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.

String ageing is a familiar; perceptually important
phenomenon for guitarists; players of other stringed
instruments. From the moment a new set of strings is
installed, the sound they produce when excited begins to
change due to a combination of chemical degradation,
corrosion,; mechanical wear arising from playing.
Musicians commonly report that aged strings sound dull,
lack sustain,; feel less responsive compared to new
strings. String ageing is a function of both elapsed time
; accumulated playing time, with repeated playing
accelerating degradation through contamination; repeated
mechanical stress.

Previous studies have investigated individual aspects of
string ageing by artificially accelerating wear;
performing controlled acoustic measurements, identifying
effects such as increased damping of higher partials;
increased inharmonicity. While these approaches provide
valuable physical insight, the tightly constrained
experimental conditions differ significantly from
real-world playing conditions.

This paper presents a dataset of audio recordings of guitar
playing over a four-week period, starting from the point of
new strings being installed.
Audio performance data from different sets of electric
guitar strings is recorded daily over a four-week period,
using strictly fixed musical exercises that are repeated
multiple times per session. By collecting many takes of
identical material at each stage of string age, the dataset
enables statistical analysis of ageing-related changes
while accounting for natural performance variability.

The dataset is intended to support exploratory machine
learning investigations into string ageing, including
questions of how ageing manifests over time; playing
duration, whether string age can be predicted from audio
alone,; which audio features or learned representations
capture perceptually relevant aspects of the ageing process.

Historically, music has developed primarily as a frontal
phenomenon, thus limiting the expressive; perceptual
potential related to sound space. The recent development of
immersive audio systems opens new creative possibilities by
expanding the artistic action space from a narrow frontal
area to a complete sphere around the listener. The
Ambisonic system (Scene-Based Audio), together with
Object-Based formats; hybrid solutions, represents
fertile ground for creative experimentation; the
redefinition of workflows in the field of spatialized sound.
In this new context, what is the role of the sound
engineer, as an electroacoustic interpreter, in immersive
musical artistic creation?
The research is based on a multidisciplinary analysis that
combines an in-depth study of current immersive audio
technologies; their performance, with observations of
existing compositional; production approaches.
Additionally, a comparative study is conducted on the
design choices of the sound engineer as an interpreter,
investigating workflows, emerging musical semantics,
available tools,; the recovery of the historical
repertoire.
Particular attention is paid to the experiment aimed at
investigating a correlation between the position of a sound
; an emotional trigger in the listener.
New directions emerge in the creative role of the sound
engineer, who goes beyond the mere technical aspect to
become an integral part of the compositional;
interpretative process, harmonizing the relationship
between technique; art.

Mashup is a distinctive form of music composition which
integrates elements from existing songs to create a
cohesive audio experience. The digital music landscape,
with various audio processing tools; sharing platforms,
has facilitated the creation; propagation of mashups by
musicians, remixers, audio engineers,; automated
systems. While most prior research; studies focus on
mashups created by combining elements from individual audio
tracks, typically using pop songs, there exists other types
of mashups; for example, by incorporating phrases from base
melodies into a new arrangement. In this study, we examined
listener enjoyment ratings for this type of mashup,
utilizing well-known Western classical melodies. A
listening test was conducted to assess whether variations
in pitch, tempo,; familiarity with the source material
correlate with enhanced enjoyment. This paper presents our
preliminary findings, with plans for future studies;
additional survey responses to strengthen the results;
uncover insights for crafting more engaging classical
mashups.

Kimio-san designed NHK’s 22.2 audio system and the
Hamasaki-cube, which is brilliant at capturing spatial
qualities of a concert hall. Attendees are treated to a
selection of high resolution 3D recordings from glorious
Japanese concert halls.

This masterclass series, featuring remarkable recording
artists, is a chance to hear 3D audio at its best; as we
discuss qualities that make it truly worth the effort.

In each masterclass, we explore the new spatial
possibilities in recording and production, detailing also
this specific listening room, regarding ITU-R BS.1116
compliance and auditory envelopment (AEV) transparency.
Seats are limited to keep playback variation at bay.

