As the uptake of ‘360 audio’ grows in both studios and live performance, electronic musician and multimedia artist Warsnare and immersive audio agency Call & Response have adopted it for a new show in London’s progressive Albany Theatre where Warsnare (London-born desktop conductor and Goldsmiths College composition graduate Daniel Potter) closed the gap between studio and live with a departure from heavy sound reinforcement systems.

Using a surround monitoring system, the show relies on 29 Genelec speakers and four subs in a dome configuration designed to convey the Ambisonic mix prepared at the C&R studios: ‘The human ear is most able to locate high frequency transient sounds,’ explains sound engineer Tom Slater of Call & Response (C&R) . ‘We took advantage of this during the mixing and spatialisation process: the relatively higher slew rate in Genelecs allows us greater creative possibilities when using higher frequency signals.’

‘Unlike a conventional concert with seating, the audience were free to wander around the space and experience the sound in different parts of the theatre,’ Potter continues. ‘The live performers – cello, viola, percussion and myself on synths – were also spread out in the four corners of the hall and together we gave the audience a unique wash of sounds as we performed the album mixed through the 360° system. As well as being able to move sounds around the 3D space in real time, we were able to think about the mix in multiple axes instead of the conventional stereo set-up. For example, in one of the tracks we placed the string harmonic effects in the very top speakers, close to the ceiling, and all the other sounds were mixed below this in layers.’

Eight Genelec 8050B and 21 8030B compact studio monitors were installed above the in-the-round theatre space, creating a dome 10m across and 7m high. ‘It wasn’t perfectly symmetrical but our Ambisonic decoder is able to deal with those types of irregular arrays,’ Slater says. ‘We had a ring of eight speakers just above head height, two more rings of eight at 4m and 5m high, a ring of four speakers at 6m and one directly above the centre of the dome at 7m. The venue space was slightly resonant at around 2kHz, but that didn’t really bother us as the audience had plenty of direct signal when they were inside the array. It could fit around 200 people within it.’

The use of Genelec active monitoring provided richer detail than a live audience might normally expect. ‘Aural immersion was our main aim,’ Slater confirms. ‘We achieved this through a detailed sound design that would draw the ear to sonic events in a 360° sonic panorama. This would have been lost in a typically big, boomy live rig. We needed the kind of tight and accurate spatial imaging you would expect from a studio situation. We were then able to open out the sonic horizon with Ambisonic convolution reverbs and quickly close it in again. It was nice to have that amount of control over the audience’s perception of space and distance.

‘The 8050s gave us a good frequency range at head height. Most of the lower frequency material was routed to these speakers: the kick, bass, some of the drums and lower synth parts. They also gave us the power necessary for the bass and percussive elements. I then routed the vocals, strings and higher frequency effects to the upper rings of 8030s. This gave a good sense of sonic separation and also emphasised the height of the space. I was also able to route most of the reverb signal to the upper rings as well.’

The C&R studio also uses Genelecs, specifically 8030Bs and 7050B subwoofers, very much with 3D production in mind. ‘The 8030s are configured in a cube formation: one in each corner of the room, one in the centre of each wall and one in the centre of the ceiling,’ Slater explains. ‘We then place the subs at opposite ends of the space.’

But with an immersive audio festival planned for early in 2019, and with C&R at the heart of a vibrant ‘360’ video and VR scene, Slater believes that immersive audio is going to transform live sound. ‘Definitely,’ he confirms. ‘In fact, we’ve proved that already. It’s the perfect opportunity for artists and engineers to take a fresh approach to mixing, performance and writing.’

Potter, Slater and the crew will return to The Albany Theatre for a forthcoming immersive festival. ‘I’ll be placing live, acoustic, un-amplified orchestral brass instruments between the loudspeakers surrounding the audience, which will be mixed with the electronic sounds from the 360º system.’ Potter says, ‘At the moment, it is expensive to set up and there’s just a small handful of clubs with permanent 360º systems installed worldwide. But I can feel things changing. Only a few days ago I went to a multichannel turntable performance by Shiva Feshareki and some students from Goldsmiths around the corner from me. Maybe I’m within a bubble, but with 360 video/audio and VR becoming more common and an increasing number of artists working with 3D sound I think we’ll see it become commonplace very soon.’

More: www.genelec.com