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，结合了蜡烛闪烁的灯光，几个世纪以来的古老音乐的精致表演，以及现在不再存在的表演空间的温暖声学。这就是我们最初的项目，空间，地点，声音和记忆，开始做。与游戏开发者、音乐学家、建筑历史学家和声学家密切合作，我们着手在虚拟现实中重现早期音乐表演的声音和感觉。我们开始精心拼凑两个音乐会的音乐片段来源和记录，然后记录历史上知情的表演在消声室，一个空间，是专门设计的，没有自然的声学。完成后，我们建造了两个虚拟的教堂，数字重建圣塞西莉亚的大厅和教堂在林利斯高宫从详细的激光扫描现场。然后，我们使用声学射线追踪将录音和虚拟空间结合在一起，以重现聆听历史性表演的感觉。这项工作的主要成果是制作虚拟模型和软件，让用户戴上VR耳机，进入过去。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（HES）和圣塞西莉亚大厅的合作伙伴关系，在圣塞西莉亚大厅，林利斯高宫和发动机棚，HES的数字创新中心创建三个专用的公共接入点。通过与HES合作，我们的VR软件获得了最大的影响力：2017/18年度，林利斯高宫吸引了来自世界各地的87，254名游客。我们计划与该机构紧密合作，利用HES既定的关键绩效指标衡量游客参与度方面的影响。除了探索我们的声学建模软件在遗产领域的应用外，我们还希望利用后续项目探索我们的模型的可行性以及在商业音乐制作环境中进行消声录音的经验。与Binchois Consort和古典唱片公司合作，我们将通过详细的研究安排，录制和制作与林利斯高宫相关的音乐，包括苏格兰着名的Carvor Choirbook中鲜为人知的作品。在我们的VR制作工作流程的基础上，我们将与Dinner的录音工程师合作，开发一个基于消声录音的商业音乐制作管道，在制作和后期制作过程中使用虚拟声学模型作为工具，在历史声学空间中重现这些消声录音。这将是第一张完全在VR中录制和制作的古典专辑。我们将开发一个配套的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重新混合和试听录音。在影响力方面，我们将收集有关Google以新方式接触和吸引受众以及发展新受众的能力的数据，以及通过创建和打包额外的付费内容，将应用程序作为新收入来源的商业可行性的数据。在项目的这一阶段结束时，我们预计会有以下产出：1.三个面向公众的VR装置位于苏格兰中央地带的高人流文化遗址;2.一张新的商业专辑，将在Bronze唱片公司发行，由Binchois Consort演唱Carvor Choirbook的音乐;3.基于使用VR工具的制作和后期制作的新商业音乐工作流程和制作管道;4.一个用户友好的移动的应用程序，允许最终用户在不同的空间和不同的时间点混音音频;5.数据集涉及基础研究工作对文化遗址游客参与度的影响，以及对专门从事早期音乐制作的唱片公司的商业运作的影响。

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.