Wednesday, October 18, 9:00 am – 10:00 am (Rm 1E13)
Spatial Audio: SA01 – Crash Course in 3D Audio
Presenter:Nuno Fonseca, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria – Leiria, Portugal; Sound Particles
A little confused with all the new 3D formats out there? Although most 3D audio concepts already exist for decades, the interest in 3D audio has increased in recent years, with the new immersive formats for cinema or the rebirth of Virtual Reality (VR). This tutorial will present the most common 3D audio concepts, formats, and technologies allowing you to finally understand buzzwords like Ambisonics/HOA, Binaural, HRTF/HRIR, channel-based audio, object-based audio, Dolby Atmos, Auro 3D, among others.
Wednesday, October 18, 9:30 am – 11:00 am (Rm 1E14)
Spatial Audio: SA02 – Riding the Faders: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve in Immersive Audio
VR, AR and XR have highlighted the importance of sound for “presence” in all content types from live TV to film to games. This represents a unique opportunity for audio professionals. But making the transition to the new world of immersive realities is no easy task. Here you will learn from industry professionals who are creating new 3D audio workflows and growing professional networks while remaining firmly grounded in their craft. The Manhattan Producers’ Alliance is a New York/San Francisco-based membership organization comprised of engineers, composers and producers. Our focus is on nurturing personal creativity within the art and craft of music making.
AES Members can watch a video of this session for free.
Wednesday, October 18, 9:30 am – 10:30 am (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA19 – Sound Design in 3D for Dance Music
Presenter:Lasse Nipkow, Silent Work LLC – Zurich, Switzerland
Producers of Dance Music pursue the target to put nightclub audiences into trance.
3D audio includes a high potential to increase sound impressions significantly and engage the emotions, as is the case in film sound. 3D audio allows to create spectacular spatiality and sound sources around the listener. There are however some challenges: Clubbers on the dance floor are not oriented in the same way as listener of classical music in the concert hall because they are dancing. PA systems of music clubs are nearly exclusively designed for mono and stereo reproduction. Therefore, the impact by changing to a 3D audio system is significant.
During the presentation, the possibilities of musical design in consideration of psychoacoustic phenomena will be described and demonstrated with example recordings and videos.
Wednesday, October 18, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA16 – The Butterfly FX-Unintended Consequences of Mastering Tools
Presenter:Piper Payne, Neato Mastering – San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Wednesday, October 18, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm (Rm 1E13)
Spatial Audio: SA03 – Spatial Music: Producing, Performing, and Publishing Music in 3D
Attendees will learn to produce immersive spatial music in an emerging market with familiar tools. Using examples of spatially mixed recordings from award winning artists, the tutorial will denote different approaches in various genres including EDM, Pop, and Jazz among others. Additional takeaways include various ways in which produced content can translate to a live performance setting while subsequently being released on various online platforms that support spatial formats.
Tutorial Will Cover: * Basic Concepts in Spatial Audio (HRTFs & Ambisonics) * Tools, Signal Flow, and Practical Implementation of 3D Audio technology * Creative Tips and Best Practices when producing a track in 3D
AES Members can watch a video of this session for free.
Wednesday, October 18, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA04 – Spatial Audio for Multi-Tracked Recordings-Workflows, Phase Relationships, Equalization, Reverberation and Delivery Specs
VR and AR are making a big push onto the world’s stage with projected revenues to exceed $120B by 2020. Spatial audio is an integral part of this, albeit in Ambisonics, Dolby Atmos, or other formats. In this tutorial we will learn about the differences and similarities between spatial and stereo workflows, illustrated by real-world examples. We will discuss binaural rendering engines and its impact on phase coloration and frequency response, phase relationships of stereo and mono sources in the Ambisonic soundfield, and loudness management for different delivery platforms.
Wednesday, October 18, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (Rm 1E14)
Spatial Audio: SA05 – The State of the Art of Binaural Audio for Loudspeakers and Headphones
Presenter:Edgar Choueiri, Princeton University – Princeton, NJ, USA
I will describe the challenges of binaural audio through headphones (BAH) and loudspeakers (BAL), recent solutions to these challenges, and the state of the art of binaural processing and content development tools. In particular I will describe BACCH 3D Sound processing, which relies on optimal crosstalk cancellation filters, head tracking and automatic individualization to deliver accurate 3D imaging from binaural audio. I will then describe the recently developed BACCH-HP headphones processing, which significantly enhances the robustness of 3D imaging and the ability to head-externalize binaural audio. I will use the powerful BACCH-dSP software, which allows designing BACCH filters for BAL and BAH, processing binaural audio, translational and rotational head tracking, and 3D mixing, to illustrate the talk and demonstrate the technologies.
