5

ST 4 (1) pp. 521 Intellect Limited 2011

The Soundtrack
Volume 4 Number 1
2011 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/st.4.1.5_1
KEYWORDS
multichannel audio
surround sound
hypersonic
spatialized audio
soundscapes
acousmatic
aural architectures
SARAH ATKINSON
University of Brighton
Surrounded by sound: The
aesthetics of multichannel
and hypersonic soundscapes
and aural architectures
ABSTRACT
This article explores multichannel sound and hypersonic audio and investigates the
impact that cinematic technologies have had on our sonic perception and appre-
ciation. The core methodology of these explorations has been through practice, and
the evolution of a 7.1 surround sound and hypersonic composition and installation:
auditoryum (Sarah Atkinson and Marley Cole, 2010). Through reflection upon this
practice, this article addresses the ways in which auditoryum has foregrounded and
extended theories of the soundscape and aural architecture. It will also discuss the
impact of audio-related technological developments on soundtrack and sound design
aesthetics, principles and practice.
An auditory world unfolds like a tune, a visual world is presented already
complete like a painting.
(Rodaway 1994: 82)
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INTRODUCTION
The aims of this research were, first to explore and extend, through
practice, the theoretical fields of Soundscape Studies and Aural Architectures.
Second, the project aimed to investigate the influence of sonic cinematic
technologies and technique upon our reception and perception of sound
reproduction [i.e. surround sound (5.1/7.1), sound design, sound recording,
sound FX and Foley]. Through the pursuit of meeting these aims, I hope
to offer compelling insights into the field and to inform future soundscape
theory and practice.
In order to fully explore the sonic potential of surround sound and hyper-
sonic audio, it was deemed necessary to move these technologies away from
the constraints of the moving image and from the traditional cinematic set up
of film theatres and home cinema systems. Cinema parallels culture in that it is
primarily a visual experience; conversely, this project aimed to foreground the
sonic medium as the primary sensory experience. This would entail a reconfigu-
ration of the standard and angular front and rear speaker positioning inherent
in surround-sound systems, to a circular array, in order to create a full 360
sonic space within the speakers. This would facilitate an immersive listening
space within which visitors could move and respond to the dynamic sound
fields that were to be projected within, thus emulating our lived experience of
sonic phenomena.
[] the auditory world not only surrounds us but we seem to be within
it and participants. Although we know that the visual world is all
around us, our actual experience is of an image in front of the eyes and
not behind our backs. We feel more detached from a visual world than
an auditory one. Auditory phenomena penetrate us from all directions
at all times.
(Rodaway 1994: 92)
The chosen environments of auditoryum, sound-proofed and treated studio
installation spaces, would enhance the sonority of the complex auditory
compositions and encourage active and engaged listening by the visitors. As
Handel has noted in his reflections upon the sensory mode of listening:
Listening is not the same as hearing. The physical pressure wave enables
perception but does not force it. Listening is active; it allows age, experi-
ence, expectation, and expertise to influence perception.
(1989: 3)
Here, listening is described as an active experience, which is also recognized
by Rodaway, in his observations:
Hearing may be described as the basic passive sensation, whilst listen-
ing implies an active attentiveness to auditory information and a desire
to establish meaning.
(1994: 89)
This sense of attentiveness was facilitated by the active listening space of
auditoryum, and the fact that the audio events within did not pertain, and were
not attached to any visual referents. The listener was therefore encouraged to
ST_4.1_Atkinson_5-21.indd 6 10/13/11 10:34:56 AM
Surrounded by sound
7
engage acousmatically with the work that is to listen in a focussed manner,
without access or reference to the visual source of the sound.
Acousmatic, the Larousse dictionary tells us, is the Name given to
the disciples of Pythagorus who, for five years, listened to his teach-
ings while he was hidden behind a curtain, without seeing him, while
observing a strict silence. Hidden from their eyes, only the voice of their
master reached the disciples.
(Schaeffer 2006: 77)
Without the constraints of the visual medium, auditoryum aimed to extend
our understanding and appreciation of audio environments, whilst exploring
the potential of technological artistry to effectively capture and create complex
and realistic three-dimensional (3D) soundscapes.
