Hearing History: Bringing to life the sounds of the past through Virtual Reality

想象一下，体验一个来自过去的音乐时刻；一种丰富的感官体验，结合了蜡烛闪烁的光线，数百年前音乐的精致表演，以及现在不复存在的表演空间的温暖音响。这就是我们最初的项目，空间，地点，声音和记忆，开始做的事情。我们与游戏开发商、音乐学家、建筑历史学家和声学家密切合作，着手在虚拟现实中重现早期音乐表演的声音和感觉。我们首先煞费苦心地从零碎的来源和唱片中拼凑出两场音乐会的音乐，然后在一个消声室里录制了解历史信息的表演，这个空间专门设计为没有自然声学。一旦完成，我们建造了两个虚拟礼堂，根据现场拍摄的详细激光扫描，数字化重建了圣塞西莉亚大厅和林利斯戈宫的礼拜堂。然后，我们使用声线跟踪将录音和虚拟空间结合在一起，重现听到历史性演出的感觉。这项工作的关键成果是产生了虚拟模型和软件，允许用户戴上VR耳机，步入过去。对于我们的后续项目，我们希望利用我们与苏格兰历史环境局(HES)和圣塞西莉亚音乐厅的合作伙伴关系，创建三个专用的公共接入点，分别位于林利高宫圣塞西莉亚音乐厅和HES的数字创新中心引擎室。通过与HES合作，我们的VR软件获得了最大可能的覆盖范围：2017/18年度，林利哥宫殿吸引了来自世界各地的87,254名游客。我们计划与该组织紧密合作，使用HES已建立的KPIs来衡量游客参与度的影响。除了探索我们的声学建模软件在文物领域的应用外，我们还希望利用后续项目来探索我们的模型的可行性和商业音乐制作环境中消声录音的经验。我们将与Binchois Consorte和古典唱片公司Hyperion合作，通过详细的研究，安排、录制和制作与Linlitgow Palalce有关的音乐，包括苏格兰著名的Carvor Choirbook中鲜为人知的作品。在我们VR制作工作流程的基础上，我们将与Hyperion的录音工程师合作，开发基于无回声录音的商业音乐制作管道，在制作和后期制作期间使用虚拟声学模型作为工具，将这些无回声录音放置在历史声学空间中。这将是第一张完全在VR内录制和制作的古典专辑。我们将开发一款配套的VR应用程序，允许最终用户下载额外的音乐内容和VR模型，以便在不同的历史空间和不同的时间点对录音进行混音和试听。在影响力方面，我们将获取有关Hyperion以新方式接触和吸引受众以及增长新受众的能力的数据，以及该应用程序作为新的收入来源的商业可行性，通过创建和打包额外的付费内容。到本阶段结束时，我们预计将产生以下成果：1.位于苏格兰中央地带高脚步文化遗址的三个面向公众的VR装置；2.新的商业专辑，将在Hyperion品牌上发布，其中宾乔伊斯夫妇演奏Carvor Choirbook的音乐；3.新的商业音乐工作流程和制作管道，基于使用VR工具的制作和后期制作；4.用户友好的移动应用程序，允许最终用户在不同的空间和不同的时间点混音音频；5.关于基本研究工作对游客对文化遗址的参与度的影响的数据集，以及专门从事早期音乐制作的唱片公司的商业运营。

Imagine experiencing a musical moment from the past; a rich, sensory experience that combines the flickering light from candles, the exquisite performance of centuries-old music, and the warm acoustics of a performance space that now no longer exists. That is what our initial project, Space, Place, Sound, and Memory, set out to do. Working closely with game developers, musicologists, architectural historians, and acousticians, we set out to recreate the sounds and sensations of early music performance in virtual reality. We began by painstakingly piecing together two concerts of music from fragmentary sources and records, and then recorded historically-informed performances in an anechoic chamber, a space that is specifically designed to have no natural acoustic. Once complete, we constructed two virtual auditoria, digitally rebuilding St. Cecilia's Hall and the Chapel at Linlithgow Palace from detailed laser scans taken on site. Then, we brought the recordings and virtual spaces together using acoustic ray-tracing to recreate the sensations of hearing a historic performance.The key outcome of that work was the production of virtual models and software which allows users to don VR headsets and step into the past. For our follow-on project, we would like to capitalise on our partnership with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and St. Cecilia's Hall to create three dedicated public access points, situated at St. Cecilia's Hall, Linlithgow Palace, and the Engine Shed, HES's digital innovation centre. By partnering with HES, we get the greatest possible reach for our VR software: in 2017/18 Linlithgow Palace attracted 87,254 visitors from across the world. We plan to work closely with the organisation to measure impact in terms of visitor engagement using HES's established KPIs.In addition to exploring the application of our acoustic modelling software in the heritage sector, we would like to use the follow-on project to explore the viability of our models and experience of anechoic recording in a commercial music production environment. Working with the Binchois Consort and the classical label Hyperion, we will arrange, record, and produce music linked, through detailed research, to Linlithgow Palalce, including lesser-known pieces from Scotland's famous Carvor Choirbook. Building on our VR production workflow, we will work with Hyperion's recording engineers to develop a commercial music production pipeline based around anechoic recordings, using the virtual acoustic models as a tool during production and post-production to situate those anechoic recordings within a historical acoustic space. This will be the first instance of a classical album recorded and produced entirely within VR.We will develop a companion VR app that allows end-users to download additional musical content and VR models to remix and audition the recordings in different historic spaces and at different points in time. In terms of impact, we will capture data about Hyperion's ability to reach and engage its audiences in new ways and to grow new audiences, and the commercial viability of the app as a new revenue stream through creating and packaging additional paid-for content.By the end of this phase of the project, we expect the following outputs:1. Three public-facing VR installations located at high footfall cultural sites across the Scottish Central Belt;2. A new commercial album, to be released on the Hyperion label, featuring the Binchois Consort performing the music of the Carvor Choirbook;3. New commercial music workflows and production pipelines based around production and post-production using VR tools;4. A user-friendly mobile app that allows end-users to remix audio in different spaces and at different points in time;5. Datasets relating to the impact of the underlying research work on visitor engagement to cultural sites, and on the commercial operation of a record label specialising in early music production.