This paper will bring us to consider how a piece of music and its individual musical materials and ideas might be impacted, altered, or transformed by the spatial elements\/qualities that exist in music recordings.\u00a0 As background, it will examine and define the dimensions of the spatial elements\/qualities of music recordings.\u00a0 This leads to some observations of the characters, qualities and uses of these spatial elements, and concludes with questions and directions for further inquiry to better understand and to qualify the impact of spatial qualities in music.<\/p>\n
The spatial qualities inherent to music recordings primarily function at two basic levels of the music\u2019s structure; one at what LaRue would call the \u201clarge dimension\u201d and the other at a \u201cmiddle dimension\u201d (LaRue 1996 pp. 5-8).\u00a0 Each of these levels has distinct and unique\u00a0spatial qualities.\u00a0 These qualities contribute greatly to shaping the music at these two primary levels of dimension.\u00a0 It is common to have spatial elements or relationships of spatial qualities that exist or function between these two primary levels, and to have spatial qualities that exist and\/or function at lower structural levels; evaluating these levels brings a focus to levels of detail from the subtlest of activity in microanalysis, to middle-analysis (of middle dimension materials and activity), and macroanalysis (at the highest structural level) (White 1994 pp. 21-22).<\/p>\n
The two levels of middle and large dimension will serve as meaningful references and points of departure for the study of spatial relationships in recorded music, as they dominate the listeners\u2019 conception of the music recording (Moylan 1992 pp. 55-61, 239) and are the materials directly crafted in production practice.\u00a0 These two levels of perspective or detail are what separate the mastering engineer (who works largely\u2014but not exclusively\u2014in the large dimension) and the mix engineer (who works largely\u2014but not exclusively\u2014in the middle and small dimensions).<\/p>\n
These two primary levels can be defined as the dimensions of (1) the overall sound of the recording\/music and (2) the qualities and relationships of the individual sound sources or groups of sound sources contained in the recording\/music (Moylan 2007 pp. 233-239).<\/p>\n
The spatial elements that exist at these two dimensions are outlined in Table 1.<\/p>\n
Overall Sound:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n| Sound Stage Dimensions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Perceived Performance Environment<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Individual Sound Sources:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Distance location<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Image size (width)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Lateral location<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Environment characteristics<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | Table 1. The spatial qualities of music recordings organized into the two primary structural levels.<\/p>\n Spatial Qualities of the Overall Sound<\/h4>\nThe spatial qualities of the level of the overall sound are (1) the characteristics of the perceived performance environment and (2) the dimensions of the sound stage.<\/p>\n The perceived performance environment (PPE) is the overall space where the music \u2018performance,\u2019 the music \u2018recording\u2019 is heard as taking place.\u00a0 It is the environment of the sound stage.\u00a0 This environment binds all of the sound sources and their individual environments into a single performance area, with its own global environmental characteristics. (Moylan 2007 p. 54)<\/p>\n The characteristics, or dimensions, of the perceived performance environment are (1) any frequency alternations to the overall sound of the recording (incorporating bass ratio), (2) how those alterations unfold over time, (3) reverb time and density, (4) predelay and the spacing of reflections in the early time field, (Case 2007 pp. 264-269) (5) ratio of direct to reverberant sound, and (6) unfolding dynamic relationships between the direct sound and reflections\/reverberation (Blauert 1983 pp. 278-282).\u00a0 These aspects of the perceived performance environment are created by any environmental characteristics applied to the overall program, and\/or the environmental characteristics of important, prominent or unique sound sources within the recording.<\/p>\n This brings the PPE to establish a context for the music: an overall space within which the listener \u2018hears\u2019 or \u2018conceives\u2019 the piece of music as existing.<\/p>\n Figure 1. Spatial dimensions of the overall sound of music recordings. (Moylan 2007 page 50)<\/p>\n The sound stage is the singular area occupied by all of the sound sources of the music, as an aggregate or group.