AES Europe 2026

With the omnipresence of immersive audio the loudness
agenda has been pushed out of the spotlight. While there
are important areas (like TV) where the introduction has
been a resounding success with a complete paradigm shift,
others have not yet fully embraced the "auditory cease
fire" (Radio) or even searched for ways to counteract
loudness normalisation or still gain a loudness advantage
(pop music). In this workshop, two veterans of the EBU
loudness group PLOUD will elaborate on potential
meta-reasons for the resistance in the latter areas as well
as survey recent developments and challenges.

3D audio allows music to be experienced as an immersive
spatial environment. By distributing musical elements
around the listener, the perception of width, depth, and
presence is enhanced, allowing individual sounds to have a
greater emotional impact.

In this workshop, Lasse Nipkow presents a creative concept
in which recordings of acoustic instruments are used to
create a virtual sound space via 3D audio. The workshop
illustrates how spatial hearing, auditory fusion, and
perceptual grouping allow multiple tracks of a single
instrument to be perceived as a coherent sound. Different
instruments located at the same position in space merge
into a new, unified sound, while perceptual grouping
organizes similar sounds into a spatially coherent
connection. Lasse Nipkow clearly explains the
psychoacoustic principles and demonstrates how the ear
integrates distributed sound sources into a unified musical
experience.

Compelling listening examples are presented during the
workshop, both as complete 3D audio mixes and as groups and
individual tracks. This allows participants to understand
how the distribution of sounds in space, fusion, and
grouping work together in immersive music production.

This tutorial lecture is intended to present the basic
concepts of Physical Modelling (PM) sound synthesis. The
motivation behind the presentation is to increase the
awareness of the audio community of the existence of this
synthesis method, as an alternative to the much more
widespread subtractive synthesis approach.

Physical modelling synthesis allows for the creation of
realistic acoustic instrument timbres, as well as
avant-garde sound design constructs, in a way that is much
more approachable and intuitive than FM synthesis.

The lecture is intended for the beginner adept of sound
design, as well as the general audio public, so no prior
knowledge is required beyond a basic, intuitive
understanding of sound. Auditory examples will be presented
using a software modular synthesiser environment, as well
as dedicated physical modelling virtual instruments/effects
plugins within a Digital Audio Workstation application.

The presented concepts are applicable to the field of sound
design for music, film, gaming, and audiovisual arts, as
well as to teaching acoustics and musical instrument
studies in the classroom.

Topics covered:
-PM synthesis premise
-Comparison to subtractive synthesis
-Concept of a resonant model (Karplus–Strong oscillator)
-Simple and complex resonators, resonator coupling,
exciters, modifiers, pickups, and instrument body resonance
-Typical PM synthesiser architecture and workflow
-Signal processors/effects utilising physical modelling
(e.g. modal reverb)
-Dedicated virtual instruments for realistic acoustic and
electroacoustic instrument synthesis

All sound and workflow examples will be presented in a
technology-neutral way (using a variety of physical
modelling plugins from different vendors).

Most contemporary immersive audio production workflows are
centered on discrete channel-based loudspeaker formats such
as 7.1.4. These formats are rarely experienced by most
consumers and listeners, particularly in music playback. In
practice, spatial audio is predominantly delivered via
binaural reproduction. Beyond headphones, head-tracked
loudspeaker array systems now enable convincing binaural
reproduction in a practical, listener-centric manner,
unlocking spatial audio over loudspeakers for ordinary
listeners. This positions binaural reproduction not as a
secondary translation, but as the core delivery format for
immersive audio consumption.

Creating primarily for fixed speaker layouts can impose
creative and technical constraints often resulting in
restrained spatial design when content is later rendered
binaurally. This workshop advocates a binaural-centric
approach to spatial audio creation, treating binaural as
the main deliverable, while preserving compatibility with
discrete channel-based systems. Through discussion and
practical examples, we will explore how designing with
binaural in mind enables more expressive, perceptually
robust, and immersive experiences across both headphone and
loudspeaker-based binaural playback, without relying on
traditional 7.1.4-centric production models.

Binaural audio is fundamental to delivering immersive
spatial audio, however traditionally playback has been
limited to headphones. A combination of cross-talk
cancellation (CTC) technology and beamforming allows for
binaural audio playback over loudspeaker arrays by focusing
sound exactly at the listener’s ears. This enables binaural
audio to be reproduced using just compact loudspeaker
arrays in front of the listener.

The approach relies upon accurate knowledge of the
listener’s instantaneous head position, thus combining a
head-tracking system with position-adaptive loudspeaker
beamforming. This workshop explores CTC-based spatial audio
as a system: introducing the theory of CTC-based binaural
audio reproduction, and the practicality of introducing
head-tracking into such a system. The workshop will include
a live-demonstration of head-tracked binaural audio
delivery over loudspeakers using a soundbar.

Imagine that you just finished designing and are now
managing your dream immersive audio mix room for a client
with an array of 64 speakers and it functions beautifully -
then CoVid19 wreaks global havoc. You find yourself
suddenly isolated in a new country, forced into retirement
with its budgetary restrictions, and your dream studio has
become an early victim to the pandemic. What would be your
next move?

In this real-life story, follow the adventures of an
intrepid audio engineer and his quest to build a personal
version of that immersive studio that was lost – all within
a fixed-income retiree’s budget.

In this tutorial, an immersive studio design and
construction will be described including:

Inspiration from prior work by the author and colleagues
Room design goals
Equipment choices
Custom electronics design
Speaker design considerations
Speaker support and position alignment
Construction steps
VBAP, Ambisonics, and WFS approaches
Test mixes

Immersive mix examples will be demonstrated.