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N O D A L   A U D I O   S P A C E

Since 2003, Acousmodules plugins offer to composers a series of tools dedicated to "real 3D" open spatial formats.
They are designed to create sounds and spaces together, without having to conform to the limits of industry standards production tools and delivery formats.

If this freedom is important, it doesn't mean that Acousmodules are not able to integrate other kinds of production, as long as they are focused on sound design instead of only spatialization, as it is practiced when mixing or in concert sound systems, for which more suitable solutions exist.

With the Regular Acousmodules series and special Advanced ones for volumetric spaces, Nodal Matrix Channels space is the means of proposing an intermediate format that can satisfy both those who need to fit into the general production stream, and those who wish to explore space matter with more eccentricity...

Traditional multichannel compositions are often done in low resolution circle, once and for all;
high density N-61 compositions can be exported in various formats for acousmoniums and domes, including low-res circles...

Nodal spaces are everywhere: from microphones setups to speaker systems, through practically every available multichannel tools (provided they do not use any particular encoding).

About the term multichannel, it must be said that it is often considered, with good reason, as limited, restrictive and mostly ineffective... because our only referencies are "surround" cinema formats, octophony or "7.1.4" variations. They represent indeed "very low resolution nodal spaces", which show their weakness when compared to more appealing Higher Order Ambisonics or Object Based Audio formats.

But as in photography, while the image resolution is not the only criterium involved, the number of pixels is nevertheless a good indicator of its quality and of the processing possibilities it allows.
High resolution nodal spaces may be considered  as "channel based", but they have little in common with 3D surround formats. They can offer better sound space qualities, and above all a greater openness than their modern encoding-based counterparts.

Nodal Matrix Channels spaces, as for them, represent both a simplification and a generalisation over all Nodal Open spaces: they may not provide the same level of accuracy or customization, but they are easier to process and to transmit...

So what is "a node"?

captation: a microphone cell linked to a recorded channel
sound: a space grain, part of the sound's spatial matter. It can be a part of a geometric mesh (Matrix Channels), linked to spatial coordinates (Open Channels), or free (Direct Channels)
media: as long as there is no encoding or virtualisation, it is one of the transmitted channels, following the numbering which is defined for the format
speaker space: a loudspeaker receiving a dedicated channel according the a spatial format

Open and Direct Channels
Everything is possible, but you have to define the nodes space geometry for each project and each tool.

Nodal Surface
A 2D mesh can represent accurately any enveloping space, be it flat, curved or folded... as long as the nodes density is high enough.

Matrix Channels
It simplifies the tools configuration, spatial operations, worflow and transmission.

Nodal Volume
Several meshed elevation layers allow to represent any true 3D space. These ultimate spaces and the corresponding formats are still rare, but they are yet available with Advanced Acousmodules.

flat or curved, a surface is a surface...

Traditionally considered as "3D", today immersives spaces are more like envelopes that delimit a volume, not really a volume by themselves. They can be more or less curved or even folded, but their properties and possibilities remain those of a surface.

Thus most spatialization tools need only two parameters to identify the sounds' occupation on such envelopes: Azimut and Elevation in polar coordinates system, or X/Y in a cartesian system Top View like the one used by Acousmodules.

If we consider all these spaces as two dimensional meshes, it makes easy to apply to them complex sound-space processings, and opens interesting and useful transpositions between spaces which may look different at first glance.

Real 3D spaces, with several levels of elevation AND proximity, will need 3D matrix / cubic formats.

As a consequency, high resolution spaces can become more affordable and open to one another.

Intermediate spatial formats like Dolby Atmos and ambisonics focuse logically on commercial distribution of media for cinema, home and mobile devices.

On the contrary, electroacoustic and acousmatic composers, and more generally musicians and sound creators who operate in not normalized environments, need to have the richest and most flexible resources at their disposal to create for original and often specialized venues.

A Nodal surface format can also answer the question of composing for acousmoniums, which is something that is still rarely adressed. Given the diversity of their configurations and the variations depending on the locations they occupy, N-61 can bring a common workflow and format to create works that could be played with reasonable success both in domes – which are essential today – and in most acousmoniums...

Open channels nodal devices like acousmoniums (via direct mesh adaptation)

Domes (via direct mesh adaptation or through HOA encoding)

Cinema formats and performance venues (via direct mesh adaptation or through objects encoded in ADM)

From multi-microphone captations to loudspeakers performances, all operations can take place in the nodal domain.

