GENUIN and Wave Field Synthesis

GENUIN and Wave Field Synthesis

(Press notice) The fruits of the collaboration begun in December 2006 between GENUIN Music Production Leipzig and the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in Ilmenau can be admired on 5 and 6 May 2007 at the International AES Convention in Vienna. The project is the soundtrack production for the computer game “The Settlers 6,” recorded in January 2007 by the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt.

A number of spatial microphones were positioned in the concert hall for this recording, in addition to the extensive use of orchestral and surround microphones, in order to allow for the later adaptation of the recording to a Wave Field Synthesis loudspeaker system. This mixing in three different Wave Field Synthesis systems took place in Ilmenau during March and April 2007. The results of this were so convincing that that the Fraunhofer Institute will be demonstrating the soundtrack at the 2007 AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention in Vienna.

The Fraunhofer Association has already attained high world-wide prestige for the development of the MP3 procedure. It is now researching the next generation of audio reproduction which will one day replace the surround recording procedure and revolutionise music reproduction: Wave Field Synthesis.

Wave Field Synthesis is a new kind of audio-reproduction procedure in which a virtual acoustical field is produced by a large number of loudspeakers. Virtual sound sources (e.g. musical instruments or noises) can be positioned and moved almost at will within this sound field. The acoustical illusion and spatial impression are so perfect that they remind one of a holographic image.

GENUIN Music Production moved its headquarters from Detmold to Leipzig a good two years ago and concentrates on the recording and worldwide distribution of classical music. Important clients include the MDR, Deutschlandradio and the Dresden Philharmonic. Its position as a young and innovative enterprise in the area of media will be further developed and expanded through this collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute.

linkThe Fraunhofer Institute in Ilmenau