Management of Consequent Sounds in Immersive Sound Systems

Immersive audio is appearing more frequently in modern cinematic storytelling. In traditional sound mixing, scenarios can occur in which a first sound has a tight semantic coupling to a second sound, for example, a gunshot and ricochet or a handclap and its reverberation. In immersive sound systems, such precedent and consequent sounds may be directed to different locations so as to envelope the audience. When consequent sounds are not managed, the psychoacoustic principle known as the Haas effect can result in portions of an audience misunderstanding the placement of precedent sounds, momentarily disrupting their experience. A series of immersive sound examples demonstrates the resulting problem and the effectiveness of a proposed management technique, applicable to object-based audio, wave field synthesis, and ambisonic reproduction.