Wednesday, July 05, 2017

[mubpwdzz] Surround sound music venue

Compose music designed to be played with more than two speakers, more than stereo.  (Separating different frequencies into different speakers does not count.)  Of course, this has already been done.

At first "glance", this seems useless, because people only have two ears, so sound from any direction can be constructed by controlling what goes in each ear, for example with headphones.  However, it does make a difference when someone's head is moving while listening.  With headphones, the sound seems to move with the head, while with surround sound it stays in the same absolute direction.  We might imagine a VR like system which tracks the head and adjust sound to headphones but that is awkward.

Most easily applicable for this kind of sound is at a dance venue, where people will be moving around, their heads frequently changing orientation.

There remains the artistic challenge of what to do with the additional channels of sound.

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