This story originally appeared in UCSB’s The Current.
Much of the allure to see movies on the big screen comes from how theaters can create an environment where sound surrounds the audience. Displaced sound, which helps to create the immersive cinematic experience, has also been a distinguishing feature of electronic music — particularly acousmatic electronic music — growing in popularity since its emergence in the 1950s. Technology to create spatial compositions, however, has not kept pace with the needs of composers who now write single compositions for dozens of speakers. (A handful of high-end concert halls each have over 100 speakers).
With no universal software solution in sight, composer João Pedro Oliveira, Corwin Chair of Composition in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Music, set out to create an application for composers to specify how sounds move in space. He enlisted software developer and student Raphael Radna, who is simultaneously completing his doctoral studies in composition and a master’s degree in media arts and technology. Together they built Space Control, an app which UCSB’s Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology (CREATE) recently released to the public.