Woody Norris invents amazing things

[Mark Bassett]

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/woody ... hings.html

[Ben M]

Does that mean we can now do away with any acoustic design/space when mixing?

Super cool link Mark. Ta.

[Mark Bassett]

I hope not, we need the ''sound' of rooms, music sucks in anechoic chambers.

[Ben M]

I hope not too. But if I'm reading this right, it could have quite a big effect on the industry ....I'm thinking things like.... home studio's with poor acoustic qualities, headphone sends in studios??, the promotion of music in public spaces, how we listen to concerts...so PA systems.... in fact any way that music is performed, broadcast or recorded really.
Scenario; full band setup in a studio (or on stage monitoring), each performer with there separate zone for monitoring.... no headphones (or in- ears).... but you could ask for a bit more kick, bass and to turn the vocal down a tad:) or instead of an array of speakers at a concert we could see an array of Woody's panels...everyone receiving the same volume (and no bleeding ears). I'd say you'd lose a bit of "vibe" though.
ooo...how bout a miniature one on ithingy's. No more of those shitty earbud phones.

Heavy man.

What's your take?

[Kurt]

I think it would suck for live shows at least. If the sound is created at the surface of the eardrum as he explains it there can be no directional information.It would be like wearing mono headphones, with the sound seeming to come from inside your head.

[tony]

I did a contemporary dance gig at a university a few years ago that used this (or similar) technology mounted in a moving light fixture. The team of Japanese technicians used it to project onto a screen aimed at certain moving elements to give the effect of sound radiating from them! It was an amazing effect. You really could only hear the sound as the speaker pointed at you or if it hit an object (the screen) and reflected off it.

The big problem was the low frequency content was completely non –existent. The show worked around that by putting in a ‘standard PA’ as well and then having the composer create the content based on the limitation of the systems. I haven’t seen the technology used since. I would love to get my hands on some of those systems, for use in my theatre work.

[vanderlae]

Man, I remember reading about this well over 10 years ago and at the time was considering buying shares. Fascinating stuff.

[Mark Bassett]

I think it would suck for live shows at least. If the sound is created at the surface of the eardrum as he explains it there can be no directional information.It would be like wearing mono headphones, with the sound seeming to come from inside your head.

As he explains in the video, there could be different signals for the left and right ear, thus directional information is easily implemented. If you're concerned with the lack of spatial encoding done by the pinna etc this can be easily an effectively worked around though the use of HRTF's.

[Ben M]

And therefore the options in 3D placement and psychdelic panning could make you fall of your seat.

The question is... can we get full spectrum out of these systems?

[Kurt]

Maybe for seated shows, bt the kind of shows I do/go to I don't think it would work. Of course it's all conjecture on both our parts.

I think it would suck for live shows at least. If the sound is created at the surface of the eardrum as he explains it there can be no directional information.It would be like wearing mono headphones, with the sound seeming to come from inside your head.

As he explains in the video, there could be different signals for the left and right ear, thus directional information is easily implemented. If you're concerned with the lack of spatial encoding done by the pinna etc this can be easily an effectively worked around though the use of HRTF's.

[Kurt]

From memory he said 200hz up to beyond the audible range.

And therefore the options in 3D placement and psychdelic panning could make you fall of your seat.

The question is... can we get full spectrum out of these systems?

[Ben M]

From memory he said 200hz up to beyond the audible range.

Yep I rememmber him saying that, but I was wondering if this could get to full spectrum (including the low end) in the future though.