Proface

If stereo mix in the 50 cent headphones is quite difficult, how the hell can we hope to mix in surround sound? Well, there is a solution, but at the moment is expensive and impractical remains a developing project. The German research institute, the IRT and Studer have co-developed a binaural room simulator (BRS). Basically a pair of stereo beats by dre headphones with a very accurate position sensor tells the device how the operator is faced with. This is actually one of the most expensive elements of the system, but it is crucial for its effectiveness.

The system has two distinct phases - a planning and a phase of reproduction. In the planning phase, a dummy head is placed in space (such as the Neumann KU100) in the ideal listening position a real control. Special test signals pulses are then played on each speaker in turn and captured the signals from two microphones in the "ears" of head shape placed are stored for later analysis. This procedure with the artificial head is rotated in small steps is repeated (for example, five degrees) for an interval of ± 45 degrees. The stored data is then translated into highly detailed models as the convolution of the monitoring area is specific for each channel surround sound.

The play uses this data to process each turn of the input signals to produce the surround sound field binaural stereo matching, and all the room sound fields for each channel before combining them with the headphones for stereo headphones. A position sensor on the headset tells the processors folding that particular set of data is used, so that when the user moves his head, the data is applied according to folding, and the scene perceived sound remains stationary for l 'listener as you would in real life. Although this adds a huge amount of additional complexity to the system in fact has been found to be essential if the illusion of listening should work reliably for a true surround sound monitoring system.

The huge amount of computing power needed convolve to six audio channels with sufficient accuracy and resolution for high-quality monitoring system currently makes this approach too expensive for commercial application valid, but a number of research units have been built and I had the good fortune to the system to listen for myself. While it was possible, small defects in quality sound system beginning I recognize auditioned, surrounded his ability to portray a scene totally credible and stable sound was incredible, and clearly this approach has much to do to offer in the coming years.

Apparently his most recent outing was convenient for the New Year's Day concert from Vienna broadcast this year. The state broadcaster, ORF, has decided to launch a new broadcast service surround sound with this event. However, the control room area of their Outside Broadcast truck was too small to establish an adequate system of surround sound monitoring. Thus, the balance of the system technician experimental Studer BRS used during testing to determine the surround sound mix, and with great success.

This is definitely a technology to watch. As the cost of DSP continues to fall, it will suddenly become a viable business proposition, both for stereo or surround applications. If it does, headphone monitoring is suddenly much more accurate and reliable than conventional loudspeaker monitoring for those of us with less-than-perfect control room acoustics. After all, the system can be programmed with convolutional codes data collected from one or more of the best control rooms in the studio on the planet, so that we all share from the comfort of our home studio beats by dre!