10 July 2018 - EMPAC
Markus Noisternig + Okkyung Lee
EMPAC’s Spatial Audio Seminar is a gathering of composers and programmers discussing technologies such as Wave Field Synthesis and High-Order Ambisonics. Taking place over five days, this intensive seminar covers the technical, theoretical, and practical issues surrounding spatial audio platforms. A collaboration with IRCAM and Stanford University’s CCRMA, the program gives participants experience hearing hundreds of channels of audio, including EMPAC’s new 500+ speaker wave field array.
During the performance tonight, the audience will hear a selection of works for multichannel audio ranging from “simple” playback pieces to live improvisation with an acoustic instrument. Noted cellist Okkyung Lee will be improvising with and existing within the Concert Hall’s Ambisonic dome, which will be manipulated by IRCAM’s Markus Noisternig.
Ambisonics—which uses the 64 speakers hanging throughout the room—is a technique for spatializing sound in 360 degrees, around and above you. What makes this different from cinema 5.1 or 7.1 is that, in an Ambisonic system, all the speakers are working simultaneously to create sound, regardless of its position. Consequently, the impact of a perfect listening position, or sweet spot, is greatly reduced.
These High-Density Loudspeaker Arrays, as they are known to the professional community, are increasingly becoming topics of interest and discussion for computer musicians. Institutes like IRCAM (the Paris-based Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) and CCRMA (the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics), have been instrumental in creating a generation of composers and researchers who are using these tools to realize new methods of experiencing sound in previously unimaginable ways.
PROGRAM:
NATASHA BARRETT
Momentary Invisible BeingsOKKYUNG LEE + RAMA GOTTFRIED
FluoresceOLGA NEUWIRTH, TAL ROSNER
Disenchanted IslandOKKYUNG LEE + MARKUS NOISTERNIG
Improvisation