Featured Speaker:
Matt Azevedo is a consultant, engineer, musician, and educator living and working primarily in Boston, MA. Sound and music have been at the center of his life and work for over 20 years. Currently he splits his time between working as an acoustician, where he focuses on room acoustics and soundscape auralization, as a freelance audio engineer, primarily as a mastering engineer and recording engineer focused on minimal-mic recording techniques, and as a musician and composer of experimental and improvised music.
Description:
Auralization has become a valuable tool to explore the acoustics of spaces and activities that no longer exist. A research collaboration between North Carolina State University and Acentech has expanded this technique to recreate the entire soundscape of John Donne’s 1622 Gunpowder Plot sermon at Paul’s Cross. By augmenting ambisonic auralization techniques with techniques borrowed from computer-aided music composition and audio production, The Paul’s Cross Project creates an immersive acoustical environment for the purpose of exploring the experience of listeners at many positions in a crowd that can be varied in size in real time. The presentation consists of a discussion of the role of geometric acoustical modeling, real-time convolution, randomized and statistically-derived sound event triggers, and other techniques employed in auralizing the soundscape of Paul’s Cross, including the sermon, crowd responses, and the ambient sounds of pre-Industrial London. After the discussion, the auralization will be made available for attendees to experience in Acentech’s ambisonic auralization theater. |
