Sperical sound!

One interesting thing I heard about ambisonics, which is nice for us quad-heads: not sure if it's true or not, but from what I gather, it can actually construct a complete soundfield, including height information, from just 4 speakers (Ha! We were right all along! Or the older members were.... ) Can anyone confirm this? Or is it just heresay? (heresy?)
Scott

Scottmoose said:

One interesting thing I heard about ambisonics, which is nice for us quad-heads: not sure if it's true or not, but from what I gather, it can actually construct a complete soundfield, including height information, from just 4 speakers (Ha! We were right all along! Or the older members were.... ) Can anyone confirm this? Or is it just heresay? (heresy?)
Scott

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Oh dear. I can no longer spell. Or check what I type carefully enough! Let me say it properly: 'SPHERICAL SOUND' (now wash your mouth out!)
Sorry about that!
Scott

Scottmoose said:

not sure if it's true or not, but from what I gather, it can actually construct a complete soundfield, including height information

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Confirmed. But be aware that (to my knowledge) you won't get the height information (Z-axis of the so-called B-file). Still it sounds pretty dammed good to me. You might want to try the guide as outlined:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=60137&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

It looks long, but it's written 'big dummy style', and it works pretty fast once you got it working.

Scottmoose said:

from just 4 speakers

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We did lot's of testing on decoding the B-file to different rigs. Tested Surround (5.), Square (would be 4-speakers), and Pentagon rig. In summary, the Pentagon (5.0) sounds bests (and it works for most people's living-room setup).

Regards,

Andreas

kempfand said:

Confirmed. But be aware that (to my knowledge) you won't get the height information (Z-axis of the so-called B-file). Still it sounds pretty dammed good to me. You might want to try the guide as outlined:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=60137&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

It looks long, but it's written 'big dummy style', and it works pretty fast once you got it working.


We did lot's of testing on decoding the B-file to different rigs. Tested Surround (5.), Square (would be 4-speakers), and Pentagon rig. In summary, the Pentagon (5.0) sounds bests (and it works for most people's living-room setup).

Regards,

Andreas

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Good stuff! Nice to know first hand from someone who's actually tried it out!
Cheers
Scott

what I gather, it can actually construct a complete soundfield, including height information, from just 4 speakers

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This goes into the area of 'enhancing' / 'making better' 4.0 (or 5.1) through Ambisonic / AmbioPhonics. Some info on the topic is available under Transcoding "Quad" Recordings to Ambisonics as well as under The Implementation Of Ambisonics For Restoring Quadraphonic Recordings

I'd also recommend you try specise_8472 VST, available at 5.1 to WXYZ and Back . I've used it very successfully to improve some crappy 5.1 (from DVD-V), and I've tried it on some demuxed Quad-dts, also with quite astonishing results.

Regards,
Andreas

kempfand said:

This goes into the area of 'enhancing' / 'making better' 4.0 (or 5.1) through Ambisonic / AmbioPhonics. Some info on the topic is available under Transcoding "Quad" Recordings to Ambisonics as well as under The Implementation Of Ambisonics For Restoring Quadraphonic Recordings

I'd also recommend you try specise_8472 VST, available at 5.1 to WXYZ and Back . I've used it very successfully to improve some crappy 5.1 (from DVD-V), and I've tried it on some demuxed Quad-dts, also with quite astonishing results.

Regards,
Andreas

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When I get more than my usual 5 minute to myself, I'll give this a go. I own far too many dodgy 5.1 mixes -anything that improves them can only be a good thing in my view....

Scottmoose said:

One interesting thing I heard about ambisonics, which is nice for us quad-heads: not sure if it's true or not, but from what I gather, it can actually construct a complete soundfield, including height information, from just 4 speakers (Ha! We were right all along! Or the older members were.... ) Can anyone confirm this? Or is it just heresay? (heresy?)
Scott

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This thread is six years old, but I thought it would be useful to contribute to it anyway. That way, the information will be on the forum for others to find.

Yes, Ambisonics can reproduce a complete spherical soundfield, so it is not hearsay. But it needs four transmission channels (not speakers) to do it. It also requires a minimum of six or eight speakers (depending on the configuration), and more is better. For full-sphere, speakers need to be placed both above and below the level of the listener's ears.

This thread is in the Ambisonics (UHJ) forum. The only form of UHJ that was ever commercially released was two channel, and you cannot recover four transmission channels from two-channel UHJ. (There was a four-channel version of UHJ, which was full-sphere, but nothing was ever released in that format.)

Today, on Ambisonia.com, there are over 200 pieces available for free download. Almost all of these are full-sphere. You will need a decoder to play then, but ad hoc software decoders are available. (If you don't want to bother setting up a decoder then you can download any of the pieces as DTS CD images. The DTS versions are pre-decoded for four speakers arranged in a square, but you are restricted to horizontal-only and lose full-sphere.)


Regards,
Martin