound?
  • Is the sound a representation of the world, or is it its own world in which virtual spaces are created?
  • Today media companies are widely engaging in immersive audio, but it is unclear what the specific quality is that promotes this.

Aesthetics of spatial sound

  • In this landscape, how can an aesthetics of spatial sound be defined?
    • The highest resolution?
    • The best distribution?
    • The greatest diffusion?

The politics of spatial sound

  • Three dimensional audio systems are mostly built on the concert hall aesthetics

    • passive listeners?

  • What happens to the aesthetics of spatial audio if the movements of the listener is also taken into account?

  • Is the nature of spatial audio in fact reliant on large speaker arrays, or alternatively binaural renderings?

Composing spatial sound-works

I urge you all to think about these topics and continue to develop spatial audio theory and practice.

This is best done through composition.

Bibliography

Andrew, Alex M. (2009). Machine consciousness, ambisonics, Emerald.

Barrett, Natasha (2010). Ambisonics and acousmatic space: a composer’s framework for investigating spatial ontology.

Catena, Stefano (2021). Real-time Algorithmic Timbral Spatialisation: Compositional Approaches and Techniques, University of Torino.

David G. Malham and Anthony Myatt (1995). 3-d Sound Spatialization Using Ambisonic Techniques, Computer Music Journal.

Grosz, E. (2008). Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth, Columbia University Press.

Mäcklin, Harri (2021). A Heideggerian Critique of Immersive Art, Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual.

Nils Peters and Georgios Marentakis and Stephen McAdams (2011). Current Technologies and Compositional Practices for Spatialization: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis, The MIT Press.

Travis, Chris (2009). A new mixed-order scheme for ambisonic signals.

Test

b = NetAddr.new("10.10.21.254", 5510);

b.sendMsg("/ls_main/mono_inputs/0/Source__0/Azimuth__0", 60.0);

Other stuff

Test signal 

{ Out.ar(19, Pulse.ar(220, 0.5, 0.3, 0)) }.play
{ Out.ar(20, Pulse.ar(330, 0.5, 0.3, 0)) }.play
{ Out.ar(21, Pulse.ar(352, 0.5, 0.3, 0)) }.play
{ Out.ar(22, Pulse.ar(502.8, 0.5, 0.3, 0)) }.play

{SinOsc.ar(440, 0, 0.5);}.play;

a = NodeProxy(s, \audio, 4);

a = NodeProxy(s, \audio, 4);
a.source = { Pulse.ar([220, 300, 400, 500], 0.5, [0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3], 0) };
a[0] = { Pulse.ar(220, 0.5, 0.3, 0) };
a[1] = { Pulse.ar(400, 0.5, 0.3, 0) };
a[2] = { Pulse.ar(300, 0.5, 0.3, 0) };
a[3] = { Pulse.ar(500, 0.5, 0.3, 0) };
a.play(out:0, numChannels: 1, fadeTime: 2);
a.clear;

s.meter;

o = Server.default.options;
o.numOutputBusChannels.postln;
o.numOutputBusChannels = 26;

b = NetAddr.new("10.10.21.254", 5510);    // create the NetAddr
b.sendMsg("/ls_main/mono_inputs/1/Source__0/Azimuth__0", 45.0);    // send the application the message "hello" with the parameter "there"

Henrik Frisk