Nodal Matrix plugins classes cover every need, from synthesis and sampling through spatial animation and morphing, with always the ability to process just a single node, a dedicated zone or shape, or the whole space at once.
And don't forget that we operate with plugins which can be combined in any sort, with the only limitation being the always higher power of our computers ;-)
The multichannels pipeline allows to send losslessly the nodal stream to any plugin, in the same modular way as we proceed with stereo signals since decades. If you use a powerful multichannel host like Reaper or Bidule you even don't have to think about routing...

But if Nodal Matrix Acousmodules constitute a complete production ecosystem, it doesn't signify that it is a closed one!
On the contrary, it is very important that they can interoperate with other production tools. For N-61 and N-64C, all they need is to support 61/64 channels processing and connexions *. There is no coding, just plain and open multichannel raw datas.
Also it is easy to convert from one nodal format to another one, with minimum loss: all you need is a good (and free) nodal resampling machine, such as GRM SpaceMaster or SpatGris provide.

Hosts

Reaper   |  Ardour  |   Bidule   |  Usine Hollyhock   |  Max/Msp    ...

Plugins

MeldaProduction   |  Acon Digital   |  IEM   |  Fiedler Audio    ...

Others

GRM Atelier  |   SpatGris   |  C-Sound  |  Super Collider   ...

* N-128 matrix needs of course hosts and plugins that support this number of channels, which is currently rarer...

You don't need to have to choose between pin-point precision and field immersion: high density Nodal Matrix can do both, and more...

Nodal Audio Space

Object Based Audio

Higher Order Ambisonics

space

mesh, any 2D/3D shape or matrix

(half) sphere or cube

sphere sound field

sounds

any 2D/3D spatial mass

points (mono), can be grouped

sphere sound field, more or less focused

sound processing

from single node to full space

mono + grouped objects (< 9.1.6)

sphere sound field

accuracy

single node / space grain

coordinates based (mono)

depends on order: higher is better

immersion

all nodes, depends on nodal density

(7.1.2 bed)

sphere sound field

transmission

multichannel file (N-61 = 61 channels)
(Open Channels need mapping information)

coded multichannel file (< 128 channels)
(mono channels with coordinates)

coded multichannel file (HOA7 = 64 channels)

play

nodal direct or adapted

nodal rendering

nodal decoding

N-61 and Nodal-Cubic plugins use two spatialization algorithms:
 

Distance Based Amplitude Control

Create bumps and hollows, thick and thin lines, ripples and fades!
But rest assured, DBAC is not a panning algorithm, but it can also work as one if you whish ;-)

Node Based Amplitude Control

Each 61 (or more) node can respond independently to amplitude variations regardless of its spatial coordinates. NBAC opens new intuitive spatial morphologies, impossible to obtain with conventional approaches.

see plugins 

see plugins 

see plugins 

Working with intermediate formats means that they need to be rendered or adapted to the available monitoring device in the studio.

N-61 and N-64C are easily downscaled to common speaker arrangements, or converted to binaural with free plugins like GRM-Tools SpaceVR and SPARTA Binauralizer.

The DownScaler-N61 plugin provides a direct output to most speaker devices available in small studios with up to 12 channels.
It is specially designed for octophonic arrangements which are often used for electroacoustic compositions, such as the centered circle, the "French octophony" stereo pairs, and the "core acousmonium" with two front distances.
It also features a simple binaural converter and room simulation.

with free plugins:

SPARTA Panner

Reaper ReaSurround (Reaper)

GRM-Tools SpaceMaster (Win & MacIntel)

IEM MultiEncoder / SPARTA ambiENC

Fiedler Audio Dolby Atmos Composer Essential

Nodal Matrix spaces are not limited to flat or curved surfaces, but can of course represent real 3D volumes. It is even the best way to produce these kind of spaces with enough stability, clarity, reliefs and so on...

Places equiped with volumetric speaker devices are still very rare, mainly represented by 4DSound, the Acousmonef and, from time to time, some big "multistage" acousmoniums*, but (except for 4DSound which uses a proprietary ecosystem) they could benefit already from using a node-based 3D format to exchange their productions.

A number of Acousmodules Advanced plugins are already compatible with Nodal-Cubic formats, such as N-64C and N-125C.

Monom (48 nodes 4DSound)

Acousmonef (80 open nodes)

BEAST acousmonium

see plugins