THE INSTALLATION
Auditoryum was commissioned in 2009 as part of the Creative Campus
Initiative: a Cultural Olympiad Arts project in the United Kingdom. The
installation comprised a ten-speaker set up, eight surround speakers on stands
positioned in a circular array equi-distance apart and two wall-mounted
hypersonic speakers at opposite ends of the installation space. The composi-
tion consisted of a series of multiple-microphone recordings of various sport-
ing events and arenas that were a velodrome, a snooker hall, a table tennis
arena, an Olympic diving pool, a show jumping ground, a rowing boat, a clay-
pigeon shooting range, a basketball court, a ten-pin bowling alley, an athletics
track and field and a fencing arena. The hypersonic speakers projected specific
Figure 1: A specific sonic spatialised moment was created in the 100meter sprint in
which the sound of the runners feet race through the speakers along the horizontal
plane.
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8
high-attack sounds that synchronized with the 60-minute eight-channel
discrete mix at specific temporal moments (i.e. the sound of the cyclists pedals,
the sound of the table tennis ball, the bouncing basketball, etc.).
Various different microphone placements were designed and executed
within the different sporting arenas in order to capture the full 360 audio
environments and also to record and recreate spatialized instances of move-
ment through the speakers for example, the cyclist circling the velodrome can
be heard moving rhythmically around the speakers in a circular motion; the
sound of basketballers feet, their voices and the passing of the ball provide an
instant contrast to the cyclic sounds, to a more chaotic sonic terrain in which
the sounds traverse erratically across and within the 360 sonic space.
Figure 2: The sound of the cyclist circling the velodrome traverses the speakers in a
sweeping 360-degree sonic motion.
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Surrounded by sound
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The aim of auditoryum was to extend both soundscape studies and prac-
tice into the realm of multichannel audio. The intention was to create a
spatialized sonic soundsape not just using sonic moments but through
the accuarate rendition of the aural architecture. In order to achieve this and
to ensure that the work advanced beyond being simply a wrap-around stereo
Figure 3: The sound of the diver entering the water emanates from the centre of the
installation through the hypersonic speaker, whilst the subwoofer carries the bass
signal of the impact. The surround sound reproduces the atmosphere of the highly
reflective sonic environment.
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experience, the decision to use hypersonic audio technologies in parallel to
surround sound was also instigated. The overall approach to the installation
set up was to ensure a clairaudience clean hearing (Schafer: 1977: 11) of
the reproduced audio environments.
SURROUND SOUND
The use and experimentation of multichannel sound and surround sound
technologies and practice has arguably been limited to the cinematic industries,
which have had the budgets and capacity to explore and exploit the technologies
and the form. As Manolas and Pauletto have asserted the multi-channel
soundtracks potential as a narrative tool has yet to be fully explored (2009: 39).
Moreover, experimentation with the form has arguably been limited within the
cinematic arena because of the two dimensional nature of the screen space.
In cinema, the use and exploitation of surround sound has been restricted
to the sonic representation of the moving image. There is a set formula to the
sound design of multichannel soundtracks. In short, there are rules, codes and
conventions of surround sound design when working with moving image, which
relate to the anchoring of sounds to the screen space and which have a tendency
to be inflexible and unchangeable. For example, as viewers, we expect that the
voice of the speaking actor to emanate from the corresponding area of the screen;
it would be unnatural and unacceptable to hear the voice off-screen. Chion cited
this problem as the psychological phenomenon of spatialization (1994: 70)
and as a result, in cinema there is a spatial magnetization of sound by image
(1994: 70). To intentionally override the restrictions imposed by these audio-
visual conventions would invariably foreground sound as the primary aesthetic of
the cinematic experience, which up until now has defaulted to be the secondary.
In cinematic surround sound, the speakers are assigned specific roles. The
centre loudspeaker is used exclusively for dialogue or commentary (Hiyama
et al. 2002), and the front left and right speakers are used predominantly to
carry the music and sound effects. The rear speakers stream diffused sound
fields in which to envelope the viewer in ambient sound and the subwoofer
is used for low-frequency enhancement. As such, 5.1 and 7.1 systems have
tended to be front-loaded with occasional spatial surround effects that
come off-screen. It has been argued that with 5.1 channels it is possible to
make recordings that have excellent depth, and that localize well over a large
area (Griesinger 2001: 182). The 7.1 audio derives from widescreen cinema
formats for large cinema auditoria where the screen width is such that the
additional channels are needed to cover the angles between the loudspeakers
satisfactorily for all the seats in the auditorium (Griesinger 2001: 94).
