3D Audio Environment Composition and Exploration

Abstract

The lack of dynamics in current music was the motivation behind this project, in which we have taken sound and linked it to specific geographic and temporal spaces. We developed a web composition tool that allows you to design immersive 3D sound environments that can then be explored using a mobile app that tracks the user’s location and orientation. Compositions are created by placing sound sources in a navigable map and then setting up connections and triggers that are determined by a combination of the user’s position and randomization. The audio can be manipulated using traditional sound-mixing methods such as pitch alteration and filtering, as well as location-based functions such as directionality and acoustic space convolution. This highly customisable composition tool results in a more dynamic and immersive listening experience. While music was the source of inspiration, we envision this becoming more than just a music tool in the future, with potential uses in virtual reality design, tourism and navigation aid.