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.

Dialogue intelligibility is a fundamental aspect of audio
post-production. Ensuring speech clarity in complex sound
mixes remains challenging across different playback
systems. Selective auditory attention plays a central role
in how listeners track dialogue in busy mixes, so small
changes in spectral or spatial structure can influence
perceived clarity in unexpected ways. This study
investigates the effectiveness of psychoacoustically
informed techniques, equalisation; spatialisation, in
reducing auditory masking; improving the clarity of
dialogue. The listening test was completed on participants’
own playback systems, which reflects typical domestic
viewing conditions; aligns the study with real-world
listening environments. The techniques were tested
individually; in combination to assess their impact.
Results show that equalisation was more effective than
spatialisation in reducing masking, while their combination
produced a significant improvement in intelligibility,
clarity,; reduced interference. The effectiveness of
these methods varied between the two groups of clips,
suggesting that their application should be adapted to the
specific acoustic context of each scene.

Sound plays a critical role in virtual reality (VR),
shaping attention, narrative comprehension, emotional
engagement,; experiential plausibility under conditions
of embodiment; user agency. Although a growing body of
research addresses VR audio techniques, perceptual effects,
; sound taxonomies, existing approaches remain fragmented
; largely descriptive. In particular, they do not provide
a unifying, VR-specific account of how sound meaning;
emotional intent are operationally linked to user agency
; non-linear narrative progression. This paper presents a
narrative review of selected literature spanning game audio
frameworks, immersive sound design, narrative theory,;
plausibility-related research in games; VR. Through
synthesis of these perspectives, the review identifies a
conceptual gap in current research, namely the absence of a
VR-specific, agency-coupled sound design framework for
structuring sound meaning; emotional intent in support
of experiential plausibility as users actively shape events
in interactive VR environments.

George plays high resolution stereo, 5.1 and 3D recordings
from his fabulous back catalogue, commenting on production
tools and techniques, including his own excellent dynamics
processor.

This masterclass series, featuring remarkable recording
artists, is a chance to hear 3D audio at its best; as we
discuss qualities that make it truly worth the effort.

In each masterclass, we explore the new spatial
possibilities in recording and production, detailing also
this specific listening room, regarding ITU-R BS.1116
compliance and auditory envelopment (AEV) transparency.
Seats are limited to keep playback variation at bay.

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.

The ability to objectively measure listener emotion is a
critical frontier for adaptive audio systems, healthcare,
; personalized music therapy. While music is a powerful
driver of affect, traditional self-reporting is often
intrusive or inaccessible for users in wellbeing settings
who may struggle to articulate their mood. This paper
introduces JoyCam, a multimodal system that estimates
subtle moments of joyful engagement by blending lightweight
brain-wave monitoring (wearable EEG) with facial-expression
sensing. By capturing physiological reactions that occur
below the threshold of conscious awareness, the system
creates a more stable emotional profile than
single-modality methods. In our system, Facial joy is
estimated via MediaPipe landmark analysis, focusing on
normalized mouth-width deviations. Simultaneously,
neurological engagement is tracked through Frontal Alpha
Asymmetry (FAA) using an OpenBCI Cyton system. To address
the sensitivity of EEG to movement, a dynamic artefact
index down-weights neural signals during high-frequency
interference. The system was tested in a pilot study with
five participants. Preliminary results indicate that
baseline-corrected physiological scores align closely with
self-reported music impact; valence ratings across
joyful; sad conditions. These findings suggest that
JoyCam offers a robust framework for responsive musical
companions that can adjust playlists or production
parameters based on a listener’s real-time physiological
state

