Development of an intelligent software controlled system for the diffusion of electroacoustic music on large arrays of mixed loudspeakers.

伯明翰大学拥有国际公认的电声音乐展示系统：伯明翰电声剧院（BEAST）。最近改装（连同我们的电声音乐工作室）使用资金从£500,000 HEFCE SRIF-2赠款，BEAST可以说是世界上同类设备最好，最广泛的系统。这个系统，伴随着能够实时空间化大量音频的自由可用的计算机语言的潜力，为我们提供了探索一个相对新的活动领域的可能性，多声道音频系统的组成，到目前为止，这在电声流派中基本上是未被探索的（可能使用多达100个离散的音频通道，甚至更多）。考虑到8个离散通道在过去十年左右一直是一个常见的实际最大值，这代表了一个数量级的差异。目前的项目建议创建一个系统来管理扩散和空间化的音频使用扬声器阵列。（通俗地说，这与“环绕声”领域有关。）这将通过软件开发和经验测试的过程来完成。该系统的核心将是用DSP和计算机音乐语言SuperCollider开发的软件，并将包括一系列应用程序和一个类库，允许用户轻松地开发自己的方法，既可以作为独立的应用程序，也可以作为实时块的集成组件。该项目的主要目标是开发用于上述大型多声道音频系统作曲的新技术，以及对现有技术进行改编以适应这种新出现的习惯用法。对这一发展至关重要的是一个经验测试过程，在这个过程中，每次将设置BEAST系统两天，在此期间将测试和评估各种技术实施、方法和布局。

The University of Birmingham is host to an internationally recognised system for the presentation of electroacoustic music: Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST). Recently refitted (along with our electroacoustic music studios) using funds from a £500,000 HEFCE SRIF-2 Grant, BEAST is arguably the best equipped and most extensive system of its kind in the world. This system, along with the potential of freely available computer languages capable of spatialising extensive amounts of audio in real-time, has presented us with the possibility of exploring a relatively new area of activity, composition for audio systems which are mutli-channel to an extent hitherto largely unexplored in the electro-acoustic genre (potentially using as many as 100 discrete channels of audio, or even more). Given that 8 discrete channels has been a common practical maximum over the past decade or so, this represents an order of magnitude in difference.The present project proposes to create a system for managing the diffusion and spatialisation of audio using arrays of loudspeakers. (In layman's terms, this is related to the field of 'surround sound'.) This will be done through a process of software development and empirical testing. The heart of this system will be software developed in the DSP and computer music language SuperCollider, and will consist both of a series of applications, and a class library allowing users to easily develop their own approaches both as standalone applications or as an integrated component of real-time pieces.A primary goal of the project will be the development of new techniques for use when composing for the type of large-scale multichannel audio systems described above, as well as the adaptation of existing techniques to this newly emerging idiom. Crucial to this development will be a process of empirical testing, in which the BEAST system will be set up for two days at a time, during which various technical implementations, approaches and layouts will be tested and assessed.