It is clear that the use of this technology in cinematic practice has predom-
inantly been developed and focussed upon creating immersive and all encom-
passing sound to enhance our experience of the visual image. As Rumsey has
noted, Surround sound use in cinema is not for accurate 3D rendering but
rather creative and artistic illusion (2001: 19.)
Even with stereoscopic 3D film projection, images are still experienced on
the full-frontal plane. Viewers in the cinema auditorium are static in position
and maintain a forward facing position at all times. Lennox has argued that
although surround sound:
[] can depict a sense of rapid movement of images from the front
stage to one side or other [] it was designed simply to add a little bit of
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Surrounded by sound
11
immersiveness to an audiovisual experience in which the visual element
is very strictly limited to the same kind of proscenium arch presentation
on which stereo was predicated.
(2009: 264)
Not withstanding the restrictions of the form, it has demonstrated a clear poten-
tial to create sonic arenas and environments through the use of multichannels.
Hiyama et al. have argued that at least six loudspeakers are needed to repro-
duce the spatial impression of a diffuse sound field (2002: 11). To fully appreci-
ate and engage with this potential, it is necessary to move away from the need
for a fixed focal point to create a circular speaker configuration and to allow
the participant to position himself or herself freely within the sonic arena.
Chion referred to the arena as the superfield. That is:
The space created in multi-track films, by ambient natural sounds, city noises,
music, and all sorts of rustlings that surround the visual space and that can
issue from loudspeakers outside the physical boundaries of the screen.
(Chion 1994: 150)
Chion has argued that this has led to a change in film-making aesthetics. He
notes the redundancy of the once frequently deployed long-establishing shot,
as information previously contained in this shot such as crowd scenes and
atmosphere could now be carried by the multichannel audio. Visually, the
long shot is now replaced with a series of close-ups.
Kerins has extended the conceptual notion of the superfield into the
concept of the ultrafield, which is the sonic effect of spatialization through
multichannel audio:
[] the spatial freedom offered by digital surround generally favours
the complex multi-channel soundtrack style of the ultra field, in cases
where the image track is cut extremely fast a simplified consistent aural
environment like the superfield may actually be more effective.
(2010: 103)
The ultrafield has the potential to sonically convey instances of movement and
(dramatic) instances of action such as car chases and gun shot fire. The success-
ful application of such techniques relies on the eradication of any sonic black
spots between speaker placements, which can be a problem in larger audito-
riums. By utilizing the 7.1 surround sound system and bringing the speakers
closer together in a circular array within the auditoryum installation the percep-
tual holes between widely spaced loudspeakers (Blesser and Salter 2007: 206),
an inherent problem in large projection areas, became less significant.
In cinematic surround sound, we enter a space of horizontally localized
hyperreality, a sonic canvas of special effects and a simulated reality. Within
auditoryum, the listener enters a 360 spatialized environment of reality, actu-
ality and optimum naturalness.
HYPERSONIC SOUND
The application of hypersonic audio, which is a relatively new technology,
provides a number of creative possibilities for audio practitioners and sound-
scape artists. Hypersonic audio is a directional and focused audio source.
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1. http://www.
creativematch.com/
viewNews/?97102.
Working in the same way as a light beam from a torch, it can project audio to
a very specific place; it can deliver sound to a specific person; it can also deliver
sound to areas which are either physically impossible to access or too costly to
install conventional loudspeakers; it creates virtual sound sources and the speak-
ers have the potential to move sound around a room in real time. This provides
both a unique listening experience and a unique opportunity to enhance and
accentuate the different features of soundscapes, and the sonic objects within
lobjet sonores (Schafer 1977: 9). These features include keynotes, signals and
soundmarks, which will be discussed in more detail shortly.
The creative potential of hypersonic technology has not yet been exploited
in the field of soundscape studies or within the realm of cinematic sound. It
tends to have been used for location-based installations and projects, such as
the BBC Red sound spot campaign.
