Hello,

I'm currently mixing something (an ambient/textural kind of thing) where I am trying to get it so one of the sound pads initially comes from a space where it sounds like it is out front and below the listener, and then slowly moves up so it is finally in front of the listener. It's just a stereo mix.

I know how to get things to come closer in a stereo field, from left or right, but is there some sort of trickery, technique or plugin where I can do something like that that doesn't involve a surround mix, so it comes from below? Thank you.

 

There's binaural, which I think simulates what you're describing. Logic Pro has Dolby Atmos included and offers a binaural render mode. It's a stereo mix, but I'm not experienced enough with it to know how that sounds outside of headphones

 

i don't think it's possible with a stereo pair.... i think the brain can be fooled when you use headphones but with two speakers i've never heard anything like it . On Dolby Surround or Atmos systems the whole thing looks different of course

i dont know but maybe check out Brauer Motion by Waves


https://www.waves.com/plugins/brauer-motion

 

I almost had a knee-jerk reaction of well, that's freakin dumb but then I was all... whoooaaaa, that's a great damn question. How do we even perceive up/down with both ears on that plane?

 

I believe it has to do with the nervous system and/or neurological functions. For instance, individuals with hearing problems often experience dizziness and falls. Everything is interconnected and related within our body. I once read about a study (location unknown) where they placed four people in a soundless environment, and after a while, they couldn't stay on their feet and started vomiting

 

On a stereo mix the only way I KNOW to get a ground is by putting a bass on the track

 

Roll off the high end.

 

We do not perceive up/down with our hearing, we do perceive it via our sense of balance. Which is - nature makes idiots of us at this (and some other) points - placed in our ears. Together with the processed information from out eyes we consider something is up or down. Or not.

 

This is 7.1

On a Stereo Pair you can hear a "Special Depth" on Headphones as well ....But i think the real 7.1 Sound isn´t possible without more than two Monitors

 

But if I snap my fingers near my crotch with my eyes closed and then up over my head I can clearly spacialize the sound under or over my head. I'm wondering how that works.

 

In binaural directional hearing, sound sources are localised based on the differences in intensity and time of flight of the sound waves in the auricles. The auditory system is amazingly good at directional hearing. Thanks to the design of our auricles, it is possible to determine the direction from which a sound is coming with only one ear, provided that the sound contains frequencies above 1.5 kHz.
In addition to determining direction, spatial hearing also involves estimating distance and determining the volume of the room. Depending on the distance to the sound source, the auditory system uses different methods to do this.

The subject is very complex. If you would like to explore it, you are welcome to search for "sound localisation" in a search engine of your choice.

 

Well, this was quite informative and apparently, I have some more research to do. Thanks, everyone.

 

There are monsters in my basement,
I hear them moving down there
And I've bats in my belfry
For them I haven't a care

Although I've never tried to capture those sounds above and below me and place them in stereo space, I imagine that I'd have to cut certain highs and low frequencies within the mask of a reverb chamber and against the backdrop of the stereo capture of the room that I'm in.

That might work.

 

Last edited: Nov 23, 2023

Hahaha, if you snap your fingers near your groin and then above your head, obviously you'll know where the sound is coming from because you're the one sending that command from the nervous system. Now, if someone else snaps near your groin (without it being anything sexual) and then above your head while your eyes are closed, you'll know the sound is coming from below and above, but not exactly the location. There's also something related to psychoacoustics. For example, near my house, they're demolishing some houses to build a building. I feel like the sound is coming diagonally, but it may not be exactly that direction. If I go outside, maybe it's not diagonal and is from above or from the side. Once something curious happened to me regarding what you're saying (sound and its location). I lived in the countryside for a while, and they told me that on a mountain, there was a bird that sang, and if you imitated its song, it would guide you to it and then kill you, as there's a legend that the bird sings, calling its wife because it was once a real person, and so on. So, I was very curious and went to the mountain. One thing you have to do when you go to a mountain is to mark the path since you don't have a reference point; everything looks the same. So, you can leave stones with a certain shape and some branches, etc. I started imitating the sound and trying to get to where the bird was. When I thought I was getting closer from the left where the sound was coming, suddenly the sound disappeared, and now it was coming from the right. So, I said to myself, 'Oh, witchcraft,' so I went to the right, and when I was close to where the sound was coming from the right, it now came from behind. So, I got tired and turned back (luckily it didn't kill me xD). The point of this story is that psychoacoustics play a lot into how we perceive up and down, and even sides when it's a long distance. Because, near you, if someone snaps in your ears (right and left), you'll easily know, but at a distance, if a friend with a megaphone makes the same snap a few kilometers away, you might think it's coming from the right, and it could be coming from behind or the right/behind. It's a very interesting phenomenon