Spatial Audio

Idea

My idea for this project was to capture motion and then translate that into spatial audio. I was thinking of capturing the movement using a webcam above and then using difference tracking to apply different Control Change properties to an Ableton patch.

I will be exploring Envelop for Live, a Max For Live toolset that lets me explore spatial audio using numerous tools. I will be using Ableton Suite 10.

Here is a little diagram of my idea.

Equipment

• MOTU UltraLite-mk5
  • Allows 8 output channels to 8 speakers
• 4x PreSonus Eris E3.5 Speakers
  • 4 pairs of 2 for 8 speakers

Hardware setup

After a bit of a faff and lots of wires, I connected up all speakers to the MOTU, with each channel consecutive after each other.

Software setup

Audio MIDI Setup

Using in-built software Audio MIDI Setup, I was able to configure the MOTU to use octagonal setup. It was confusing at first matching the different channels to each other.

CueMix 5

Using the MOTU, channels 3, 4, 9 and 10 appeared the be muted. This was a problem said by Neil. I managed to download the correct software (CueMix 5) to unmute these channels. It was then back to normal.

March 2024