AES Members can watch a video of this session for free.
Thursday, October 19, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm (Rm 1E11)
Paper Session: P06 – Spatial Audio-Part 1
Thursday, October 19, 9:30 am – 11:30 am (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA17 – PMC: A 9.1 Musical Experience
Presenters:Morten Lindberg, 2L (Lindberg Lyd AS) – Oslo, NorwayDaniel Shores, Sono Luminus – Boyce, VA, USA; Shenandoah Conservatory Music Production and Recording Technology – Winchester, VA, USA
Thursday, October 19, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm (Poster Area)
Poster: P11 – Spatial Audio
P11-1 Deep Neural Network Based HRTF Personalization Using Anthropometric Measurements–Chan Jun Chun, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) – Goyang, Korea; Jung Min Moon, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) – Gwangju. Korea; Geon Woo Lee, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) – Gwangju. Korea; Nam Kyun Kim, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) – Gwangju, Korea; Hong Kook Kim, Gwangju Institute of Science and Tech (GIST) – Gwangju, KoreaA head-related transfer function (HRTF) is a very simple and powerful tool for producing spatial sound by filtering monaural sound. It represents the effects of the head, body, and pinna as well as the pathway from a given source position to a listener’s ears. Unfortunately, while the characteristics of HRTF differ slightly from person to person, it is usual to use the HRIR that is averaged over all the subjects. In addition, it is difficult to measure individual HRTFs for all horizontal and vertical directions. Thus, this paper proposes a deep neural network (DNN)-based HRTF personalization method using anthropometric measurements. To this end, the CIPIC HRTF database, which is a public domain database of HRTF measurements, is analyzed to generate a DNN model for HRTF personalization. The input features for the DNN are taken as the anthropometric measurements, including the head, torso, and pinna information. Additionally, the output labels are taken as the head-related impulse response (HRIR) samples of a left ear. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by computing the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and log-spectral distortion (LSD) between the referenced HRIR and the estimated one by the proposed method. Consequently, it is shown that the RMSE and LSD for the estimated HRIR are smaller than those of the HRIR averaged over all the subjects from the CIPIC HRTF database.Convention Paper 9860 (Purchase now)
P11-2 The Upmix Method for 22.2 Multichannel Sound Using Phase Randomized Impulse Responses–Toru Kamekawa, Tokyo University of the Arts – Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Atsushi Marui, Tokyo University of the Arts – Tokyo, JapanThe upmix technique for 22.2 multichannel sound was studied using room impulse responses (RIRs) processed by phase randomized technique. From the result of the first experiment, the spatial impression of proposed method was close to the original sound, but the timbre differed. In the second experiment we divided the RIRs at the moment when the diffuse reverberation tail begins (mixing time) by two kinds of time, namely fixed to 80 msec and different mixing times for each frequency band. From the result, the similarity of proposed methods and the original sound was improved, however, it is suggested that the similarity of the timbre depends on the sound sources and the suitable mixing time of RIRs.Convention Paper 9861 (Purchase now)
P11-3 A 3D Sound Localization System Using Two Side Loudspeaker Matrices–Yoshihiko Sato, University of Aizu – Aizuwakamatsu-shi, Fukushima, Japan; , University of Aizu – Aizuwakamatsu City, Japan; , University of Aizu – Aizuwakamatsu City, JapanWe have proposed a new 3D sound reproduction system that consists of two side loudspeaker matrices each with four loudspeakers. The 3D sound images that applied to this system were created by the amplitude panning method and convolution of head-related transfer function (HRTF). In our past research we used the loudspeaker matrices arranged as a square shape, nevertheless the accuracy of sound image localization should be improved. We changed the shape of loudspeaker matrices from a square to a diamond by rotating 45 degrees to improve direction perception. As a result, we could be closer the localized sound images to intended directions than the square-shaped loudspeaker matrices by implementing the diamond-shaped loudspeaker matrices.Convention Paper 9862 (Purchase now)
