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A New Visual Paradigm to Surround Sound Mixing

Today's tools for surround mixing are like add ons to old style linear software. Their paradigm for surround mixing are almost the same: a sound file (or a track) is routed to a surround panner, with the help of the timeline and automation, sounds are moving in space. But you cannot prepare several sound movements at once, you cannot have a whole timeline overview of the spatialization process, you cannot compare easily two surround mixes, you can nearly not work on non-traditional set-ups, you cannot create generative surround sounds. The model presented during this presentation is based on a color coding system (RGB) working on three axes which are: time sounds are playing (x), the speakers number and position (y), and the intensity of each sound (z). I discuss its pros (it gives answers to all the flaws previously announced) and cons compared to traditional tools and about its field of application.

Author: Dilger, Thierry
Affiliation: www.sonabilis.com
AES Convention:132 (April 2012) eBrief:46 Import into BibTeX

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