1

The unique and compelling nature of the experience of this technology
is that the sounds appear to emit from different locations. The response by
audiences is fascinating. Upon hearing the sounds from the projected loca-
tions (the surface of a wall or ceiling where the speaker is pointed) listeners
very quickly shift their glance from the emitting speaker, to turn their heads
in an attempt to locate the visual source of the sound. This technology is akin
to binaural audio, which is experienced through headphones and creates the
perception (when the speaker is directed to a specific person) that the sound
is heard in the head. Binaural sound creates a totally different listening expe-
rience to that of speakers and the listener will not hear sound spread out in
external space (Julesz and Hirsh 1972: 316).
As LaBelle has noted:
The dislocation of ambient sound from a given location and its repro-
duction within the space of another location fuels a provocative experi-
ence, for such dislocations transform not only our spatial context and
awareness of location but our perceptual and cognitive map.
(2008: 237)
An interesting dichotomy emerges in the use of this technology, in that the
experience could be read as one of disorientation and dislocation, whereby
the listener actively seeks, yet cannot locate a visual anchor on which to posi-
tion the sound. Some visitors to auditoryum commented that they felt diso-
rientated, and physically off balance, as there was no visual reference to
the sounds that were being heard. However, in the endeavor of providing
an accurate reproduction of a sonic space, the localization and pinpointing
of sounds to a specific area are now possible through the application of this
technology. Altman had previously claimed that:
When attempting to locate a crying child we normally call heavily on
our binaural hearing system to provide cues regarding lateral location.
When we listen to a recording of a crying child, no such localization
is possible.
(1992: 29)
This of course, in the case of hypersonic audio, and to a certain extent,
multichannel surround audio, is no longer a convincing stance. The poten-
tial for the application of hypersonic audio within auditoryum was therefore a
significant one.
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Surrounded by sound
13
SOUND RECORDING/SOUND REPRESENTATION
Between the illusion of reproduction and the reality of representation
lies the discursive power of recorded sound.
(Altman 1989: 30)
In pursuing auditoryums aim to recreate as accurately as possible the sporting
soundscapes, both in a sonic and spatialized sense, one must acknowledge that
many have argued that sound reproduction is different from the experience
of natural listening. The aim of the approach to the sound acquisition of
auditoryum was to achieve optimum naturalness and as close a reproduction
to the actual sonic environments as possible. Theile describes optimum
naturalness as the reproduced sound image must be nearly identical to the
original sound image (2001: 202). There are notable challenges to overcome
with this approach and the role of the sound recordist is problematized.
Altmans analogy of the microphone as a sound camera (Altman 1992: 26),
whereby the microphone is selectively placed by the recordist, and editorial
decisions are made such as which sounds should be captured, and from which
perspective. In the same way that Handel has referred to the ear as being a
microphone and the eye a camera we see and hear things and events that
are important to us as individuals, not sound waves or light rays (1989: 3).
Lopez too has echoed that cameras and microphones are non-neutral
interfaces (2006: 84).
So-called recordings are thus always representations, interpretations,
partial narratives that must nevertheless serve as our only access to the
sounds of the past.
(Altman 1992: 27)
Within contemporary culture, as experienced viewers, listeners and receiv-
ers of audio-visual materials, this is further problematized by the fact that we
have arguably been exposed to a simulation and falsification of sonic events
and occurrences that have fettered our ability to be objective listeners.
Take the use of Foley techniques for example, whereby sound is orches-
trated, created and performed, and then sonically mapped and synchronized
to the moving image. Foley techniques are deployed alongside the creation of
special effects, a process by which effects are married (Ament 2009: 30). The
purpose of Foley is used to sonically portray the dramatic purpose of various
films (Ament 2009: 20). These are achieved through numerous special and
often experimental creative techniques using the body and objects within a
specialist sound studio equipped with various props and floor surfaces. For
example, the sound of footsteps through a muddy terrain could be recreated
by the Foley artist punching their fists repeatedly into the flesh of a water-
melon in synchronization with the action of the footsteps on-screen.
As Sonnenschein has observed, one of the most surprising audiovisual
phenomenon allows the audience to believe that whatever sound is synchro-
nised to the image is the sound being emitted by that image (2001: 35).
