Binaural Spatial Audio Workshop

Concept and text: Dejan Tomka, Producer, Belgrade

Support: Rudolf Arnold, Radio Free Fm, Ulm

Context

Spatial audio is gaining in popularity last few years, mainly founded in Apple’s (and other streaming platforms) enthusiasm towards making the spatial audio “Next Big Music Thing”. This push towards audio that surrounds the listener got additional momentum with appearance of new generation of headphones, ear buds and software algorithms that can create the believable spatial aural illusion using just two sources projecting sound directly in our ears, thus making the technology cheap enough for most users. The simplicity of using just headphones, instead of multi-speaker systems, is not to be skipped as an easy entry point for listeners.

For artist and producer point of view, this technology opens a vast new ground for experimentation. Creating the believable immersive audio-scapes and real life ambiences that feel almost interactive (or indeed are – with head tracking technology) got within the reach of content creators, and host of tools and applications is coming our way almost every day.

Objective

This workshop should represent the entry point for anyone interested in exploring the spatial binaural technology as a tool for creation of immersive audio experiences on digital media or radio. Participant should have a precise idea how to start their exploration, and general experience of some basic approaches and tools that could create the foundations for their future workflows.

Goals

With the workshop program we aim to get to the point where all of the participants:

• Understand the basic theory and technology of binaural spatial audio
• Have the knowledge of available tools and techniques for recording and producing spatial audio material
• Gained the basic experience of creating and producing binaural spatial audio
• Have the general idea of usage cases and applications of spatial audio
• Have created the short binaural spatial demo material throughout the workshop

WORKSHOP PROGRAM

09.30 – 10.30 Phase 1 – Presentation and lecture

Taking place indoor at Radio free FM, seating for all the participants, headphones available for demos. 

• Introduction – short history, current development, context
• Acoustic and psychoacoustic foundations of spatial sound
• Technological foundations of spatial sound
• Demonstration and inspiration
• Guidelines for next phase – field recording
• Creating the basic “script” for field recording
• Advices for next phase – field recording

Coffee break  10-15 min

10.45 – 12.45 Phase 2 – field recording

Taking place outdoors (indoor if weather does not allow it)

• Participants apply the knowledge and ideas gained throughout the Phase 1
• Exploring the city, listening to sounds, capturing the interesting ambiences
• Creating the sounds on purpose – foley, dialogue, noises, musical tones

Lunch 12.45 – 13.15

13.15 – 15.45 (16.00) Phase 3 – material production/postproduction

• Basic introduction to Logic Pro interface (if needed)
• Explanation and exploration of basic tools used for binaural sound production
• Participants use recorded sounds and DAW tools to create binaural spatial demos
• Each participant presents demo
• Group analysis after each demonstration

W E L C O M E!!!