sonic surrounds

Here’s the binaural activity map that results from sampling a second order Ambisonic encode-decode process using a Dirac impulse signal at 36 discrete azimuths (10 degree steps) around the horizontal circle.

The Ambisonic encode-decode used 128 point FIR shelf filters (with 2nd order and 1st order pivot frequencies at 1200Hz and 700Hz respectively), rendered out via 6 virtual speakers to binaural outputs.   (I designed and implemented the rendering system in Matlab and Pd).

The activity map shows the likely lateralization based on Gaik’s algorithm, in which the raw HRTFs are used as a reference for natural ITD and ILD combinations.

Today is the second day of the Ambisonics Symposium at IEM, Graz, Austria.
My poster and demonstration is on today, titled:
AmbiGrainer - A Higher Order Ambisonic Granulator in Pd

The paper is available in the online proceedings.

Below is a screenshot of the interface to the patch.  The patch set itself is presently available as a beta by request.

AmbiGrainer is a high quality granulation engine, with sub-block grain timings, capable of producing some very smooth sounds. Grains may be individually panned in 3rd order Ambisonics (with per-grain order specification). Grains may also be specified directly by an external algorithm, or at a meta-level using the provided GUI. A nice feature is the creation of an Ambisonic grain cloud of grains at randomised directions.  The system can run many thousands of grains per second, with 80 simultaneous voices running easily on a 2007 MacBook Pro.

BillaBoop is an awesome project by Amaury Hazan (also involved in the iPhone RjDj generative music project).

BillaBoop is a real-time audio driven drum controller which allows the user to control up to 3 drum instruments. The user can control any drum synth with the voice (beat box), or any object or musical instrument.

In other words, you can play a soft-synth on your computer by percussive playing with real physical objects - a pen on a jar or your fingers on a desk….  Watch the video below to see this in action.

What’s more, BillaBoop uses Machine Learning to enable the system to learn by demonstration.

I will definitely be trying this out when I get some more time on my hands.  I’ve always wanted to be able to capture little rhythms from tapping my fingers or playing the objects on my desk as I procrastinate or even listen to some other music on headphones….

BillaBoop is indicative of the present idea in the zeitgeist of audio control by sound analysis. Another fantastic sounding new example is Ableton Live 8’s groove features that can extract a groove from any audio or midi - and apply it to different audio. Two other examples of audio analysis controllers were seen recently on Johnny Chung Lee’s Procrastineering blog : Sensitive Object and Scratch Input.  Finally, another older favourite of mine: sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! (also see the great explanatory video on youtube).

The following press release was just emailed out by Gail Priest…

Very shortly the book Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia will be hitting the streets.

Written by artists, producers and participants in alternative music-making, and including a companion CD, Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia explores the development of forms, ideas and scenes from the 1970s to the present.

It brings together a wide range of musical experimentation, from post-punk, noise, appropriation, electronic dance and listening music, to free improv, computer process music, experimental radio, instrument building and audiovisual fusions. More soon…

To accompany the book, a website www.experimentalmusicaustralia.net has been created to bring together information about experimental music and sound in Australia. There are 3 features that invite your input:

National Calendar: a web-based calendar (it’s a little bit ugly, but it’s free), to bring together listings from across the country. So if you have a gig, festival, exhibition, conference etc that you’d like listed you can send through information. If you produce multiple events or series you can have editing access.

Artist Directory: Hopefully a comprehensive map of people working in experimental music and sound across Australia. If you would like to be included, download the form, fill it in, and email back, or contact for further information.

Resource List: This is a mega links list starting with information drawn from the book on all things experimental music from gigs, organisations, online journals and a bibliography. Already an unwieldy monster, feel free to send through additions/suggestions.

For all of the above email: info <at-sign-here> experimentalmusicaustralia.net

I’ll email more when the book is ready for our hot little hands, but in the meantime help make the website a valuable resource!

thanks

Gail Priest

NB: The website www.experimentalmusicaustralia.net is an unfunded, independent activity undertaken to accompany the book Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia.

Out November 2008

Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia published by UNSW Press

RRP $29.95
ordering information
For a limited time there is a
20% pre-order discount

Written by:
Julian Knowles
Ian Andrews with John Blades
Cat Hope
Shannon O’Neill
Bo Daley
Alistair Riddell
Jim Denley
Virginia Madsen
Sean Bridgeman
Gail Priest

edited by Gail Priest

The printed publication Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia was funded by the Australia Council Music Board as part of a series of publications.

I have just had an article published in Issue 1 - 2008 of Media Space Journal along with some other fine articles.

About Media Space Journal

Through the establishment of the online Media-Space Journal, Media-Space continues its role in the dissemination of emerging art and critical interrogation of electronic and digital arts culture. The Media-Space Journal is a peer-reviewed international journal of both scholarly and artistic contributions that explore the issues and ideas which are of interest to the local, national and international network of electronic, digital, experimental and new media artists. The journal encourages critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning the production and critique of new media art forms.

The Media-Space Journal encourages submissions that extend research into critical and investigative networked theories, knowledges and practices.

ISSN: 1449 - 1443
Published in Australia
The journal is peer reviewed as per section 4.3.4 of the HERDC Specifications.

And here is the abstract to my article:

From Backpack to Handheld: The Recent Trajectory of Personal Location Aware Spatial Audio
Nick Mariette

Personal location-sensitive spatial audio describes an electronic medium within the concept of locative (audio) media, inclusive of the physically realistic medium of audio augmented reality. These concepts describe both systems and the particular forms of resultant media in which a mobile user of the system receives audio content relative to their location in the world.  Since the early 1990s, various projects have been created based on such ideas, and since then, advancement of the technology has taken the inevitable route of miniaturisation, integration and convergence with other mobile audio communication technologies.  Early systems were implemented using backpacks or roll-around cases to hold components, while current systems tend to use hand-held computing devices. This progression has arrived at a point where the medium can come closer to fully realising its full potential, however, successful implementations now rely on perceptual optimisation and creative application of the technology.