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I have been trying to get professional musicians interested in ambisonics for about 20 years, since I first learnt about it from my brother and I haven't yet fo

I have been trying to get professional musicians interested in ambisonics for about 20 years, since I first learnt about it from my brother and I haven't yet found a single one who is at all interested in experimenting with it. I have had a few going as far as denying that ambisonics could even have any kind of useful application in music at all. The visual arts crowd seem far less dismissive, weirdly.

colanderman 8y ago
This doesn't surprise me. I think most music – recorded sound – generally falls into one of two categories: either: • it's actually about the music, not any particular "auditory experience", so technologies like ambisonics – or heck, even stereo for that matter – are perceived as gimmicky (akin to 3D TV), or • it's about crafting a very particular auditory experience: audio is mixed in the studio so it matches exactly the artist's vision when played back to your two eardrums. Especially the latter case I think is not served by ambisonics, because now the artist has no control over how the product is consumed. I can only imagine the difficulty involved in preparing a musical recording that sounds like quality art when the listener can – and is expected to – completely change the dynamics merely by tilting their neck. Sure you can deliver the "concert experience" but no-one goes to a concert for the ability to hear the music with their head cocked at a weird angle… so technologies like 3DIO I think already serve this purpose well. The analogy I would put forth is a movie where the viewer can control the camera angle. (If I recall, this is actually a technology that exists to some degree, and has found application pretty much only in pornography.) Good cinematography carefully controls the viewer's attention and focus through use of set design, camera angles and focus. Once you let the viewer just look anywhere, set design becomes immensely more complicated, and the artist loses the creative control afforded by camera positioning. Whereas, visual arts is exactly where I would expect ambisonics to find application. Visual arts is all about setting up exploratory experiences, which is impossible with traditional stereo audio recording and fixed video recording. With AR and ambisonics, now the art can exist digitally. I think ambisonics will find application in video game design too, for the same reason: now 3D soundscapes can be recorded, rather than simply synthesized. Of course there are crossovers… I would be surprised if the ambient music crowd (think Music for Airports) does not take to ambisonics. I'm curious whether your experience differed between musical genres?

colanderman 8y ago

This doesn't surprise me. I think most music – recorded sound – generally falls into one of two categories: either: • it's actually about the music, not any particular "auditory experience", so technologies like ambisonics – or heck, even stereo for that matter – are perceived as gimmicky (akin to 3D TV), or • it's about crafting a very particular auditory experience: audio is mixed in the studio so it matches exactly the artist's vision when played back to your two eardrums. Especially the latter case I think is not served by ambisonics, because now the artist has no control over how the product is consumed. I can only imagine the difficulty involved in preparing a musical recording that sounds like quality art when the listener can – and is expected to – completely change the dynamics merely by tilting their neck. Sure you can deliver the "concert experience" but no-one goes to a concert for the ability to hear the music with their head cocked at a weird angle… so technologies like 3DIO I think already serve this purpose well. The analogy I would put forth is a movie where the viewer can control the camera angle. (If I recall, this is actually a technology that exists to some degree, and has found application pretty much only in pornography.) Good cinematography carefully controls the viewer's attention and focus through use of set design, camera angles and focus. Once you let the viewer just look anywhere, set design becomes immensely more complicated, and the artist loses the creative control afforded by camera positioning. Whereas, visual arts is exactly where I would expect ambisonics to find application. Visual arts is all about setting up exploratory experiences, which is impossible with traditional stereo audio recording and fixed video recording. With AR and ambisonics, now the art can exist digitally. I think ambisonics will find application in video game design too, for the same reason: now 3D soundscapes can be recorded, rather than simply synthesized. Of course there are crossovers… I would be surprised if the ambient music crowd (think Music for Airports) does not take to ambisonics. I'm curious whether your experience differed between musical genres?