Holophonic sounds in Audacity

[supermalavox]

Hello! I am using Windows 8.1, with Audacity 2.0.6. My question is: Is there a possibility to make, with this or newer versions, a sound go not only from left to right, as I know there is panning for this, but from top to bottom, sort of like that holophony (match box) sound or that virtual barber shop sound? Another example I can think of is a helicopter flying over your head. It will help even more if that method can be blind-friendly.

Thanks,
André L. Baldo.

[kozikowski]

You might be able to do that with phasing. This 40 second test has intentionally damaging phasing in the fourth segment.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/LRMonoPhase4.wav

Koz

[DVDdoug]

holophony (match box) sound or that virtual barber shop sound?

I’m not familiar with those effects.

Another example I can think of is a helicopter flying over your head.

In order to do that reliably you need an overhead speaker. If you want to add that to an existing stereo (or surround) setup, you’d need an additional channel. Or, you could re-arrange a 5.1 (or 7,1) channel surround system.

There are psychoacoustic effects that try to simulate sounds coming from behind you with a pair stereo speakers or headphones, but not everybody experiences the same illusion. A pair of stereo speakers generally gives you a “soundstage” from left to right. Some people experience “depth”, but I believe this depends more on the listener than the recording or speakers.

Out-of-phase sounds tend to be difficult to “locate”, and it can sort-of sound like the sound is coming from all around, or even moving around. But, I don’t think you’ll necessarily experience the sound coming from overhead. It might still be a good-interesting effect with a helicopter sound! Note that out-of-phase sounds will tend to cancel in the bass frequencies, so for a helicopter you’d want to keep the low frequencies in-phase.

Out-of-phase tricks don’t work very well with headphones because they rely on the way sound waves mix acoustically in the air.

Out-of-phase sounds will be completely cancel when played on a mono system, but mono systems are rare so this may not be an issue.

If you want to do a quick out-of-phase experiment with recordings of your choice, just reverse the +/- connections to one of your stereo speakers. In Audacity, split your stereo track to 2 mono tracks and select and use the invert effect on one channel.

[Trebor]

@supermalavox

… Another example I can think of is a helicopter flying over your head.

Steve made a plugin which makes sound spin around head , if wearing headphones , see …

Binaural spin effect

This plug-in creates an effect that sounds like the sound is rotating around your head. Headphones should be worn to hear the effect properly. The effect modulates the amplitude and applies a synchronised low pass sweep filter to create a “spinning” effect. Although it is a rather simplified form of spacial modelling I think that it is reasonably convincing. There are just two controls: Speed: [0 to 5 rotations per second] Direction: [Clockwise / Anticlockwise] Click here for installatio…

Robert J. H.'s stereo-tool plugin also has a rotate effect , it has the advantage it can speed up or down … Karaoke, Rotation, Panning & more

[supermalavox]

The holophonic match box is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYdIidUIbAs
If you hear it carefully, even with simple headphones, not a complete surround sound system, you can literally imagine the box going to the front, back and even going up and down your back.
The virtual barber shop is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA
When the guy comes and “puts the bag over the top of your head” you can almost imagine - through its sound - that it is really there! But I would like to do something like the scissors effect he does.