Tinnitus has been described as `the conscious awareness of
a tonal or composite noise for which there is no
identifiable corresponding external sound source'; is
experienced by ~15% of the European population. Tinnitus
may be experienced in one ear, both ears, or perceived as
originating from within the head. It can present as tonal
sounds, noise-like sounds, or a combination of both. The
perception can lead to emotional;/or cognitive
dysfunction, autonomic arousal, behavioural changes,;/or
functional disability (DeRidder 2021, Biswas 2022, Jarach
2022). There is no standard test for tinnitus in the
medical literature; audiologists typically test pitch (to
within half an octave); perceived loudness of the tone
using standard clinical equipment for testing hearing loss.
The underlying causes of tinnitus are not yet fully
understood,; the most effective treatments not yet
identified. We present the first release of an extended
Tinnitus matching app that includes a highly
individualizable tinnitus tone-matching tool; a
comprehensive questionnaire for mobile health tracking. The
app facilitates large data collection on tinnitus sounds
across aetiologies, co-occurring symptoms,;
demographics. Our intentions are threefold; 1) to provide
those experiencing tinnitus with a way to communicate what
they hear more precisely, 2) understand how tinnitus sounds
vary across demographics, how these relate to co-occurring
symptoms,; eventually – 3) to provide a means of
individualising any sound-based approach to symptom
amelioration. We present the approach; validation of the
tinnitus matching tool against common clinical measures.

The application of binaural cue perception mechanisms to
multichannel audio compression technology can reduce
spatial parameter redundancy; effectively lower the
encoding bitrate. Binaural cues play a critical role in
sound source localization,; their frequency-dependent
characteristics yield varied perceptual localization
effects. However, current understanding of the specific
behavior of binaural cues at low frequencies, as well as
the similarities; differences between interaural time
difference (ITD); interaural level difference (ILD),
remains incomplete. To explore the relationship between
ITD-based; ILD-based azimuth perception, this study
non-uniformly selected nine ITD values; twelve ILD
values within the 300–1480 Hz frequency range to test ITD
; ILD perceptual azimuths, respectively. The experimental
method involved using fixed binaural cue stimuli while
varying the audio with known horizontal azimuth angles to
approach the target binaural cue stimulus. Test results
indicate that both ITD; ILD perceptual effects are
significantly influenced by frequency, with the minimum
perceptual azimuth values for both ITD; ILD observed at
700 Hz, suggesting that binaural cue perception azimuths
are closer to the median plane at this frequency.
Furthermore, surface fitting was applied to the perceptual
azimuths of ITD; ILD, revealing relatively similar
patterns. Based on experimental findings, this paper
analyzes the explorable perceptual correlation between
ITD-based; ILD-based azimuth perception. The application
of data in spatial audio coding contributes to the
efficient transmission; fidelity preservation of audio
signals. This study provides valuable insights for
optimizing binaural cue-based compression techniques,
ultimately supporting high-fidelity spatial audio
reproduction.

The authors proposed a stereo-width shrinkage method for
headphone reproduction, in
which crosstalk from loudspeaker reproduction is added to
the original stereo
sources. In this study, we investigate the sound quality of
stereo-width-shrunken
sources with different parameter settings. A Semantic
Differential method is
employed to quantify the subjective characteristics with
five adjective pairs,;
the naturalness of the stereo width shrunk sources is
evaluated in detail with
Scheffé’s paired comparison. The results of the Semantic
Differential method
comprehensively rank the sound sources. Interestingly, the
results of the paired
comparison are not reversed in the natural; unnatural
evaluations, whereas the
negative evaluation yields reasonable results. These
results provide valuable
insights for practical sound-quality evaluation.

Hyunkook describes his fine, compact 3D mic array, used for
outdoor and indoor capture of 3D atmosphere and music.
Attendees are treated to examples from the excellent ECHO
project, and to a selection of new high resolution
recordings.

This masterclass series, featuring remarkable recording
artists, is a chance to hear 3D audio at its best; as we
discuss qualities that make it truly worth the effort.

In each masterclass, we explore the new spatial
possibilities in recording and production, detailing also
this specific listening room, regarding ITU-R BS.1116
compliance and auditory envelopment (AEV) transparency.
Seats are limited to keep playback variation at bay.