• Home
  • About
  • Site Policies
  • Contact

Designing Sound

Art and technique of sound design

  • All Posts
  • Featured
  • News
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • Resources
    • VR Audio Resources
    • Independent SFX Libraries
    • Events Calendar
  • Series Archives
    • Featured Topics
    • Featured Sound Designers
    • Audio Implementation Greats
    • Exclusive Interviews
    • Behind the Art
    • Webinar/Discussion Group Recordings
    • Sunday Sound Thought
    • The Sound Design Challenge

Sunday Sound Thought 39 – Inherent Spatialization

September 25, 2016 by Shaun Farley

As the year continues, many of these posts will be philosophical in nature. Some will be in contradiction to previous postings. These are not intended as truths or assertions, they’re merely thoughts…ideas. Think of this as stream of consciousness over a wide span…

I’ve been working on a 360/VR short, and also been testing various workflow approaches to derive the binaural mix-down for final headphone playback. In thinking about this process, panning and spatialization in particular, I’ve found myself frequently considering the inherent differences between a binaural playback medium and our more traditional playback array. Binaural encoders create the “forward” stage with varying degrees of success. Some are better than others, but…personally…I’ve found many of them still suffer from the between the ears perception. Overall, they seem to do better creating a space behind you than creating a space in front of you.

In our more traditonal playback systems, the forward stage is literally in front of you. Unless you stand on top of the LCR speakers, they’re always going to be in front of you. The traditional playback system just has an easier job of creating distance than binaural, simply because the playback sources are at a distance. Where they fail is creating a sense of presence within that space. There are no sound sources inside the circumference of a theatrical (or even home theater) playback system. You’d need wave field synthesis to pull that off. That’s where binaural has an easier time. This may have already been obvious, but the work I’ve been doing lately has been pulling these characteristics to the forefront of my mind…and there’s something in there that’s affecting the way I think about panning and localization in both types of projects.

Filed Under: featured Tagged With: film, hearing, perception, sound, spatialization, story-telling, sunday sound thought, vr

Comments

  1. Varun Nair says

    September 25, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    Related: do you listen with head-tracking or not? It can greatly influence your perception of the sound stage.

    • Shaun Farley says

      September 25, 2016 at 12:58 pm

      Yes. I do, and it does. Room modeling definitely helps as well. I may just be one of those people where the default HRTF settings don’t work too well…which is why I framed that as “personally.” I’m all too aware that other people will have different experiences than I do.

Social Media

  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Posts By Month

#sounddesign on Twitter

#sounddesign

tunepocketTunePocket Music@tunepocket·
26 May 2020

Download royalty free gunshot sound effects, incl. one shot gun sounds, gun cocking sounds, gunshot with silencer, machine guns, and more #gunshot #sfx #sounddesign #videoediting #gamedev #royaltyfree https://t.co/bTTDQkveKF

Reply on Twitter 1265206307927162880Retweet on Twitter 1265206307927162880Like on Twitter 1265206307927162880Twitter 1265206307927162880
Reel2MReel2Media@Reel2M·
26 May 2020

At Reel2Media we are harnessing the power of smart speaker technology, to deliver cutting edge skills that solve problems and add value. To find out more, click here https://t.co/VAAw7vTW1V #sounddesign #smartspeaker #alexaskill #amazonalexa

Reply on Twitter 1265206269255847936Retweet on Twitter 1265206269255847936Like on Twitter 1265206269255847936Twitter 1265206269255847936
SoniKSoundLibSoniK Sound Library@SoniKSoundLib·
26 May 2020

Listen to #soundcloud preview of our next release! #np https://t.co/S3bxxrnqrh #audiopost #soundlibrary #soundediting #sounddesign #ambisonics #spatial #surround #ambience #roomtones

Reply on Twitter 1265204382779559936Retweet on Twitter 12652043827795599361Like on Twitter 12652043827795599361Twitter 1265204382779559936
asoundeffectA Sound Effect@asoundeffect·
26 May 2020

Want to know what the independent sound effects community has been up to? Hear the very latest SFX libraries here: https://t.co/OUBM2SqMoP #sounddesign #soundeffects #soundlibraries #indieSFX #gameaudio #filmsound #filmmaking #gamedev #indiedev #indiefilm

Reply on Twitter 1265199255838511105Retweet on Twitter 1265199255838511105Like on Twitter 1265199255838511105Twitter 1265199255838511105
OblikLinesOblik Lines@OblikLines·
26 May 2020

Working on new tracks with many instances of Misty Valley ! ⁠
Misty Valley is free for all NI Reaktor users⁠
You can get it here: https://t.co/bb53Gtkw5e

#reaktor6 #reaktor #nativeinstruments #synths #vst #sounddesign #virtualinstrument #musicproducer #obliklines #mistyvalley

Reply on Twitter 1265198647307907073Retweet on Twitter 1265198647307907073Like on Twitter 1265198647307907073Twitter 1265198647307907073
Load More...

Copyright Info

All content on Designing Sound is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in