This was almost the final submission but the loss of resolution from the 4K to HD conversion made the image look really soft (I think the high contrast of the image made it noticeable). I also realised there was an additional setting I had missed in the VR audio.
If possible please watch in a 360 headset with headphones for the full immersive experience.
I managed to dig out a low cost smartphone/VR headset adapter and try my previous immersive audio 360 experience. I also tried it out with the mirror world video.
The ambisonic audio was really immersive but I really wasn’t interested in the blended images any more. On the other hand the mirrored forest became hypnotic in the headset, I lost sense of up and down.
I was surprised at the sense of floating that I felt and someone else commented on when I passed it around the office. I think there are definitely artistic possibilities for the this kind of experience beyond documentary, and journalism.
When viewed this way this mirror forest concept seemed to more strongly evoke the artificial nature of the forest, with its managed, equally-spaced trees. I was inspired to develop a more musical version of the soundscape to further highlight this.
The concept was based around the structure of the 4 channels of the ambisonic audio file. I used the same process of using the 4 Buses in Audition to organise and mix 4 differently themed tracks.
The first was a development of the birdsong that I had developed for the previous ambisonic track, but simplified.
The second was a repeating loop of a fly.
The third was the most musical elements, a synthesised Xylophone created from a series of recordings that I had made of rustic Xylophone in a children’s play area.
I recorded each of the notes being struck then used the same technique as my reman synth for the Kino project to create a software synthesiser in Garageband. This time rather than playing it with a mathematical sequence I played it with a midi keyboard, trying to respond to the wind I could hear and see in the.
Once I had the track I ran it through a few reverb, and delay effects.
The forth channel was the sea.
I felt bringing these four elements together sonically represented the environment that we experienced in Norfolk; forest, sea, natural, artificial.
mattprentice 