Workshops for advanced users part 5: Ambisonics with Joseph Anderson

1st – 5th October at 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Joseph Anderson: Ambisonics & the Ambisonic Toolkit, theory and artistic practice.
Location: Notam studios in Oslo
Price: 5000,- NOK for all academic employees in 50% positions or more, free for others. The course is produced in collaboration with BEK – Bergen center for electronic art.

In this workshop we will immerse ourselves in a central technique of immersive sound; Ambisonics. We will go into the theoretical foundation behind Ambisonics, learn to master the tools practically as well as look into how to work with space artistically. We will also get a visit by Trond Lossius who has worked with Joseph Anderson to create the Ambisonics toolkit for Reaper.

Joseph Anderson is one of the foremost international experts on the artistic use of immersive sound, and is affiliated with the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington. Joseph Anderson is a composer and programmer and has worked extensively with the use of space in music and sound. Anderson’s work is focused on electronic music produced with self-authored tools and signal processing algorithms. He is the lead author of the Ambisonic Toolkit software, a software application that makes advanced techniques for spatial audio easily accessible. Joseph Anderson works both as a composer and researcher and has also worked as a developer in Silicon Valley.

Trond Lossius works with sound and installations. He uses multi-channel immersive sound as an immaterial and temporary sculptural medium in works that investigates the relationships between sound, place and space. Lossius is affiliated with the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO), where he is head of the Artistic Research and Fellowship Programme.

More information on the Ambisonics Toolkit og Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS):
http://www.ambisonictoolkit.net/
https://dxarts.washington.edu/

1st – 5th October at 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Price: 5000,- NOK for all academic employees in 50% positions or more, free for others.
Teachers: Joseph Anderson and Trond Lossius
Language: English
Number of seats: 12
Location: Notam studios in Oslo
Registration: NOW

For registration, send an email to admin@notam02.no with name, residence and email address as well as information about your background knowledge and motivation to take the course. We will then send you detailed information about payment, start-up and further follow-up.

Curriculum for the week:
Monday 1 October, 2018: Introduction
-Soundfield kernel composition: an idiomatic musical composition strategy
-Ambisonics Theory & Background
-Terms & Concepts
-Flavors of Ambisonics
-Soundfield as framework
-Channels, coefficients, modes
-Spherical & angular domain, “sampling”, de/reconstruction
-Soundfield prototypes
-Nearfield Effect
-Exercise: Synthesize Risset’s bell with NFE (& AEP), “from scratch”
-Group audition/presentation & discussion

Tuesday 2 October, 2018: Getting started
-Heyser’s Analysis
-Soundfield prototypes
-Soundfield indicators
-Acquisition
-Spherical & angular domain
-Field recording (FOA) – (Soundfield microphone)
-Studio recording (FOA) – (Microphone arrays)
-Synthesis via convolution (FOA)
-Exercise(s): acquisition
-Group audition/presentation & discussion

Wednesday 3 October, 2018: Imaging and Processing I
-Single Beams & Nulls
-Beamforming, decoding & re-encoding
-Patterns & analysis
-NFE radial filtering, looking ‘into’ a soundfield
-Soundfield tinting & signal processing
-Beaming in conjunction with Heyser’s Analysis
-Exercise(s): implement algorithms & process soundfields
-Group audition/presentation & discussion

Thursday 4 October, 2018: Imaging and Processing II
-Soundfield decomposition & re-composition
-Soundfield signal processing
-& NFE
-Soundfield synthesis strategies
-& NFE
-Exercise(s): implement algorithms & process soundfields
-Group audition/presentation & discussion

Friday 5 October, 2018: In practice
-Review: Soundfield kernel composition strategy
-Soundfield decoding, “in practice”
-Theory
-Design & analysis criteria
-Exercise(s): individual & group projects
-Group audition/presentation & discussion