MP-208 Class Page


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Course Outline


Assignments

Assignment 1: Concert video with Ambisonic audio
Assignment 2: 5.1 Surround Sound Mix
Assignment 3: Binaural Mix
Assignment 4: Dolby Atmos Mix
Assignment 5: 360 video

Lectures:

Lecture 1: Stereophony

Lecture2: Mid-Side

Lecture 3: Ambisonics

Lecture 4: Immersive Mixing

Lecture 5: Immersive Recording

Lecture 6: Binaural Basics

Lecture 7: Digital Audio

Lecture 8: Loudness and Mastering


Helpful Links:

Plug-Ins:

Here's a list of all the free plug-ins I have used (or will use) in class:

Flux StereoTool V3

HOA 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan

Sennheiser Ambeo A-to-B format converter - you'll need this for any Ambisonic recordings we do this semester.

DearVR micro

DearVR Ambi Micro

Rode Soundfield Plugin

IEM plug-ins

Blue Ripple Core

Facebook360 Spatial Audio Workstation
You may have trouble with this one, but it's worth trying to figure out if you can. This Facebook group still offers limited support. A shame that Meta have decided not to support it any longer, but QCC's computers still run it as of this writing.
Paid alternatives include AudioEase 360, Blue Ripple Sound, and DearVR Pro.


Additional Resources

Week 1: Stereophonic recording:

Tutorial by Bruce Bartlett about stereophonic recording techniques.

The Stereophonic Zoom - landmark paper by BBC engineer Michael Williams which does a deep dive on how to create stereophonic recording arrays. Also has implications for Surround Sound.

Week 2: Mid Side

Mid Side Recording - blog post discussion the basics of Mid/Side recording.

Mid Side processing - blog post discussing some M/S processing tips at the mastering stage.

Week 3: Ambisonics

Ambisonics Explained

Resources on Ambisonics - old site, but lots of good stuff.

Book on Ambisonics by Franz Zotter and Matthias Frank.

Zylia's free webinars for more info on their system.

Into the Soundfield mini-documentary

Week 4: Surround Sound and Intro to Immersive:

Atmos may be the latest thing, but 5.1 is still the de facto standard.

5.1 Surround Technical Recommendations:
AES/ITU: Multichannel Surround Sound Systems and Operations (2001)
NARAS: Recommendations for Surround Sound Production

Mixing
Mixing in Surround - Sonic Scoop

Week 5: Surround Recording

Some basic surround recording techniques:
M/S Techniques for Stereo and Surround
Charts showing Williams and INA 5 Surround arrays
Multichannel natural music recording based on psychoacoustic principals - one of the most comprehensive papers ever written on the topic of surround sound recording.
Stereo Technique for Augmented Ambience Gradient by David J. Tagg and Kevin Fallis
Hauptmikrofon.de - some resources on the latest recording techniques for stereo and 3D.

Week 6: Binaural

Role of Pinna in Localisation by D.W. Batteau.

Intro to Binaural from Sound on Sound.

Important Paper from Sennheiser about the conception and use of the Orbit plug-in, which you will know as the "DearVR Micro".

Week 7: Digital Audio

Basics of PCM:

A video showing how a Delta Sigma converter works:

Week 8: Mastering and loudness:

Bob Katz's mastering articles and demos - from the guy that literally wrote the book on mastering
Music Loudness Alliance - a group you should pay attention to as things progress.
AES Recommendations for loudness of streaming audio and network playback
ATSC A/85 standard - it's the law of the land!

Understanding Loudness Units:

Week 10 - 11: Dolby Atmos

Dolby's tutorial series: Dolby Atmos tutorial videos

Week 12 - 13: 360 Video

BerkleeNYC 360 Cinematic VR Playlist - some of the amazing work being done by Glenn Forsythe and his crew at Power Station.

Soundfield "Spem in Alium 360 recording - this blog post goes into some detail about how the video was recorded and produced.