The Idea of Spectral-Spatial MIX

The method "Spectral-Spatial MIX.” extracts musical information from a source (e.g. the played note), and takes this information to add spatial information to the source itself and mixes a spatial signal to a final output audio signal.

Spatial Mix : State of the Art

In almost all spatial audio content each track has its own direction.

For example a orchestral music is organized in an orchestral line-up.. Each Instrument has its own direction.

The REGULAR way of spatial COUPLING is:

1 instrument <==> 1 direction

But this is not the only way to organize the audio content spatially using surround sound.

Coupling Pitch to the Direction of the Listening Event

In the spectral-spatial mix, the spectral information (e.g. "musical note over the octaves") is linked to the spatial location.

for the FIRST TIME it is possible to COUPLE:

1 musical pitch  <==> 1 direction

Duo-Decimal Tonal Lineup

 A "note level" can now come from one direction, regardless of the instrument.  This has never happened before.

(across-octave) note separation

In western music, the division into 12 semitones per octave is common ("duo-decimal").

In the duo-decimal spatial constellation, the pitch across the octave is assigned to the auditory event directions, the example is as follows: (counterclockwise, in the mathematically positive direction of rotation):

Across octaves, the following are seen from the listener's line of sight (in the center):

• all notes C '' C 'C c c' and c '' frontal in front,
• all notes D '' D 'D d d' and d '' left-front,
• all notes G '' G 'G g g' and g '' in the back right and
• all notes A '' A 'A a a' and a '' on the right
• all notes B '' B 'B b b' and b '' front right

assigned to the perceived directions.

Duo-Decimal Tonal Lineup

The spectral Spatial mix adds spaciousness and tremendous pressure to the previously flat stereo music. Especially in classical music, where the listener often tries to hear the musical structure using the instruments, completely different possibilities arise.

Now the listeners can easily grasp the individual note levels and thus the melody through the associative coupling of the note level to the direction of the auditory event.

For example, arpeggios (temporally resolved chords) sound very, very good in the spectral-spatial mix written here (separation according to note levels). Arpeggios were previously used in classical music, but modern synthesizers also support them.

The process also solves the chicken and egg problem for surround audio.

There have long been good, technically mature surround systems. So far there has been a strong lack of content generation for surround audio material.

With [FHSp] / Sp2 the production of pleasant sounding, previously unheard of spatial audio content is very easy. With his method, multitrack audio or MIDI-based audio material is transformed into melodious, spatial audio.

Impact on Contemporary Music:

• New spatial effects are possible
• This puts music under enormous pressure
• and completely new compositional features are possible.

by Niklas Rack

“I may invite myself: My name is Nikolaus Rack, I am a professional musician.
Frank Haferkorn invited me, to listen to his newly developed music system.
He played me pieces of music from classical music, as well as rock and pop music.

It is impressive how intensively the system controls the spatial distribution of the sound, even with very low volume. The difference makes this system special. It gives a lively listening impression. In my listening test the system was already ‘relaxing’ on me after a short time. The sounds move airily throughout the room, it is like a musical head-light bath.

I am thrilled by this awesome sound distribution."

- Nikolaus Rack