{"id":645,"date":"2019-03-21T14:09:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T14:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/?p=645"},"modified":"2019-03-21T14:09:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T14:09:57","slug":"introduction-to-360-sound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/2019\/03\/introduction-to-360-sound\/","title":{"rendered":"introduction to 360 sound"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Table of Contents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-1\">1. Introduction<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-2\">2. quick summary of what we should already know<\/a>\n<ul><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-2-1\">2.1. two-channel sound<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-2-2\">2.2. surround sound<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-2-3\">2.3. ambisonics<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n<\/li><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-3\">3. using ambisonics in your mixes<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-4\">4. Starting with audio mixing for 360 video<\/a>\n<ul><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-4-1\">4.1. Get a video<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-4-2\">4.2. Get some spatialisation tools sorted<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#sec-4-3\">4.3. Facebook360 spatial workstation<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-1\">1 Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\nSound in a 360 video envrionment is considered an essential element, \nyet, it&#8217;s very hard to deal with sensibly. A reason for its complexity \nis down to the multilayered nature of film soundtrack design in general \nand what we have come to expect film to be. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nFilm soundtracks always play with notions of diegesis (sonic elements \nthat are part of the film world itself and beyond it). Often, there is a\n narrator or voice which if it moves around too much will cause a \ndestabilising lack of clarity<sup><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#fn.1\">1<\/a><\/sup>.\n Music, unless explicitly mixed with the idea that you can listen around\n the world in which it is being played can also cause really strange \nfeelings in the listener when instruments move or are distributed around\n the head. It&#8217;s hard for the brain to resolve a drum moving in space as \ndrums are heavy and usually on stands attached to the ground. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nFilm is a front-centric art where viewers are usually in a seat, looking\n forward and sound mixing has developed specifically with this \naffordance in mind. 360 video disrupts this, demanding an active and \nengaged viewer, interested in potentially anything and everything that&#8217;s\n around them. For this reason, the art itself is still developing, not \nenough people have done enough interesting things with this in order to \nknow how long a VR film should be, whether or not messages can be more \npowerful and how to sustain interest beyond the gimmick and current \nnovelty of being surrounded by potential information. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nIt is very likely therefore that VR films will need to be made in such a way that they <em>lead<\/em>\n the viewer along from place to place but that at any moment, one is \nfree to look back and imagine into the future. This has an effect on the\n form and structure and the way narrative plays out and it is in this \nrespect that sound will continue to be the glue that sticks this \npotentially discombobulating form together into a coherent experience. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nWhile sound has been regarded as a significant and essential element in \nVR\/360 film, dealing with the inherent complexities in concept, design, \nimplementation and delivery is non-trivial and presents current \npractitioners in the industry and students considerable hurdles. These \nare not simplified because the tools marketplace is also complex and \ncompetitive with <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/youtube\/answer\/6395969?hl=en-GB\">Google\/Youtube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/facebook360.fb.com\/spatial-workstation\/\">Facebook<\/a>, Occulus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aJkQHYDae5U\">Premiere<\/a> all offering different, but similar ways to manage the task. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-2\">2 quick summary of what we should already know<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-2-1\">2.1 two-channel sound<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What does stereo mean?\n<\/li><li>what is the recommended integrated loudness level for the EBUR-128 in LUFS?\n<\/li><li>What do LUFS integrated loudness to Netflix require?\n<\/li><li>How about for youTube?\n<\/li><li>What does binaural mean?\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-2-2\">2.2 surround sound<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>what deos the .1 of 5.1 stand for?\n<\/li><li>what is the .1 usually used for in film sound mixing?\n<\/li><li>what is the centre channel used for?\n<\/li><li>what is the channel ordering for standard 5.1 ITU spec.\n<\/li><li>how about for SMPTE?\n<\/li><li>how is 5.1 usually mixed in film, as a front-centric art or as something immersive and enveloping throughout?\n<\/li><li>is it better to work in surround and mix down to stereo, or to work in stereo and move to surround?\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-2-3\">2.3 ambisonics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>what is aFormat?\n<\/li><li>what is bFormat?\n<\/li><li>what is the difference between ambiX and FuMa?\n<\/li><li>why is knowing the format of your bFormat important?