Ring 1 spat work session
Kind of a blog. Finally I managed to dedicate two weeks (almost!) for working in SoundLab. With AK and Manni, we set up Ring 1: twelve equidistant Genelec 4030a IP speakers, like the dials on a big clock.
I set out to do three things: 1) to tune the system (speakers, Dante network, Iram spat5); 2) adapt two previous pieces for Ambisonics 2D 5th order 3) work on upmixing, i.e. taking an existing stereo music and spatialising it, in this case, in the 12-channel surround, and 4) to work on controlling simple synthesis with interfaces such as the novation mini Launchpad, and my trusty old Wacom architext PTZ-1230.
The Genelec IP speakers sound great! very clean sound, and the Dante network is stable once it’s up and running. Sometimes a connection didn’t start up immediately, and had to be prodded or cable switched. They tend to get overloaded in the low frequencies (in particular from my two pieces, Graviton Dance and Stairway to Helheim. Putting 2x vintage analog subwoofers (aslo Genelec) turned out to be a very good idea; i put them left and right on the floor).
here’s a very brief demo of the Upmixing. It uses the fabulous Fluid Corpus Manipulation tools from Huddersfield.
Here’s Graviton Dance which is 8-channel of audio dynamically spatialised in 3D. Here it goes to HOA 2D 5th order (and then into my iPhone, hooray – – ask me later for a binaural version..)
And here’s the fairly recent Stairway to Helheim (commissioned from ArtScience Museum for the SOundislands themed exhibition, November 2021). The original version was for a stretched-out, long open staircase. Here we are testing a dynamic spatialisation that ‘conflates’ a huge slowly turning wheel onto 2D (because that’s what we can currently manage duh) – HOA 2D 5th. I’ll make a binaural some other day (maybe).
We had VIP visitors to SoundLab from Huawei – Hong Kong Music Tech Director Dr Simon Lui and his lieutenant Dr Ronald Mo. Discussing music tech, internships, upmixing , AI composition, mobile tech & interfaces, spatialisation – in brieft he Future of Sound.
Finally, here’s Manni doing some experimental spatialisation. Only she can hear the results.