\u00a0 It has an apparent physical size of width and depth that are defined at the level of the individual sound source: (1) the dimension of width is defined by the furthest right and the furthest left sound (lateral localization) and (2) the dimension of depth is defined by the most distant sound source and the closest sound source.\u00a0 The size of the sound stage can be fluid, with the potential to change size throughout the music (bringing the listener to different relationships to the music); the sound stage also has the potential to establish and maintain a stable context for the music, with a fixed area within which all of the musical activity is perceived as taking place.<\/p>\n Phil Ramone (2007 p. 187) presents his perspective:<\/p>\n \u201cThe most effective mixes take full advantage of psychoacoustics, which is why I mix in two dimensions: in stereo and in depth.<\/p>\n Creating a good layer from front to back and left to right offers depth and allows the instruments to breathe, which amplifies their tonal qualities.\u00a0 It also brings clarity to the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n Figure 2.\u00a0 Individual sound sources placed on a sound stage. (Moylan 2007 p. 52)<\/p>\n Spatial Qualities of Individual Sound Sources or Groups of Sound Sources<\/h4>\nIndividual sound sources in music recordings will be placed on the sound stage at a specific distance from the listener (distance location), and at a specific location in the stereo field (lateral location).\u00a0 Further, the lateral image will have a width that can vary from a very narrowly defined point in space up to a size that can occupy the entire potential 90-degree span of the stereo sound stage.\u00a0 A point source phantom image occupies a focused, narrow, precise point on the sound stage; a spread image is perceived as occupying an area between two boundaries, its size can vary greatly.\u00a0 Any group of sound sources can have the same qualities, and be placed as a section within the ensemble on the sound stage.\u00a0 In surround sound, spread images can completely immerse the listener or occupy any sized area.<\/p>\n All sounds or groups of sound sources have the potential to be placed in their own individual environments.\u00a0 The qualities of the environment fuse with the sound quality of the sound source to create an overall timbre to the sound, and also to provide the illusion of its placement in a unique physical space.\u00a0 These sonic spaces can have dimensions that are very realistic, and can replicate or imitate actual physical spaces of virtually any type.\u00a0 These created environments can also have sound qualities that defy our natural physics, and these types of environments have been described as \u201cthe appearance of a reality that could not actually exist\u2014a pseudo-reality, created in synthetic space\u201d by Moorefield (2005 p. xv).<\/p>\n Environments can impart a quality of depth, or a front-to-back area to a sound.\u00a0 This however, is not actual distance location\u2014which fixes the \u2018front edge\u2019 of the sound on the sound stage, by the amount of low-energy detail present in the sound source\u2019s timbre (Blauert 1983 p. 118, 123).\u00a0 The characteristics of environmental cues can be reduced to the time, amplitude and frequency anomalies of the reflections of the direct sound in the captured or created environment (Moylan 1986 pp. 9-10).<\/p>\n Sound sources are not placed at unique elevations in two channel or surround recordings, as elevation angles cannot be reproduced by loudspeakers on the same median plane (Borwick 2001 pp. 11-15; Moulton 2000 p. 120).\u00a0 Some conceptualization of perceived elevation related to pitch\/frequency level, an apparent result of head-related transfer function, does exist on a limited basis, but has minimal influence on our perception of elevation and it is processed differently by individuals because of the unique physiology of our outer ears (pinnae) and individuals\u2019 head sizes and shapes (B. Moore 2004 pp. 250-251).\u00a0 Allan Moore\u2019s sound-box representing \u201cvirtual textural space\u201d (2001 p. 121) utilizes vertical placement as one of its four dimensions, where \u201cthe frequency of sound determines its placement on the vertical plane, with higher frequencies perceived to be placed in the upper zone of the sound-box and lower frequencies occupying the lower section\u201d (Dockwray and Moore forthcoming 2010).\u00a0 Gibson (2005) presents a similar concept aligning pitch\/frequency with elevation.\u00a0 It is important to note this is not an element of the actual spatial locations and relationships of sounds, but rather a conceptualization of vertical placement of pitch (representing register), much aligned with the concepts of \u2018pitch density\u2019 and \u2018timbral balance\u2019 (Moylan 2007 pp. 225-229); this element is therefore not incorporated into this exploration of spatial dimensions in recorded music.