abécédaire
les stages
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abécédaire |
les stages |
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Also at home ? Composing the loudspeaker space
freely and widely, even in a fairly reasonable manner as in the
case of pieces intended for sessions/concerts, raises the question
of their transposition into the private space. We are of course
not obliged to do this, and I exempt myself completely from it for
the installations, but it is still a shame that a majority of works
remain more or less completely unheard... This does not pose a technical
problem today, but this type of operation is still much less simple
and much more questionable than the reduction or enlargement of
a visual image, and leads, in both cases, to transform in a more
or less important way the content, what it is and what it expresses. Listening to headphones, combined with binaural capture or processing techniques, constitutes a solution that is simple, economical and relatively reliable, in any case more than all the avatars of more or less "immersive" surround systems which equip certain living rooms. But the transition from "sounds in the air" to "sounds in the head" nevertheless constitutes a change of fundamental nature which requires a particular approach. |
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The different flavors of binaural A fairly effective and simple method in principle consists of recording the loudspeaker broadcast using an artificial head, this native binaural recording then being directly listenable with headphones. If this obviously does not resolve the uncertainty of the rendering depending on the morphological differences specific to each person, the psychoacoustic indices are quite stable because they are based on the dimensions and acoustics of the place, and the different distances from the speakers to the listener. are quite well rendered and produce a very natural "externalization" (the impression of being in a space rather than having the sounds "in one's head"). But this process is obviously not neutral because the sound is thus found to be more or less strongly colored by the capture system, the loudspeaker device and the acoustics of the place. The most widespread alternative, the binaural mixing technique makes it possible to produce versions adapted to headphone listening using complex filtering techniques, the famous HRTF curves (head-related transfer functions) applied to multichannel content. But in the absence of aerial broadcasting, the sound is certainly precise but it lacks the distance provided by capturing reality. A good dose of acoustic simulation (reverberation) is more or less essential to help the brain reconstruct a convincing three-dimensional scene. Finally, the development of "immersive" formats in cinema over the last ten years has resulted in a wide diffusion of "spatial audio", today available in forms as diverse as multi-channel home cinema systems, sound bars , computer and connected speakers, without forgetting headphones and earphones. We could obviously find it a shame that this most often goes through the Dolby Atmos format, proprietary, restrictive, potentially expensive and ultimately quite limited, especially since other more open or more efficient solutions exist, such as for example ambisonics in high order (HOA), MPEG-H, the Mach1 format or the hypothetical IAMF, all of which would perfectly fulfill this role of "space mp3"... knowing that in any case all this ends up most of the time in binaural!
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The final choice Faced with the diversity of private listening
situations, and the very variable effectiveness of the processes
depending on the works, I propose here several options, which everyone
can choose according to their preferences and possibilities. Binaural versions (recording or mixing) are usually
presented in the form of videos where the sound is accompanied by
visualizations. These have no other purpose than to highlight what
is missing: the spatial dimension of sounds and compositions which
was truncated during binaural reduction. While it is always preferable
to listen with your eyes closed, these representations can, in addition
to their educational interest, help in certain cases to hear better
through this reduced medium. There will certainly also be versions in Dolby Atmos later. But apart from the fact that encoding for broadcast is not free and that playback requires compatible equipment, there are so many uncertainties about its rendering (home cinema, sound bars, computers and smartphones, speakers compact, binaural...) that it is difficult for me to have at the moment any opinion as to its real usefulness, because, as written above, if it ends up in headphones it is better to turn directly to binaural versions: it's simpler, more effective, more reliable and more economic... |
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Note: the dynamic range of the pieces could be more or less reduced (the weakest passages raised and the loudest lowered) in order to adapt them to the limits of the two channels listening. The links consist of :
See also the page dedicated to downloads of pieces in their original high-resolution format for people who have a multiphonic listening system for which they can make the adaptations themselves (page currently in French). |
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Technical notes
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Acousmonef in 67.3 for
the binaural recordings in november 2022 :
and in november 2023,
in 80.4 :
binaural recordings in the form of videos hosted on Youtube
binaural mixes, also in the form of videos
experimental transaural renderings (ogg, direct reading), for stereophonic
listening on speakers: they have a more or less pronounced "spatial
relief effect" but which absolutely does not reproduce the
spatiality of the compositions. They also tend to make the treble
more aggressive and the bass leaner, and it is important to position
yourself precisely at the tip of the equilateral triangle formed
with the speakers...
recordings encoded in 2nd order ambisonics (9 channels) to download
in Wavepack 24bits format, for people who wish to carry out binaural
decoding and processing (these versions are NOT intended for broadcast,
see the page dedicated to downloads for this ).
mixes
in Dolby Atmos, currently only in the form of ADM files available for
download: they require a production application integrating a Dolby
Atmos mixing tool and cannot be played on "Atmos" devices.
