Richard Dobson wrote:
Should that be a surprise ? If as a composer you are used to just
placing a speaker in the right place when you want a particular
sound to come from a certain direction in a concert, would you be
impressed by the performance of first order Ambisonics ?
Yes! I still am. Even on the bare minimum four speakers. I remember
being impressed by it many years ago (eng. John Whiting, for Electric
Phoenix). I think it is high time first-order was re-evaluated, in a
more, um, "realistic" way. Let the question be, not how many speakers
you can justify, but how few you can manage with.
Very probably you ae right, but this will happen in a wider context.
The simple fact is that 1st order AMB has no chance against 5.1. For the
applications that are wanted by the mass consumer market, 5.1 actually
works and delivers better results than 1st order AMB ever could.
I seem to recall a certain patent was taken out a while back
specifically to enable B-format to be rendered over 5.1. Not ideal, by
any means, but ~possible~. And it ~would~ improve the vast majority of
film soundtracks, most of which do pretty rubbish
quasi-spatialization, where they bother at all.
5.1 is basically stereo with center channel (impotant in cinema use,
because it centers the voice to the screen), and two "envelope" channels.
It is not a perfect surround system, but it does what it is supposed to do.
Considering the distribution of spectators in a typical cinema, B format
doesn't "improve" on 5.1, even less with "4 speakers". 4 speakers might
work at home, for one or two listeners.
(Sometimes it actually doesn't work, depending on room acoustics etc.)
And it ~would~ improve the vast majority of film soundtracks, most of
which do pretty rubbish quasi-spatialization, where they bother at all.
But maybe it is not all about "spatialization", even if we speak about
surround sound? I don't want to get too polemic here, but the most
important factors for film audio seems to be that you can understand the
actors even at soft levels, and that any music sounds well...
Few film fans would analyze if you can here that a sound comes from say
"170º back-right". 5.1 might not deliver this, but luckily the average
cineast doesn't know this...
It is fair to say that 1st order AMB is good (or "good enough"?) for
some things, but it is not "perfect surround sound forever". Some people
on this list are actually using 2nd/3rd and higher order Ambisonics, and
I think that any good standard should consider different
applications/requirements.
Frankly, if .AMB format includes B format (1st order), I don't see any
fundamental conflict < at all >.
Best,
Stefan Schreiber
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
<https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/private/sursound/attachments/20110501/fc3a71c3/attachment.html>
_______________________________________________
Sursound mailing list
Sursound@music.vt.edu
https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
