a spatial study between sounds & voice

spatial audio ambisonics for live / audience interactive, 5:00 min, 2018

this project is an audience interactive piece for a spatial audio ambisonic environment. the audience hereby directs the spatial location of the singer’s voice during the concert.

what is spatial audio ambisonics?

ambisonics is a high-resolutive spatial audio technique that enables music to spread in a three-dimensional way through space. the audience is enrobed by the sounds, not only by surround format, but on multiple planes up to the highest point in the room.

the ideal ambisonic speaker arrangement resembles the shape of a dome. the speakers are arranged in multiple height layers. the main factors that create the three dimensional effect to the audience’s ear are the distance, azimuth, and elevation between the speaker and the sweet spot, resp. the listener, and are thus used by the producer to encode and decode the music.

there are endlessly many ambisonic set-up possibilities within higher order formats (b-format). the three-dimensional resolution becomes higher with each order (2nd order, 3rd order, etc), hence the more speakers are used to decode the music.

collaboration between musician & coding artist kiyu nishida

a locally created wifi network to which the audience connects their devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop) is used to create the interface between audience and performer.

the users, thus the audience, connect their devices to the local wifi network to access a spatial room navigation map on their web browser. the map is triggered by moving the cursor (or finger for touch screens) over the map to ‘conduct’ the precise spot from where the sound of the performer’s vocals shall come from within the sound dome of the venue.

every 30 seconds two new randomly chosen users are in charge of the spatialisation of the performer’s voice, so that as many concert guests as possible become part of the performance; yet without knowing when it will be their turn.