\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-3\">3 using ambisonics in your mixes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\nThis is well covered already in the following notes: \n<a href=\"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/sounddesignmedia\/2018\/11\/13\/lecture-09-space-and-time-b\/\">digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/sounddesignmedia\/2018\/11\/13\/lecture-09-space-and-time-b\/<\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/sounddesignmedia\/2018\/11\/20\/ambisonic-guidance\/\">digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/sounddesignmedia\/2018\/11\/20\/ambisonic-guidance\/<\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/sounddesignmedia\/2018\/11\/19\/ambisonic-workflows-with-reaper\/\">digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/sounddesignmedia\/2018\/11\/19\/ambisonic-workflows-with-reaper\/<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nHowever, it&#8217;s worth just rehearsing that the 5.1 and stereo mixes, and \nindeed binaural mixes can happen simultaneously in most circumstances. \nBy using different master busses to host the stereo, binaural and 5.1 \nmixes, you can quickly audition different versions of your mixes and \nchange between them in one session. Depending upon how heavy you go with\n your processes, the spatial mixing might need to be done after more \nrudimentary work has been done to your audio. For example, you may be \nbetter off doing dialogue editing in a different session, de-noising \nthings etc without having concern for how things will be spatialised. \nHowever, if your dialogue is all set inside a room and the recording was\n done with an ambisonic mic, then you will definitely want to keep \nwhatever edits you&#8217;ve done in bFormat so that the spatial signature of \nthe original recording is kept and can be balanced with other spatial \ninformation in the main mix for your project. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nIn Reaper, I like to have a masterfader connected to the hardware \noutputs of my sound system and to send a 5.1, stereo and binaural bus to\n that place, muting two of the three tracks depending upon what I want \nto monitor. These &#8216;master&#8217; busses are the ones that I bounce, so it&#8217;s \nvery important that the bus has exactly the number of channels you want \nyour file to have, e.g. stereo and binaural, 2 channel, 5.1 6 channels, \n7.1 8 channels etc. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nDemonstration. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-4\">4 Starting with audio mixing for 360 video<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-4-1\">4.1 Get a video<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\nWhen mixing for a 360 video, you need a 360 video to practice on. This \nmeans either renting 360 camera, making a 360 film by exporting \nsomething from Unity, or downloading a 360 video from youtube. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nTo do this, you&#8217;ll need the commandline tool youtube-dl, accessibel to homebrew users on OSX with <code>brew install youtube-dl<\/code> or to chocolatey users on windows with this <code>choco install youtube-dl<\/code>. If you already have youtube-dl installed you may wish to update it: <code>brew update youtube-dl<\/code>. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nYoutube hosts the 360 videos in lots of different formats within the \ncontainer on their server so you can&#8217;t just download a VR video, you \nneed to specify which of the tracks in the container you want to get. \nThis post explains the solution I followed to get the following command \nsorted: <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/ytdl-org\/youtube-dl\/issues\/15267\">github.com\/ytdl-org\/youtube-dl\/issues\/15267<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n<code>youtube-dl https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xKNTZd9pOz0 --user-agent '' -f 266 --merge-output-format mkv<\/code>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nTo include the audio in the above, you need to add the audio stream, best quality one is usually 251. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n<code>youtube-dl --user-agent \"\" https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XPhmpfiWEEw -f 266+251 --merge-output-format mkv<\/code>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-4-2\">4.2 Get some spatialisation tools sorted<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\nFor 360 video, you need 360 sound. This inevitably means you can hide \nfrom ambisonics no longer. Well, actually you can, you can just deliver a\n nice stereo or binaural mix that is headlocked and put it with the \nvideo, most likely nobody will notice that the sound doesn&#8217;t move when \nyou shift your head around, however, the effect of immersion and \ninvolvement in the material, not the message, can be greatly enhanced \nwith sounds that appear to move around you. Actually, it&#8217;s perhaps \nfairer to say that the video&#8217;s spatial phenomena will be easier to read \nif there are sounds that correspond to movement in the visuals. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sec-4-3\">4.3 Facebook360 spatial workstation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\nBasically, read the guide and you&#8217;re away. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Footnotes: <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><sup><a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/mparker\/Dropbox\/UoE-paperwork\/teaching\/Programme\/SFM\/08-360Video\/introTo360.html#fnr.1\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. quick summary of what we should already know 2.1. two-channel sound 2.2. surround sound 2.3. ambisonics 3. using ambisonics in your mixes 4. Starting with audio mixing for 360 video 4.1. Get a video &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/2019\/03\/introduction-to-360-sound\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">introduction to 360 sound<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646,"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/soundandfixedmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}