Sound in cinema is therefore a simulation of an event, in which audio is a
creation and a fiction. Even when sounds are incidental, and not necessarily
dramatic, i.e. footsteps or a hand rustling for an object in a handbag, they are
recreated by the Foley artist, if they have not been adequately captured on-set.
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The creation of reality and actuality is also an art, which takes great forethought
and creativity. This has inevitably led to audio not sounding the way in which
we think, or perceive it to sound, and that certain events have a clear, distinct
and perceptible sound when they in actual fact do not. This is notable in the
cinematic creation of fight sequences, which will incorporate Foley as well as
special effects. As two individuals come together in a violent physical exchange,
we hear, through the speakers, the audible swipes and swooshs of limbs flying
through the air, the loud sonic thumps of the impact of fists on skin. The exag-
geration of sound in such dramatic instances is inevitable though in reality, such
sounds would of course be much less pronounced and of a different nature.
Our exposure to forms of media that incorporate such techniques invariably
poses problems to soundscape artists and listeners. In the case of auditoryum,
this was most notable in the case of the diving pool. The biased expectation
was of a high-decibel, low-frequency deep rumble as the diver impacted with
the surface of the water and plummeted to the base of the pool. The reality was
that the divers body cut through the water like a knife, barely creating a ripple
or making a sound, nor registering a level on the decibel scale.
The comparison of sonic cinematic techniques to those techniques
deployed within the auditoryum project can be paralleled to the dual aesthetics
of Mimesis. In short, Mimesis is an artistic concept that refers to the represen-
tation of nature, and it takes two forms imitation and resemblance. Halliwell
articulates the dual aesthetics as thus:
First, the idea of mimesis as committed to depicting and illuminating a
world that is (partly) accessible and knowable outside art [] second,
the idea of mimesis as the creator of an independent artistic hetero-
cosm, a world of its own.
(2002: 5)
In the former case, the endeavour to imitate and reproduce reality is at the
heart of soundscape creation and of the auditoryum project. In the latter case,
within the artistry of Foley, sound effects and sound, a simulated representa-
tion of the environment is created. Interwoven within the tapestry of cinematic
soundtracks are sonic signifiers of events and moments, which are fictional
and simulated representations of the actual sounds, produced independently
of their original sources.
SOUNDSCAPE
The soundscape is the sonic environment, which surrounds the sentient.
The hearer, or listener, is at the centre of the soundscape. It is a context,
it surrounds and it generally consists of many sounds coming from
different directions and of differing characteristics [] soundscapes
surround and unfold in complex symphonies or cacophonies of sound.
(Rodaway 1994: 86: 87)
The World Soundscape Project undertaken at the Simon Fraser University,
Vancouver in the 1970s, founded by R. Murray Scahfer of the Acoustic Ecology
Movement, developed a widely but often quite uncritically (Rodaway 1994: 84)
used vocabulary, which has since been deployed to categorize and articulate
sound within the field of soundscape studies. As previously discussed, this field
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Surrounded by sound
15
articulated the concept of sonic events (Schaeffer 2006: 76) or sonorous objects.
Using Schafers categorizations of the soundscape (Schafer 1977: 9), he refers
to elements of the soundscape as the keynote, signals and soundmarks. The
keynote is the sound that identifies the key or tonality of the composition. The
keynote sounds of a landscape are those created by its geography, signals are
foreground sounds and they are listened to consciously (Schafer 1977: 10),
and the soundmark is derived from landmark and refers to a community
sound which is unique (Schafer 1977: 10).
These elements were perhaps easily identifiable and distinctive, within the
soundscapes, as they were recorded and reproduced in the context of Schafers
theorizations in mono and stereo formats. There would certainly have been
problems in the differences between lo-fi and high-fi soundscapes so iden-
tified by their signal to noise ratio, which is poorer in the former case. As
Rodaway has noted: We might equate lo-fi soundscapes with cacophony and
hi-fi soundscapes with symphony (1994: 88). In the reproduction and reception
of complex soundscapes, there is an inherent problem in mono or stereo repro-
ductions of a soundscape, in particular, in relation to lo-fi examples, where it
becomes increasingly difficult, almost impossible to decipher and separate the
different elements of the soundscape. As Julesz and Hirsh have commented:
spatial separation gets lost in single-channel recording (1972: 305).
