3D Sound: 36x Channels 40+ Sound emitting objects - help!

Hi there,

Hope someone can advise me here, I have been tasked with finding a way to mix down 36 audio tracks for use in an installation that has 36 speakers.

The (current) idea is to use Blender to simulate the 3d space, use objects ‘emitting’ sound, and script 36 renders with the camera in the correct relative position for each speaker.

The first issue i hit with Blenders built in 3d Sound was that it didn’t appear to work outside gaming mode.

I’m now coming round to the fact that it might be easier to use something like the process described in the post titled “3D sound without using ‘3D sound’”. The problem with this method is that the sounds become effectively disconnected from the objects that represent them, and so adds another layer of complications and learning curve for the designers that are putting the show together.

Has anyone got any better ideas on how to achieve this?

Many thanks in advance

It your a coder you might look into this. ms xna. No idea if it’s actually helpful for your situation, just throwing something out there…
http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/article/dynamic_audio
http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/3d_audio

Allen

Spatial audio - wow, nice, good-luck.

But, almost seriously, hopefully helpful, I suggest the following:

You’ll need a playback application for the resources you have - scene (presuming that’s why you are using Blender), emitter objects (placed within the scene), and audio.

However I’m not sure what you’re expecting for the final usage. If it’s a stage you’ll have fixed points of reference for playback so don’t need the dynamic environment for the scene, just spatial references for the speakers. If that’s all you need you should just ask the folks that are providing you with the audio what they are using to capture all the channels (seriously, I doubt they get 36 at a time so probably aggregated and not useful).

But, setup each output channel (speaker) to a source with relative gain, pitch, volume, etc. Pretty much audio-101 for playback with multiple outputs. Very manual.

If you actually need an active environment so the “range to source” track. You’ll need a 3D app to track the current location. The bad news about that is most use wav or mp3 format so you may lose some “fidelity” in the soundtrack.

To use “graphics with audio” - dynamic - I agree that Blender is a good authoring tool but you’ll need a playback app to go with it. Nothing off-the-shelf (as noted above) that I know of but you may want to consider Delta3D for simple environment (visual and audio) using your resources that are spatially sensitive.

Otherwise, invest in a good mixer and set your channels to output as needed for stage configuration.

P.S. Have worked at NOLA HOB, it’s easier than you think but not simple.