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Re:Apple Music Announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio by alanbernstein on Monday May 17, 2021 @02:31PM (#27186525)
What if you only want to replicate the sound of an orchestra as heard by an observer at a specified point? Why wouldn't two microphones be sufficient? That's how it's perceived, after all.
Re:Apple Music Announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio by Grustaf on Monday May 17, 2021 @03:49PM (#27187582)
You can get really nice sound that way, but to get the full effect you need to take into account the shape of the head and ears of the listener. After all, these are important factors that help us place sound in space.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function

Re:Apple Music Announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio by gomox on Monday May 17, 2021 @03:57PM (#27187683)
Your ears are highly directional devices and an orchestra in a concert hall creates a highly complex soundscape that is impossible to replicate with 2 channels. Location awareness (i.e. 2 mics where your ears are) is just a small part of the problem.
Re:Apple Music Announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio by alanbernstein on Monday May 17, 2021 @11:38PM (#27191018)
So it sounds like the experience can be fully captured with two microphones mounted in the ears of an acoustic dummy head, as long as you're willing to accept a single position and orientation for the observer. Personally, that would be more than good enough fidelity.
Re:Apple Music Announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio by shard on Monday May 17, 2021 @08:19PM (#27189936)
I suppose then you would need to have the transfer function of that specific observer's head and ears at that specific point. Perhaps some time in the future there will be personalization of the transfer function so that you can hear the sounds as you would hear it at that spot.