Schafers soundscape elements would have arguably been more aurally
accessible if the soundscapes were captured and reproduced in a multichan-
nel format.
This stance can be supported using the Gestalt Psychology School in
formulating their well known rules of perceptual organisation (Julesz and Hirsh
1972: 298), and emphasizing the importance of sonic separation in the deci-
phering, locating and identifying of different sound sources. In the first of the
Gestalt rules proximity and similarity the illustrative audio example of an
air traffic controller hearing multiple voices through an earpiece can be used.
In the same way that a newsreader or television presenter listens to and has to
decipher the different voices coming from a chaotic gallery in a live broadcast:
It has been shown that if each voice channel is directed to a separate
loud speaker and the several loudspeakers are located in different places,
the possibility of understanding the speech of any one is much higher.
(Julesz and Hirsh 1972: 305)
Griesinger (2001) has referred to this approach as sound streams and our
ability as listeners to decipher them. He refers to this in relation to musical
instruments as an illustrative example, of the sonic differences between a flute
and an oboe, which are foreground streams. The background stream, the
sonic background, is the sound between sonic events (Griesinger 2001: 190),
which may consist of other instruments and the sound of an audience and the
ambience of the room.
Bregman also discussed stream segregation in his auditory scene analysis,
in which he describes differing timbres of musical phrases to create musical
units. The separation of audio information is a phenomenon that Bregman
(1990: 21) correlates to vision.
In order to successfully reproduce contemporary soundsapes and to render
them effectively and realistically, the move into multichannel recording and
reproduction is an inevitable one. By approaching the sound recording and
reproduction of auditoryum in this way by allocating a microphone source to
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2. http://www.
doublearchive.com/
projects/room_tone.
3. http://www.
brandonlabelle.net/
Room_Tone_18sounds
.html.
a speaker source and spacing out the microphones in order to capture optimum
levels and naturalness would reproduce, as faithfully as possible, the original sonic
hyperfield. The use and deployment of multiple microphone sources in order to
sonically capture a live event has hitherto been focused upon the recording and
reproduction of (orchestral) music (Theile 2001; Williams 2003; Rumsey 2001).
Within these arenas, the sound sources (the musical instruments) are
spatially static the source of sound is in the same position (seated members of
the orchestra). To capture and reproduce sonic movement is an underexplored
undertaking with a multiple-microphone array. Movement is reproduced and
represented within the hyperfield of surround sound cinema, but this is a
fictional construct and rarely captured as a real-time occurrence. Sound field
techniques such as ambisonics, a process developed in the 1970s, requires
a specialist microphone that records a four-channel signal that contains all
of the information in the soundfield; left/right, front/back and up/down (Elen
2001: 2), and is therefore a full periphonic system. This system has been
limited to the recording and reproduction of music, and to environments in
which the soundfield is of a smaller scale, and in an enclosed (studio) environ-
ment. Due to the singular embodied nature of the four-microphone sources,
the system was not appropriate for the expansive sporting sound fields of audi-
toryum, which required widely separated sound-acquisition sources.
Depth perception represents one of the oldest concerns on the study of
vision. Subjects can estimate the distance of viewed objects reasonably
well, but auditorily perceived objects are judged much more crudely.
(Julesz and Hirsh 1972: 317)
The process of separating sources and recreating spatialization and acous-
tics extended the work of auditoryum into the theoretical discourses, which
surround the concept and aesthetics of aural architectures.
AURAL ARCHITECTURE
The practice of reproducing an aural architecture pertains to a multichannel
aesthetic, whereby audio is streamed and spatialized in order to recreate a 3D
soundscape. There have already been notable explorations by artists to create
audio installations that encompass a site-specific space, and reproduce a sonic
environment. Kubick and Walshs Room Tone
2
(2007) is a four-speaker instal-
lation from which the sounds of various different physical spaces are played. The
room tone, the audible sound that the rooms generated, were replayed through
the speakers. This consisted of the buzz or the hum of the room, often called the
buzz track or the atmos track in location sound recording for moving image. The
recordings did not include any additional sonic objects, sounds or dialogue.
