Creating spatial audio podcasts

Spatial audio. You might not have heard of it, but chances are you’re already familiar with it.

Like the ‘surround sound’ experience we get at the cinema, ‘spatial audio’ is defined by a listener’s ability to hear sounds moving in a three-dimensional way.

The spatial audio experience we know today first gathered pace as VR headsets like the Oculus Rift became more widely available.

Video game developers seized on the possibilities of the medium.

Now, The New York Times is taking it to the next level, with a guide to creating spatial audio podcasts.

Pod News reports the NYT is sharing its spatial audio experiments, producing a project website with recording tips, mixing details, and distribution information.

“We’ve recorded and mixed select audio content in various spatial audio formats, focusing on developing mixing techniques that put the listener at the centre of the story,” it says.

“For the purposes of our work, we’ve been defining spatial audio as a listener’s ability to play back recorded sound as an immersive, headphone-enabled audio experience.”

“This can happen in one of two ways: either the listener is stationary and sounds move around them, or the listener’s movement is tracked through space using head-tracking headphones and the sounds change based on their movements.”

“On the technical side of things, spatial audio involves a series of recently developed tools and products that can bring a sonic environment to life.”

“Thanks to advancements in hardware (such as head-tracking headphones, earbuds, and VR headsets) and software capabilities (such as real-time rendering, object-based audio, and game development environments), listeners are now able to play a participatory role in sonic experiences that were previously static.”

Readers are invited to listen to one of the most recent experiments – an example built with recordings based on a story by travel writer Stephen Hiltner.

It enables listeners to experience the chirping and swooshing sounds of the Everglades in south Florida, as Hiltner paddles to his next campsite.