From: Linda Jacobson Subject: TECH: Spatial sound imaging (3D sound) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 92 13:39:14 -0800 >From: "KANT B. REEL" >known as 3D sound. I have scoured several cd-rom libraries to no avail )-: >The only article on this new technology I have seen was in issue no.5 of Mondo 2000, it was brief but interesting. The article was an interview with Chris Purcell(?) a leading sound engineer in 3D sound. I am creating a data-base on 3D technology(vr, holography, 3D-HDTV, etc.) and am in great need of more info. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (-: Hello: As a technology journalist, I specialize in covering audio, music and multimedia technologies and the people who invent and use them. Been writing for the audio industry for over a decade; 3D sound is one of my pet topics. First, the Mondo article was littered with inaccuracies, starting with Paragraph 1: The authors were not, as stated, "in ... the waiting room at Heyday records." They were in the lounge of San Francisco recording studio Mobius Music, the studio chosen to record Connie Champagne's album incorporating the Virtual Audio encoding process. (I was there, too.) The article claimed that this album is "the first- ever 3D record," but it is not. It is the first made with Chris *Currell*'s Virtual Audio system. Scientists and recordists have been experimenting with "3D" sound since the 1880s. Until last year, it never really caught on with the music industry, basically because you could *only* hear 3D effects on headphones. Nonetheless, _Lou Reed: The Bells_ came out in 1979, recorded in West Germany using a binaural dummy head (a mic in each ear)--the forerunner to the Virtual Audio recording head. Other late-'70s albums recorded with binaural "3D" sound were released by Steve Winwood, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd, Kiss and Quincy Jones. In '85 or thereabouts Michael Jackson's _Bad_ used all manner of 3D recording; as a result, he (along with his producer and record company) were (or are) defendants in a $2 million lawsuit brought by Hugo Zuccarelli, inventor of the Holophonics 3D sound system. (Not sure of the case's current status.) Today, several brands of 3D sound systems compete for the attention of musicians and record producers; some systems don't use the dummy head to record (QSound, Roland Sound Space), some do (Spherical Sound, Virtual Audio). The manufacturers of the latter two systems are developing 3D sound chips for use in virtual reality applications. Other systems are in development; lots of clever people are experimenting with their spatial sound recipes. Also, the selective hearing process called "the cocktail effect" in the Mondo article is actually the "cocktail *party* effect." Refers to the fact that we can enjoy an intimate discussion at a crowded, noisy shindig, subconsciously filtering out the whoops and screams and sighs around us so we can concentrate on the private whispering at hand. Regarding where to find other articles on 3D sound technology: I wrote a feature story focused on how recording engineers and producers use the new breed of speaker-friendly systems, for the October '91 issue of _Mix: The Recording Industry Magazine_ (for back issues, call 510-653-3307). I also wrote a shorter article on the topic for the Nov. '91 issue of _Keyboard_ (408-446-1105). These articles concern systems intended for use in music recording, but have bearing upon current and future applications in VR. I'm currently editing a book called "CyberArts," which will contain several chapters on 3D sound by leaders in the field: (alphabetically) Durand Begault of NASA Ames; Curtis Chan of RolandCorp; Chris Currell of Audio Cybernetics; Scott Foster of Crystal River Engineering; Bo Gehring of Focal Point; and Beth Wenzel of NASA/Ames. The book will be published by Miller Freeman Publications in June. Other reliable sources of 3D sound info: _Audio_ magazine, November '89 and December '89. Audio Engineering Society 1991 Convention Preprints, "Perceptual Effects of Synthetic Reverberation on 3D Audio Systems," by Durand Begault, preprint #3212 (W6); and "Binaural Record/Reproduction Systems and Their Use in Psychoacoustic Investigations," by Floyd Toole, preprint #3179 (L6). AES is located at 60 East 42nd St, NYC 10165. Preprints cost under $10 each. Ears to you, Linda J.