HOA (Higher Order Ambisonics) for the masses

Discussions regarding immersion and immersive audio as standalone topics or as technologies and methodologies applied in any creative audio sector.
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Pan Athen
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After many of our discussions here and in Discord, I think it's time this topic that emerges in almost all talks should have its own forum thread.

How about HOA for massive consumption?

@plush2 pointed out that at least for FOA (First Order Ambisonics) we actually have a medium to broadcast on a large scale which is YouTube.

YouTube also offers the ability for channels to monetize by locking content behind subscription memberships, which is good progress for anybody offering quality content.

For this to become something feasible, one artist might not be enough. I believe that a music label could use YouTube to deliver full 3D audio experiences both for free and behind the subscription.

Also, does anybody know if YouTube Music supports ambisonics just like YouTube supports it?
plush2
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Joined: 04 May 2022 04:31

I just came across someone publishing ambisonic (FOA, TOA and binaural) through extra downloads on bandcamp.

https://ambisonicmusiclibrary.com/

This seems somewhat feasible although a little disconnected form the end user experience.
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Pan Athen
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plush2 wrote: 22 May 2022 20:37This seems somewhat feasible although a little disconnected form the end user experience.
I had the worst weekend regarding workload. I’m gonna read everything here and on the chat tomorrow night when I get some time off.

But until then, I wanted to say, how bad do we need an ambisonics player for the web and as a plugin for WordPress?!
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Pan Athen
SoundFellas Crew
Posts: 76
Joined: 04 Dec 2021 20:51
Location: Athens / Greece
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plush2 wrote: 22 May 2022 20:37I just came across someone publishing ambisonic (FOA, TOA and binaural) through extra downloads on bandcamp.
That's cool.

I was a music producer for many years when I was younger, alas, the Greek music industry is a black pit where decent people die like dogs.

Some years ago I started a small music label to release our first experimental 3D recordings with SoundFellas in enhanced stereo which was UHJ. Those can be found in any streaming service right now as we use a digital distribution partner that moves those to retail for us.

We also released the album "Night Trip" by the artist Genuine, which is in stereo but it was our first approach to music publishing. You can hear the album on Spotify here:



We are discussing with Genuine and some other artists to create a catalog of music albums based on 3D sound practices.

Now, when we created the new SoundFellas website we left the music label part out to focus on our stock content and software tools. But It never really left our hearts.

So, I'm really thinking that I should go out scouting again and find some good candidates to produce them in 3D.

SoundFellas is now a mature company and we have the infrastructure to support the delivery and accessibility of any content using our website. We developed a platform that supports secure worldwide payments with anti-fraud radar, automatic subscriptions, secure and lighting-fast downloads, customer portals, non-shareable links, etc.

On the studio side, which we internally call our lab, we can produce content of high fidelity using some cutting-edge processes that we developed specifically to boost the properties of the sound that help our psychoacoustic mechanisms to locate sounds and perceive the acoustic environment. And through our work with film producers, we now have the experience to extend 3D sound over the simple 3D panning that most music artists think the 3D sound is all about. You can read about our processes here: https://soundfellas.com/technologies/puresource/, and here: https://soundfellas.com/technologies/true3d-audio/.

Helping to connect the three pillars of the medium is a good mission for us at SoundFellas. The artists, the A&R, and the tech developers, all should align if we want to see ambisonics as a successful format for the masses. Just like it happened with VR or even TV.

I think that it's time to go scouting for new talents that 3D sound would help them and start creating some works with them.
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