ArteActa

ArteActa 2023, 10:25-54 | DOI: 10.62804/aa.2023.008

Zvuková imerze veřejného a privátního poslechového prostoru

Michal Rataj, Jan Trojan, Slavomír Hořínka, Soňa Vetchá

The paper summarizes new findings of a group of researchers who have been experimentally investigating the topic of the portability of acoustic spaces over a period of two years. Their focus is on the specific relationship between music and space - in particular, the transfer of the listening experience from an ambisonic distribution of spatial sound to a binaural. This paper examines not only how differently the work sounds in both situations, but more importantly what needs to be done to maintain the desired spatial expression in both situations. This term - analogous to other musical parameters such as melody, rhythm, dynamics, and timbre - designates those compositional and performance techniques in music whose function is to expressively shape sound in physical or virtual space. The authors think of problems from a compositional perspective and seek primarily creative solutions. The creation of two compositions for solo instruments with live electronics became the framework for a listening experiment in a circle of sixteen respondents. They used the method of a psychoacoustic questionnaire to seek answers to questions about the portability of spatial expression across the two formats of its spatial reproduction. The results of the experiment not only confirm or correct initial assumptions regarding the psychoacoustic nature of ambisonic and binaural space. In particular, they have provided a number of concrete insights that can serve composers, intermedia artists and sound designers in situations where their work (increasingly) travels across real or virtual spaces.

Keywords: music cognition, spatial expression, listening experience, ambisonic, binaural, acousmatic, reduced listening, psychoacoustic experiment

Published: December 31, 2023  Show citation