Immersive Sound

Book excerpt: Immersive Sound: The Art and Science of Binaural and Multi-Channel Audio provides a comprehensive guide to multi-channel sound. With contributions from leading recording engineers, researchers, and industry experts, Immersive Sound includes an in-depth description of the physics and psychoacoustics of spatial audio as well as practical applications. Chapters include the history of 3D sound, binaural reproduction over headphones and loudspeakers, stereo, surround sound, height channels, object-based audio, soundfield (ambisonics), wavefield synthesis, and multi-channel mixing techniques. Knowledge of the development, theory, and practice of spatial and multi-channel sound is essential to those advancing the research and applications in the rapidly evolving fields of 3D sound recording, augmented and virtual reality, gaming, film sound, music production, and post-production.