In Brandon LaBelles Room Tone (eighteen sounds in six models)
3
, the
artist recorded three different sound tracks of his Berlin apartment. These were
then sent to different architects who were tasked with rendering the perceived
space using only the recordings as a guide to the architectural spaces charac-
teristics and structure. Predictably, varying results were achieved representing
widely divergent models with minimal similarities.
In the case of Room Tone there were no additional recordings made
of sonic events within the spaces, although in LaBelles work, recordings of
footsteps and a coin tapping across surfaces were made in order to give a
sense of space and dimension.
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Surrounded by sound
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As Blesser and Salter have observed:
Just as light sources are required to illuminate visual architecture, so
sound sources (sonic events) are required to illuminate aural architec-
ture in order to make it aurally perceptible.
(2007: 16)
This pinpoints a key aesthetic of multichannel aural architecture recreation, the
need for sonorous objects to illuminate and animate the sonic arena. Acoustics
and atmospheres are not features of a soundscape that can be reproduced
satisfactorily within a single- or dual-channel representation of an environ-
ment. LaBelle comments upon the importance of the context of the sound:
The works of sound installation seek out a specifity of sound in which
location and listening intersect. The place of sound becomes as much a
part of auditory experience as the material of sound itself.
(2008: 197)
The juxtaposition of the eleven different audio arenas within auditoryum and their
contrasting acoustics both emphasize and accentuate their unique sonic prop-
erties. The recordings present a mixture of contrasting lo-fi and high-fi sound-
scapes, each with their own distinctive keynotes, soundmarks and acoustics. The
cycling velodrome is a large cavernous industrial space, the basketball court, a
highly reflective and enclosed space; the clay pigeon shooting range is situated in
a vast rural, hilly and echoing landscape. These divergent environments provided
vibrant, lively and textured audio canvases on which to base their respective
soundscapes. This reflects Pococks observation of sound, which is:
Dynamic: something is happening for sound to exist. It is therefore
temporal, continually and perhaps unpredictably coming and going, but it
is also powerful, for it signifies existence, generates a sense of life, and is a
special sensory key to interiority unlike sight which presents surfaces.
(1988: 6263)
The microphones during the auditoryum sound-acquisition process were
placed in circular and horizontal arrays in order to ensure that the pick-up
patterns adequately and evenly covered the different areas.
The aim instead was to recreate as accurate a representation as possible
the soundscape that was being experienced. Whereas landscapes can
be comparatively static and sometimes almost lifeless, soundscapes, of
necessity, are dynamic: they require animated activities to produce sonic
events.
(Blesser and Salter 2007: 15)
It is important to note that the required sonic separation and streaming could
only be created and achieved through multiple speaker placement as opposed
to reproducing the sounds through headphones utilizing binaural techniques,
whereby:
The experience is of the sound being inside ones head [] this concav-
ity is not experienced when using loudspeakers where the listener is
ST_4.1_Atkinson_5-21.indd 17 10/13/11 10:34:58 AM
Sarah Atkinson
18
free to move independent of the sound sources against a coherent
ambience.
(Worrall 1998: 98)
The work of auditoryum has foregrounded the importance of multichannel
audio recording and spatialized, streamed audio in order to reproduce the
acoustic environment of each of the arenas. This can be overridden by the
delivery of the audio through surround sound distribution and amplification
systems, since they provide the option to change the listening mode that
is that the user can select settings such as hallway, theatre or large room
and the corresponding acoustic treatment is overlaid accordingly, thereby
imposing an alternate audio architecture upon the listener. This disregards the
fact that the soundtrack has already been acoustically designed and treated.
It is akin to a customer in a fine-dining restaurant, where a chef has already
seasoned the dish, adding salt to their food, without first tasting it. It can kill
the different nuances and the distinctiveness of the intended flavours, just as
affecting the sonic treatment of a sonic composition can alter atmosphere, the
feel and the timbre of the audio environment that has been created.
CONCLUSION
The outcomes of this research have been threefold: the study and practice of
soundscape and aural architecture creation have been extended; assumptions of
audio perception and recognition have been investigated and challenged; and
sonic cinematic practices and audio aesthetics have also been probed. These
have enabled unique insights and reflections into the evolution of a field.
