3-D Sound examples from thesis

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Here are several sound examples which demonstrate some of the binaural spatialization techniques discussed in this thesis. These sound examples can also be found in the CD "Sound Anthology" which accompanies the Computer Music Journal article listed below.

Cheng, Corey I. and Wakefield, Gregory H. "Moving sound source synthesis for binaural electro-acoustic music using interpolated Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTF's)." Computer Music Journal 25(4): Winter 2001.

These binaural sound examples have been specifically prepared for listening over a good pair of headphones. Nonetheless, some of these examples are more successful than others, and the author realizes that not all listeners may be able to immediately hear the intended spatial effects. Because the effects can be delicate and may vary somewhat from person to person, we suggest that listeners hear each sound example in a quiet environment several times over headphones, closing their eyes to better concentrate on the sound. Sound examples 1-9 contain demonstrations which isolate certain spatialization techniques, while sound examples 10-16 contain spatialized excerpts from Fishbowl, a short piece of binaural electro-acoustic music composed to exploit these spatialization techniques. Sound example 17 contains the entire piece Fishbowl.

CD Track #	Title	Dur.	Note
1	Sound Example 1	0’29”	Virtual tennis game (mono). Source; no spatialization. See Figure 5.9a.
2	Sound Example 2	0’29”	Virtual tennis game (stereo). Spatialized version of Sound Example 1. Left-right motion accomplished with hard left-right panning. See Figure 5.9b for details.
3	Sound Example 3	0’29”	Virtual tennis game (stereo). Spatialized version of Sound Example 1. Left-right motion accomplished with HRTF’s. See Figure 5.9c for details.
4	Sound Example 4	0’29”	Virtual tennis game (stereo). Spatialized version of Sound Example 1. Front-back motion accomplished with HRTF’s. See Figure 5.9d for details.
5	Sound Example 5	0’29”	Virtual tennis game (stereo). Spatialized version of Sound Example 1. Combined left-right and front-back motion accomplished with HRTF’s. Example of pivot location connecting two different spatial trajectories. See Figure 5.9e for details.
6	Sound Example 6	0’33”	Footsteps walking up and down stairs (mono). Source; no spatialization.
7	Sound Example 7	0’33”	Footsteps walking up and down stairs (stereo). Spatialized version of Sound Example 6. Up-down motion accomplished with HRTF’s.
8	Sound Example 8	0’06”	Male and female speech (mono). Source; no spatialization.
9	Sound Example 9	0’06”	Male and female speech (stereo). Spatialized version of Sound Example 8. Front-back motion accomplished with HRTF’s.
10	Sound Example 10	0’27”	Fishbowl excerpt (mono). Source with reverberation; no spatialization.
11	Sound Example 11	0’27”	Fishbowl excerpt (stereo). Spatialized version of Sound Example 10. Externalization and left-right motion accomplished with HRTF’s.
12	Sound Example 12	0’09”	Fishbowl excerpt (stereo). Example of left-right motion accomplished with HRTF’s. Combining spatialized, reverberated sounds and non-spatialized, non-reverberated sounds to create contrast in depth.
13	Sound Example 13	0’45”	Fishbowl excerpt (stereo). Example of down-up motion accomplished with HRTF’s. Accentuating down-up motion by matching a sound’s spectral properties to a listener’s spatial expectations for low and high frequency sounds.
14	Sound Example 14	0’15”	Fishbowl excerpt (stereo). Example of the “Chase” technique. Combining hard left-right panning and HRTF-based left-right spatialization in the same sound example to create spatial tension and release.
15	Sound Example 15	0’17”	Fishbowl excerpt (stereo). Example of the “slingshot” technique. Combining hard left-right panning and HRTF-based left-right spatialization in the same sound example to create spatial tension and release.
16	Sound Example 16	0’22	Fishbowl excerpt (stereo). Development of the “slingshot” technique. Combining hard left-right panning and HRTF-based left-right spatialization in the same sound example to create spatial tension and release.
17	Sound Example 17	3’36”	Fishbowl (1999). (stereo, entire piece). My labmates and I call our laboratory the "Fishbowl," since one of its walls is made entirely of glass. Every day, friends and strangers point at us through the glass on their way to lunch, being sure to make funny faces at the poor grad students trapped inside. On days when things aren't going well, friendly knocks or taps at the glass are just reminders that we are like a strange school of fish that can be seen but not heard. This piece is what the everyday politics of our particular fishbowl could sound like to a passerby, when the fish are scared and the bowl of water is having a bad day!