The stereo space can replicate or imitate a myriad of environments. With two speakers a sound can be given depth, size, position etc. using level, panning and reverb. Using a live multi channel mix in a performance area as a way of shifting the environment of a stereo sound takes these aspects further. Depth cannot only be implied by manipulating level and reverb, but can actually be achieved by changing the position of the sound course in relation to the audience.
The sounding effect may be achieved in the production of recorded sound but the very fact of the source of the sound changing in front of an audience using different speakers constitutes a radically different aesthetic, as well as illuminating the aesthetic of acousmatism to greater effect.
This difference in aesthetic is for me what is interesting about sound diffusion, rather than the ability to make sounds whir around a space, or to achieve a multichannel sounding piece using only two channels of material.
To achieve my preferred effect created through sound diffusion it is essential that in addition to differences in positioning of the different speakers, other elements must also be at work. For example, it is useful for the performance space to lend itself to different kinds of reverb, and for the placement of speakers to exploit this; the speakers themselves can be of different sizes, set to different levels, of different bandwidth, so as to be able to maximally demonstrate different moods and so on in from the sounds to the space.
http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~muswlw/pubs/lwthesis.html
2 comments:
Interesting reactions Tom. I'd like to know more about what you think the different aesthetic is. What is it different to and what constitutes the aesthetic. I suspect its something to do with the interaction with the acoustic space as opposed to the superimposition of recorded virtual space on the spaqce of the listeners.
Tom I've edited your link so that it will show as a hypertext link - this is a button for this in the editor.
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