P11-4 Optimization of Interactive Binaural Processing –François Salmon, CMAP – Ecole Polytechnique – Paris, France; Ecole nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière – Paris, France; Matthieu Aussal, CMAP – Ecole Polytechnique – Paris, France; Etienne Hendrickx, University of Brest – Paris, France; Jean-Christophe Messonnier, CNSMDP Conservatoire de Paris – Paris, France; Laurent Millot, ENS Louis-Lumière – Paris, France; Acte Institute (UMR 8218, CNRS/University Paris 1) – Paris, FranceSeveral monitoring devices may be involved during a post-production. Given its lower cost and practical aspects, head-tracked binaural processing could be helpful for professionals to monitor spatialized audio contents. However, this technology provides significant spectral coloration in some sound incidences and suffers from its current comparison to a stereophonic signal reproduced through headphones. Therefore, different processing methods are proposed to optimize the binaural rendering and to find a new balance between externalization and timbral coloration. For this purpose, the alteration of the HRTF spectral cues in the frontal area only has been studied. In order to evaluate the accuracy of such treatments, listening tests were conducted. One HRTF processing method offered as much externalization as the original HRTFs while having a closer timbre quality to the original stereo signal.Convention Paper 9863 (Purchase now)
P11-5 A Direct Comparison of Localization Performance When Using First, Third, and Fifth Ambisonics Order for Real Loudspeaker and Virtual Loudspeaker Rendering–Lewis Thresh, University of York – York, UK; Cal Armstrong, University of York – York, UK; Gavin Kearney, University of York – York, UKAmbisonics is being used in applications such as virtual reality to render 3-dimensional sound fields over headphones through the use of virtual loudspeakers, the performance of which has previously been assessed up to third order. Through a localization test, the performance of first, third, and fifth order Ambisonics is investigated for optimized real and virtual loudspeaker arrays utilizing a generic HRTF set. Results indicate a minor improvement in localization accuracy when using fifth order over third though both show vast improvement over first. It is shown that individualized HRTFs are required to fully investigate the performance of Ambisonic binaural rendering.Convention Paper 9864 (Purchase now)
Thursday, October 19, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (Rm 1E09)
Spatial Audio: SA06 – Perceptual Thresholds of Spatial Audio Latency for Dynamic Virtual Auditory Environments
Thursday, October 19, 3:15 pm – 4:45 pm (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA07 – Practical Immersive Audio at Home
Chair:, BBC R&D – Salford, Greater Manchester, UK; University of York – Heslington, York, UKPresenters:Jon Francombe, University of Surrey – Guildford, Surrey, UKHilmar Lehnert, Senior Director Audio Systems, Sonos – Boston, MA, USAAlan Seefeldt, Dolby Laboratories – San Francisco, CA, USA
Current methods for immersive audio reproduction in the home include channel-based systems, object-based audio, different types of soundbars, multi-room wireless or Bluetooth loudspeakers, up-firing loudspeakers, ad hoc arrays of mobile phones, and so on. These very different approaches all unlock opportunities for creating immersive and personalizable listening experiences, and each has its own merits and limitations. This workshop will feature a panel of experienced industrial practitioners and academic researchers. It will provide a platform for discussion around different perspectives on the challenges and potential solutions for making engaging and personalizable spatial audio experiences available in the living room.
Friday, October 20, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA18 – PMC: Mixing Like a Producer
Friday, October 20, 1:45 pm – 3:15 pm (Rm 1E13)
Spatial Audio: SA08 – Immersive Audio for Music-Why Do It?
Presenters:Stefan Bock, msm-studios GmbH – Munich, GermanyMorten Lindberg, 2L (Lindberg Lyd AS) – Oslo, NorwayDaniel Shores, Sono Luminus – Boyce, VA, USA; Shenandoah Conservatory Music Production and Recording Technology – Winchester, VA, USA
The panel will discuss concepts in the future of immersive music. They will explore ideas in how to reach the masses, explain the current efforts, and the challenges of reaching the consumers. But most of all, they will examine the question; “why are we doing it?”
Friday, October 20, 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA09 – Kraftwerk and Booka Shade -The Challenge to Create Electro Pop Music in Immersive / 3D Audio Formats Like Dolby Atmos.
Presenter:Tom Ammermann, New Audio Technology GmbH – Hamburg, Germany
Friday, October 20, 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA10 – Native Immersive Recordings
Presenter:Daniel Shores, Sono Luminus – Boyce, VA, USA; Shenandoah Conservatory Music Production and Recording Technology – Winchester, VA, USA
In this tutorial Sono Luminus head engineer will demonstrate and discuss the techniques and planning process, as well as play examples from numerous albums including Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, ACME, Lorelei Ensemble, Skylark, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and others.
