Spatial audio has been on a slow rise in popularity over the past few years, and more and more clubs, venues, and corners of the industry are starting to notice. Yet the number of producers and audio engineers willing to learn how to mix in this new medium hasn't kept pace with how fast the technology has grown.
This means there is no better time than now for producers and engineers looking to break into the pro audio world to strike while the iron is hot.
And if you're looking for a place to start learning how to work with spatial audio, CRAS (Conservatory for Recording Arts & Sciences) and Spatial is the place to do it. They are an award-winning immersive audio technology and software set to unveil a groundbreaking new curriculum designed to train engineers and producers for new job opportunities in experiential, immersive audio.
We sat down with Monica Bolles of Spatial to dive deep into why right now is the best time to use this powerful immerging technology. Monica Bolles is a digital artist, audio engineer, and composer from Boulder, CO, with a B.S. in Music Production from CU Denver and an M.S. in Creative Technology and Design from CU Boulder.
She has created and produced works exhibited in the 140-channel speaker array at the Cube at Virginia Tech, the IMERSA Fulldome Summit, NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression), and the Conference of World Affairs, among others.
There is a massive uptick in interest currently for spatial audio.
When Oculus first announced its Kickstarter and launched the hype around VR, you suddenly saw all of these big audio companies beginning to pay attention to spatial audio. Before that, I’d say it existed in the fringes of academia and European research institutes like IRCAM.
Now the industry is paying attention to the rise of VR/AR/XR, immersive experiences, and the metaverse… suddenly ‘immersive’ is the new hot thing, and everyone wants to be involved. That means that there are a lot of opportunities. It’s still early days, too, so I think there’s a lot of room for new faces.
There are also many new toolsets on the market that make it much easier to be creative. Companies like Spatial are creating studio suites for non-linear spatial audio design specifically valuable for creating large-scale immersive installations and experiences. Other companies are actively pushing into applications for live music and in-home listening…
With all the support behind new formats and toolsets, it is easier to create efficient workflows and focus on the creativity of the projects without worrying as much about technical complexities.
There is a lot of educational noise right now, and it can be hard for someone interested in learning to work with spatial audio to find good information about what ‘spatial audio’ is. Many studio engineers I talk to that are just getting into spatial audio think it refers to Dolby Atmos.
In truth, people use various algorithmic approaches to solve ‘spatialization,’ and each algorithm can offer them something different.
While Dolby has created a particular set of standards and tools that work within those standards, there are so many other tools and standards being developed by other companies (like Spatial, which I mentioned above) that can be used to create a spatial audio mix.
Every approach has a ‘sound,’ and choosing a spatial audio algorithm is like selecting an eq. Choosing the tool, you are using, or the standard depends on the application of your mix and what part of the industry you are trying to work in.
In reality, the tools, workflows, and standards are still developing; there are still a lot of limitations, so you have to be willing to do the research, innovate, and think outside of your ‘traditional’ training.
When creating a spatial mix, most of the tools available at this point focus on the ability to virtualize the positioning of sounds. However, due to the way these algorithms work, many tools we use as studio engineers, such as FXs, eq, and compression, won’t work.
You could use regular plugins on a mono sound that is a ‘source’ in your audio space, but after that, you are limited as to what other ways you can affect the sound of the overall mix. Any tool you use after the spatial virtualization will affect the spatialization. I’m not sure Mastering has been figured out yet.
You will also have to get good at routing and understanding how to do complex bussing. While DAWs have come a long way in making it easier to interface with different spatial audio formats, there will still be a certain amount of complexity to how you will need to route and set up your IO and configurations.
Space. As a mix engineer, you constantly try to find space for your sounds.
In stereo, we use eq and compression to help us find space. With spatial mixing, you don’t need to use those tools as much because you create space through virtualized space. You can help give your sounds space to breathe by just positioning them in different locations of your virtualized ‘space.’
Being in a ‘niche’ field has helped me in life.
If you know something nobody else knows, you will set yourself up for being valuable. Are there more job prospects with this skill set? I think that’s hard to say.
The industry is growing rampant, but many people are also trying to break into this space. As a mix engineer, you are competing against some of the top mix engineers in the industry that are hopping on the spatial audio hype train. If you are someone just coming out of school as an audio engineer, I think to break into spatial audio; you have to be passionate about it and find a way to approach it from a unique angle.
Because it’s such a new industry, there’s still room for a lot of innovation; the rules are still being written so take advantage of that.
Spatial audio is currently being used in many different audio industries, so this will vary based on what part of the industry you want to go into. The tools and processes you are going to use are going to be different too.
Spatial audio is a massive component of the VR/AR/XR space. Most creators in this space use ambisonics-based toolsets and spatial audio plugins that allow 6 degrees of freedom.
We are seeing spatial audio introduced to the live performance space. There is a lot of exciting work around designing spatial audio installations for theme parks, event spaces, museums, and health facilities. The Spatial, Inc. toolset is paving the way for non-linear content creation most applicable to building sound worlds for installations. More and more music is being mixed for spatial audio. Car manufacturers are starting to include spatial audio. Sennheiser Ambeo Mobility is taking the lead on this.
Almost every part of the industry is being influenced by spatial audio.
Some tremendous online communities have a lot of knowledge to share and can be good to join and learn from if you are starting. I help host a virtual Spatial Audio Meetup through NOTAM and also help co-host the Immersive Audio Podcast, both great resources for learning about many of the tools and projects people are working on.
There is also the Spatial Audio in VR/AR/MR group on Facebook, which I highly recommend anyone in the industry to join. AES has conferences specifically oriented toward spatial audio; sometimes, they host online events.
Anyone with the correct initiative can quickly learn how to mix binaural audio with free or near-free toolsets. Still, if you want to start working with multichannel systems, you have to find a place to let you come in and start playing with their system.
For that, I would recommend finding a university with facilities that you can use and programs oriented toward spatial audio. Some places host residencies or more short-term programs as well.
Managing Editor at Magnetic Magazine – Former Marketing Manager at the Hyperbits Masterclass – Writer, Content Strategist, Music Producer, and Record Label Manager