Composing Music for an Ambisonic Dome

Congrats!

Great !..ambisonics sounds— is my dream comes trough!..

Excellent insights here into process and how it changes when "space" (beyond the Stereo) is brought in. I've found that a viable alternative to the (very expensive) SPAT software and a physical dome of speakers is Reaper in 7O with the IEM plugins (free!) Among the IEM plugins is a very serviceable Binaural decoder that, if you wish, can be configured with a particular headphone profile. It seems like a practical way of doing immersive or spacial music given the far larger number of potential listeners who use computers, tablets or phones to listen. Whereever they might happen to be. I really like your thoughts about how space has become part of the composing... landscape; it does indeed change the whole mindset in a very healthy way. Thanks again for this very useful video.

Very inspiring!

Thank you for the awesome video! I'm in the process of upgrading my studio to Atmos and seeing the dome is quite humbling. 😅 This video is full of interesting ideas like using Max for immersive audio, and the Flux Spat looks really intriquing piece of software. Did you find what they use the Pacarana for?

Arizona State - total party dome

Goooood lawd Am I in love? I might be in love I think? Pretty sure I’m in love

wonderful. Do not miss out = *Promo SM*!!

The way you talk about how the process impacts your curiosity about spatialization in your regular music making practice really resonates with me. It helped me realize that wanting to dive deeper into stereo space as a composition parameter has been bubbling up for me over the last few months. Feels like a lesson I’ve been inching towards in part from listening to Natasha Barrett’s Heterotopia again and again. The way you describe the questions you now ask yourself about specific sounds and their spatial story is such an inviting frame for digging further. Hearing how you approached the challenge for this piece in details was also incredibly instructive. Thank you!

5.1 cried

Just heard it live in the dome! That was amazing 👏

Incredible possibilities, never before available, are now here for gifted composers to explore…an exciting time indeed! Can’t wait!!!

This is too cool Sarah!!! Wish Tempe was a little closer to Austin, I would love to hear what you do with this setup. Good luck!!! 😀

Edit - thanks for the closing words on carrying these ideas over into a stereo space. As always, your words spark imagination and inspiration. 🐐🍇

Just went to a light show where they had an ambisonic structure + light structure where the music and light traveled together throughout the structure. As a side note, it's not the same but the first time I ever heard three-dimensional sound was listening to the single soundtrack (yes, the singles soundtrack from the nineties). My head was right between the two speakers of the boombox (remember those?!) And at the end of one of the songs the music swirls not just left to right around but in a circle back and forth.

something ive been contemplating/working on these last several weeks has been sort of the opposite of what you're doing with the dome... how can someone w 2 channels (ie headphones) explore an auditory space by having elements revealed to them by moving through a physical space. so basically program 13 (or 19 if youre cheating :p) channels like you would in the dame, but only give the listener two limited lenses to explore the entire 3d space (or room, in dame terminology).... and make it gps dependent.... it becomes a question of could the piece be experienced the same way twice?? even by the same person in the same place??

another thought: something i notice w ambiosonics in video games is sounds tend to be hard-panned to an area quite often which tbh makes a pretty disorienting listening experience. if im riding a horse alongside a river i wouldnt only hear the river in the ear facing it, u kno?? you could maybe say oh thats perhaps that sound is bound to its object rather than being truly ambiasonic but i notice this with minute ambient sounds as well that are indeed clearly part of an ambiasonic field.
i bring this up just in case any developers r reading....... but also, bc i notice something u do a lot in your work sarah is challange our perceptions of irl sound physics.. so i see this as a really interesting compositional point for a format like this (perhaps obviously) but im curious to see how you approached the ideas of spread/panning/realistic depictions of space vs "broken" depictions of space. i think it would make for a compelling composition to have something like a river sound (using the example from above) that perhaps sounds very real & natural, weighted to one side of the listener but still registering with their non-facing side... then slowly pan it away from their non-facing side to almost make them feel like they were losing their hearing in that ear or something. just as u said in the end.. why/how does this sound move in the way it is. is it making space for something or being pulled away by something?? how can u simulate perception in an environment like this??

thanks for bts & for ur insights! wish i could experience the concert in person but excited for the mix-down all the same

Cool share👍🏻 LR will do for me lol

Fascinating! The idea of the dome is intriguing. I'm sure a second- or third-order dome could be within the reach and capability of the average musician, if enough space was available. I love the geodesic shapes used to make the dome - pentagons and hexagons formed from simpler triangles. I think there is a parallel there to making more complex sounds from simpler starting sounds.

thats some really good content ! Thank you Sarah for your amazing work

The future of rythm is in space!!

Squishy!

I'm really looking forward to seeing this in a week or tro

more of a sonic experience than music

Fantastic stuff. If not already I can really recommend reading Curtis Road’s Composing Electronic Music book which opened my eyes (ears?) to a whole load of spatialisation concepts…the million dollar question, ‘did you get a chance to read that copy of Kyma X revealed / switch on the Pacarana?’ :)

Hmmm, my Zoom H2n can record 4 channel audio. Now I just need an Ambisonic Dome to play it back. Interesting stuff :)

💛

Can't seriously wait..!

I’m very excited to see it!!! 🎛🤩🤍

I had a conversation at the Fitzroy in Berlin this summer with a few modular artists about how cool it would be to have something like this dome. I'm looking forward to this!