Saturday, October 21, 9:00 am – 10:00 am (Rm 1E13)
Spatial Audio: SA11 – Creating Audio for Virtual Reality Applications
Presenter:Bob Schulein, ImmersAV Technology – Schaumburg, IL, USA
Audio has always been an integral element in the creation more realistic audio-visual entertainment experiences. With the evolution of personal 3D audio and imaging technologies, entertainment experiences are possible with a higher degree of cognition, commonly referred to as virtual reality. The quest for more engaging user experiences has raised the challenge for more compelling audio. Elements of binaural hearing and sound capture have come to play a central role in existing and evolving production techniques. Of particular importance is the value of images related to audio content as a means of improving realism and minimizing binaural recording and reproduction artifacts. This tutorial will cover the elements of binaural audio as they relate to producing compelling entertainment and educational content for virtual reality applications. Specific areas to be covered with support audio and 3D anaglyph video demonstrations include: audio for games, music entertainment, radio drama, and music education. Audio production tools including binaural and higher order ambisonic capture microphone systems, with and without motion capture will be presented and demonstrated.
Saturday, October 21, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm (Rm 1E11)
Paper Session: P16 – Spatial Audio-Part 2
Saturday, October 21, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm (Rm 1E13)
Spatial Audio: SA12 – Binaural Listening Experience
This is a listening session that will feature a selection of binaural recordings, mixes, and listening experiences from various artists, composers, recording, and mixing engineers.
Saturday, October 21, 10:45 am – 11:45 am (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA13 – 3D Ambeo Live and Studio Recordings
Moderator:Gregor Zielinsky, Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co. KG – GermanyPresenters:Jim Anderson, Anderson Audio NY – New York, NY, USA; Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, New York University – New York, NY, USAUlrike Schwarz, Anderson Audio NY – New York, NY, USA
Live recording experts Jim Anderson and Ulrike Schwarz of Anderson Audio New York captured this year’s Chelsea Music Festival for delivery via Sennheiser’s immersive Ambeo 3D audio format and will present this at the session.
Host Gregor Zielinsky of Sennheiser will present further examples of live and studio Ambeo productions. Also, the MLH 800 Twin plug in, will be explained and presented in a live session. This free Plug In makes the work with the double capsule/two way output MKH 800 Twin much easier and more flexible.
Saturday, October 21, 1:15 pm – 2:45 pm (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA15 – Afternoon Listening Session in 9.1
Co-moderators:Paul Geluso, New York University – New York, NY, USADavid Bowles, Swineshead Productions LLC – Berkeley, CA, USAPresenter:Tom Ammermann, New Audio Technology GmbH – Hamburg, Germany
Please join us for a 90 minute immersive listening journey on Saturday afternoon. This session will be dedicated to experiencing recent recorded works created specifically for multichannel loudspeaker listening environments. The program will include classical, pop, electronic, jazz, and world music recordings created by a variety of engineers and producers who are dedicated to the art of spatial audio.
Saturday, October 21, 1:30 pm – 3:15 pm (Rm 1E12)
Engineering Brief: EB06 – Spatial Audio
Chair:Matthieu Parmentier, francetélévisions – Paris, France
EB06-1 How Streaming Object Based Audio Might Work–Adrian Wisbey, BBC Design and Engineering – London, UKObject based media is being considered as the future platform model by a number of broadcasting and production organizations. This paper is a personal imagining of how object based broadcasting might be implemented with IP media as the primary distribution whilst still supporting traditional distributions such as FM, DAB and DVB. The examples assume a broadcaster supporting a number of linearly scheduled services providing both live (simulcast ) and on-demand (catch-up) content. An understanding of the basics of object based audio production and broadcasting by the reader is assumed. Whilst this paper specifically discusses audio or radio broadcasting many of the components and requirements are equally valid in a video environment.Engineering Brief 398 (Download now)
EB06-2 DIY Measurement of Your Personal HRTF at Home: Low-Cost, Fast and Validated–Jonas Reijniers, University of Antwerp – Antwerpen, Belgium; Bart Partoens, University of Antwerp – Antwerp, Belgium; Herbert Peremans, University of Antwerp – Antwerpen, BelgiumThe breakthrough of 3D audio has been hampered by the lack of personalized head-related transfer functions (HRTF) required to create realistic 3D audio environments using headphones. In this paper we present a new method for the user to personalize his/her HRTF, similar to the measurement in an anechoic room, yet it is low-cost and can be carried out at home. We compare the resulting HRTFs with those measured in an anechoic room. Subjecting the participants to a virtual localization experiment, we show that they perform significantly better when using their personalized HRTF, compared to a generic HRTF. We believe this method has the potential of opening the way for large scale commercial use of 3D audio through headphones.Engineering Brief 399 (Download now)
