Hi *!
At the Tonmeistertagung in Cologne last month, I made the acquaintance of Mike Williams, recording engineer and long-time AES contributor. He confronted me with an interesting claim while we were discussing the Auro-3D layout: according to Mike, there is precise height localisation between a front L/R pair and a front height center, much better than the "either up or down" kind of thing we've come to expect from Auro rigs where height speakers are right above the floor ones. Which is why he is proposing height speakers at 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°.
I haven't been able to look into this, and my gut feeling is that what Mike describes as precise height localisation during source movements is in fact a projection of the diagonal movement onto the horizontal plane (where our hearing apparatus is most discriminating), and the brain subconciously fills in the height based on a-priori knowledge of intent and speaker position. The only way to find out is a blind listening test, but maybe the patrons of this list have tried it and are able to comment?
Because if Mike's claim is true (or even just marginally helpful), then even if it's only about amplitude panning, we might exploit it for the design of Ambi rigs in the rE realm. I recall people have argued in favor of twisted rings before - maybe this is a case in point?
Best, Jörn -- Jörn Nettingsmeier Lortzingstr. 11, 45128 Essen, Tel. +49 177 7937487 Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik (Bühne/Studio) Tonmeister VDT http://stackingdwarves.net _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
