Art of Record Production 2019

Object-based audio technology promises to provide truly immersive experiences that are independent of playback system and immune to future changes in technology. But are producers of immersive audio content really using direction and space in the most effective and interesting ways? How can we maximize the creative potential of 3D while maintaining the stability we have developed within the stereo paradigm? This paper looks at aesthetic and artistic uses of directionality in popular music productions and argues for a new conceptual framework for space and direction for immersive music productions in popular genre. Established frameworks for analyzing and interpreting spatiality in stereo and surround sound, such as Moylan’s perceived performance environment model and Moore’s soundbox, provide a starting point. Immersive and 3D audio formats are rapidly changing the possibilities for music producers, and with the rise of VR and AR technologies, it won’t be long before listeners expect access to all sorts of immersive music experiences. The research in this paper will provide an artistically interesting and technically sound framework for conceptualizing the use of space and direction in the immersive audio paradigm while maintaining many of the aesthetic characteristics that producers and listeners expect to hear when listening to popular genre music. Directional concepts that we take for granted (front, left, etc.) will be challenged and the role of directional room acoustics will also be explored.