Spherical Audio

[mjbphotos]

Have you read the article in Tape Op #100 on The Future of Audio Engineering?

The part about 3D sound really makes you think. here we are talking about checking your mix in mono, and not using headphones to mix .... In 10 years what will we be recommending?

 

[Ethan Winer]

I'm still reading this article, so I might have more to say tomorrow. So far it's very interesting, though I can't see how dynamic range could increase much more due to the laws of physics. We already have more than 1,000 dB of range with 32-bit audio, which is common. That can't ever be realized in an acoustic space whether recording a source with microphones, or playing it back in a room, above absolute zero.

--Ethan

 

[mjbphotos]

Obviously some of the curves will flatten out in terms of advancement (physical and practical limits), cannot have exponential growth forever.

 

[ashcat_lt]

That is pretty much exactly what I was talking about back in 1995 when I was piddling along with Cakewalk ProAudio 4 on 386/66 with 8MB of RAM. All of it. I was very disappointed when Steinberg copyrighted the term "Virtual Studio" for a technology that fell so far short of what that actual entails.

 

[miroslav]

....though I can't see how dynamic range could increase much more due to the laws of physics. We already have more than 1,000 dB of range with 32-bit audio, which is common. That can't ever be realized in an acoustic space whether recording a source with microphones, or playing it back in a room, above absolute zero.

I skimmed over that article....and I think the author did say that the dynamic range will not be limited by technical and economic factors....though while he didn't say it, I think it was somewhat obvious that in a real-world scenario, it won't be realized.

The article was sorta just bouncing around with a variety of predictions for a variety of things, based on trends and whatnot....so I didn't quite see it as an article about the *future of audio engineering*. I didn't get any real-world sense of what audio engineering will be like in say.....20-30 years....or that there would be some dramatic changes.

Lots of pipe-smoke in the article.............

IMO....the more interesting article was the one on Joe Meek, and his impact on the future of audio engineering looking from back in his day foward....with a lot of his experiments and ideas actually taking hold, and stuff he was doing that rarely gets talked about beyond a couple of his better known claims to fame, and to infamy, having murdered his landlady and then committing suicide.

 

[Ethan Winer]

IMO....the more interesting article was the one on Joe Meek, and his impact on the future of audio engineering looking from back in his day foward....with a lot of his experiments and ideas actually taking hold, and stuff he was doing that rarely gets talked about beyond a couple of his better known claims to fame

Yes, though I read too much "and he may have invented..." speculation for my taste. The article was interesting for sure, and not doubt JM was a pioneer, but the article had way too much ass-kissing to take it very seriously.

--Ethan