To advance this work further would be to explore and propose a suitable
visual partner to the sonic practices investigated herein to form a new and
groundbreaking audio-visual marriage. The evolution of stereoscopic-3D to
holographic-3D could be an appropriate field for exploration. In holograph-
ic-3D, the projected image is experienced and explored in 3D space, by viewers
who are able to physically move around the projected image. The application
of circular surround sound and hypersonic audio, whereby the audio could
also be projected into the corresponding space, would certainly enhance this
experience, and provide an alternative to current cinematic audio projection.
Whether through the simulation of a hyperreality in cinema or through
the creation of an actual reality in a sonic installation, the use of immersive
audio technologies in the audio-visual realm, all share the common emphasis
of creating a convincing sense of actually being there. As the technologies
rapidly progress, so to do the artistic and creative responses to the opportunities
that they offer in immersing and engaging viewers and listeners within an
alternate environment to the one in which they currently exist.
TECHNICAL PROCESS
All sounds were recorded to Marantz PMD661 in 16-bit 48k Mono Wav format,
using Rode NTG-3 microphones (a True Condenser Shotgun/Directional
Microphone) for all events, with the exception of the rowing boat in which
seven Sennheiser EW112 radio microphones with Omni directional condenser
lavaliers were used.
In each case, the seven separate microphones were used to represent the
seven individual speakers in the installation, with all tracks mixed down to the
0.1 sub-bass (LFE) track in ProTools in order to create the eighth speaker source.
ST_4.1_Atkinson_5-21.indd 18 10/13/11 10:34:58 AM
Surrounded by sound
19
A 7.1 mixing session was setup in ProTools and the in/out routing was
setup to coincide with the eight mono outputs from the Digi002 mixing desk
to the eight active speakers around the mixing room.
Once all events had been edited and mixed, a two-minute section of each
was selected and positioned. These tracks were then bounced down to eight
Mono Wav files and labelled L C R LS RS LSS RSS LFE.
The files were then imported into the DTS-HD encoding software and
outputted as an encoded DTSHD file. This was then decoded by the BluRay
player as uncompressed discreet multichannel PCM audio.
The two hypersonic speakers were programmed (through dedicated hard
disc play-out boxes) to project corresponding sounds at key moments through-
out the 60-minute composition, which was looped on the BluRay player.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My sincere gratitude and appreciation to my auditoryum project partner and
contributor to the Technical process section of this article: experienced sound
engineer and sound designer Marley Cole. My thanks also to the University
of Brighton; Cara Courage of The Creative Campus Initiative; Andy Phillips at
AudioNation; The Stadium Gallery Technicians: Gez Wilson, Dave Cooper and
Steve Mace; Patrick Moore and Matt McDonnell for additional sound recordings;
The Cinesonika Festival organizers and support staff: Michael Filimowicz, Tom
Delamere and Aaron Levisohn.; all the participants in the recordings of auditoryum
Calshot Velodrome; Lindsey Fraser, Southampton Diving Team; Andy Hodder,
Bexhill Basketball Team; Superbowl, Bexhill-On-Sea; Peter Jeffery, Hickstead
Showjumping Ground; Miles Gandolfi and the University of Sussex Fencing Team;
Mostyn Field and Ardingly Rowing Squad; Mark Hookway, Tonbridge Athletics
Club; Elisabeth Brama; Triathlete, James Adams, Triathlete; Eric Pepper, Hastings
Area Association of CSSC; and the South Downs Gun Club.
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SUGGESTED CITATION
Atkinson, S. (2011), Surrounded by sound: The aesthetics of multichannel
and hypersonic soundscapes and aural architectures , The Soundtrack 4: 1,
pp. 521, doi: 10.1386/st.4.1.5_1
CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Dr Sarah Atkinson is Principal Lecturer in Broadcast Media at the University
of Brighton, UK. She is also an audiovisual arts practitioner, undertaking prac-
tice-based explorations into new forms of fictional and dramatic storytelling
in visual and sonic media. She is particularly interested in multi-linear and
multi-channel aesthetics. Her own multi-screen interactive cinema installa-
tion Crossed Lines has been exhibited internationally.
Contact: Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton, Havelock Road, Hastings,
TN34 1BE, UK.
Tel: 01273 644621
E-mail: s.a.atkinson@brighton.ac.uk
ST_4.1_Atkinson_5-21.indd 21 10/13/11 10:34:58 AM
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