EB06-3 Audio Localization Method for VR Application–Joo Won Park, Columbia University – New York, NY, USAAudio localization is a crucial component in the Virtual Reality (VR) projects as it contributes to a more realistic VR experience to the users. In this paper a method to implement localized audio that is synced with user’s head movement is discussed. The goal is to process an audio signal real-time to represent three-dimensional soundscape. This paper introduces a mathematical concept, acoustic models, and audio processing that can be applied for general VR audio development. It also provides a detailed overview of an Oculus Rift- MAX/MSP demo.Engineering Brief 400 (Download now)
EB06-4 Sound Fields Forever: Mapping Sound Fields via Position-Aware Smartphones–Scott Hawley, Belmont University – Nashville, TN, USA; Sebastian Alegre, Belmont University – Nashville, TN, USA; Brynn Yonker, Belmont University – Nashville, TN, USAGoogle Project Tango is a suite of built-in sensors and libraries intended for Augmented Reality applications allowing certain mobile devices to track their motion and orientation in three dimensions without the need for any additional hardware. Our new Android app, “Sound Fields Forever,” combines locations with sound intensity data in multiple frequency bands taken from a co-moving external microphone plugged into the phone’s analog jack. These data are sent wirelessly to a visualization server running in a web browser. This system is intended for roles in education, live sound reinforcement, and architectural acoustics. The relatively low cost of our approach compared to more sophisticated 3D acoustical mapping systems could make it an accessible option for such applications.Engineering Brief 401 (Download now)
EB06-5 Real-time Detection of MEMS Microphone Array Failure Modes for Embedded Microprocessors–Andrew Stanford-Jason, XMOS Ltd. – Bristol, UKIn this paper we describe an online system for real-time detection of common failure modes of arrays of MEMS microphones. We describe a system with a specific focus on reduced computational complexity for application in embedded microprocessors. The system detects deviations is long-term spectral content and microphone covariance to identify failures while being robust to the false negatives inherent in a passively driven online system. Data collected from real compromised microphones show that we can achieve high rates of failure detection.Engineering Brief 402 (Download now)
EB06-6 A Toolkit for Customizing the ambiX Ambisonics-to-Binaural Renderer–Joseph G. Tylka, Princeton University – Princeton, NJ, USA; Edgar Choueiri, Princeton University – Princeton, NJ, USAAn open-source collection of MATLAB functions, referred to as the SOFA/ambiX binaural rendering (SABRE) toolkit, is presented for generating custom ambisonics-to-binaural decoders for the ambiX binaural plug-in. Databases of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) are becoming widely available in the recently-standardized “SOFA format” (spatially-oriented format for acoustics), but there is currently no (easy) way to use custom HRTFs with the ambiX binaural plug-in. This toolkit enables the user to generate custom binaural rendering configurations for the plug-in from any SOFA-formatted HRTFs or to add HRTFs to an existing ambisonics decoder. Also implemented in the toolkit are several methods of HRTF interpolation and equalization. The mathematical conventions, ambisonics theory, and signal processing implemented in the toolkit are described.Engineering Brief 403 (Download now)
EB06-7 withdrawn– N/A
Engineering Brief 404 (Download now)
Saturday, October 21, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (Rm 1E06 – PMC Room)
Spatial Audio: SA14 – Capturing Height: Recording Techniques that Include the Vertical Dimension
Presenters:David Bowles, Swineshead Productions LLC – Berkeley, CA, USAPaul Geluso, New York University – New York, NY, USASungyoung Kim, Rochester Institute of Technology – Rochester, NY, USAPanelist:Gregor Zielinsky, Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co. KG – Germany
Height sound contains crucial information about sound sources, the recording space, and ambient sounds. As object oriented and dedicated height channel playback system become more common, recording engineers need to be familiar with effective height sound capturing techniques to create true three-dimensional sound recordings. Height sound can be captured using specialty microphones and decoders, or by adding dedicated height microphones to an existing mono, stereo or surround microphone system. At this workshop, the panelists will give a comprehensive overview of current height sound recording techniques and share their personal experiences working with height sound. Recent music recordings made with some of the techniques discussed at the workshop will be played during a technical tour of the studio facilities at NYU Steinhardt.
Return to Spatial Audio Track Events