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n A number of accomplished colleagues are studying the use of space in music recordings; they are making observations and evaluating impacts of space on the music, its expression, and its musical materials.\u00a0 This basic outline of analysis questions, and this rudimentary premise for the initiation of a methodology to understand the content, construction and function of spatial materials are humbly offered to supplement and incorporate the work of these people and to provide some point of reference as we move forward in exploring these elements.<\/p>\n The fundamental questions for evaluating the impact of spatial characteristics in music (music recordings) are broad, encompassing the most far reaching and the subtlest detail.\u00a0 This point of departure for evaluating spatial dimensions centers around the understanding that spatial qualities can be characterized by (1) the qualities of their states or characteristics\u2014as unchanging attributes and dimensions\u2014and by (2) any activity of changing states within any of the spatial dimensions, as exhibited by either individual sources, groups of sources, or by the overall texture.<\/p>\n This approach is also concerned with how spatial qualities can serve to create a context for the piece of music or for musical materials, and how they can to provide enhancement of musical materials or ideas.\u00a0 It can also be extended to the possibility that spatial qualities have the potential to be or to generate musical materials in and of themselves (Tenney 1986 p. 89).\u00a0 It is important to remember that the term \u2018spatial qualities\u2019 refers to all of those outlined in Table 1, and that any of those qualities may be more active or more significant at any point in time (Schaeffer 1983), and at any structural level (micro-level, middle level, or macro-level; small dimension, middle dimension, or large dimension).<\/p>\n Table 2 is a rudimentary outline to begin exploration.<\/p>\n Table 2.\u00a0 Some fundamental questions towards evaluating the spatial qualities of recorded music.<\/p>\n A basic theoretical framework is proposed as the origin of a methodology for the evaluation of space in music recordings.\u00a0 This methodology should incorporate three basic activities: collection of information on the spatial elements, evaluating the content and characteristics of that data, and arriving at conclusions of the states and activities of the spatial elements and their impacts (Moylan 1983).<\/p>\n Timelines will assist in collecting and analyzing data.\u00a0 A one-page large dimension timeline should be created to document the major structural divisions of the piece and their length; data on overall sound dimensions can be added to this in the following stages.\u00a0 A longer middle-dimension timeline with enough space to clearly show changes of distance locations and\/or phantom image locations or of entrances and exists of sound sources will be of great assistance.<\/p>\n Collection. <\/strong> Information on all of the spatial elements (distance, stereo or surround location, environmental characteristics, perceived performance environment, and sound stage dimensions) will be collected, as they exist at the middle and large dimensions; activity in the small dimension will present itself as subtle detail within the middle dimension.<\/p>\n The sound-box (Moore 2001 p. 121) can be used to notate sources for distance and lateral placement.\u00a0 The following sound stage diagram for a two-channel stereo recording can also be used for these purposes.<\/p>\n Figure 3.\u00a0 Stereo sound stage with distance designations.<\/p>\n For surround sound recordings the following diagram can be used.\u00a0 It will also document distance of sound sources from the listener location as well as lateral angle and phantom image sizes and locations.<\/p>\n Figure 4.\u00a0 Surround sound stage with distance circles.<\/p>\n These diagrams will allow the collection of data in sections of time of stable activity.\u00a0 When sources change locations or sizes, or sources exit or enter the texture multiple diagrams or X-Y graphs might be needed.\u00a0 Figure 5 Introduction and one diagram or the first Chorus of \u201cHere Comes the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n Figure 5.\u00a0 \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d from The Beatles\u2019 Abbey Road<\/em>, two sound stage diagrams, measures 1 – 8 and 9 – 13.<\/p>\n An alternative to sound stage or sound-box diagrams is to plot the spatial dimension against a timeline such as the following example:<\/p>\n Figure 6.\u00a0 \u201cA Day in the Life\u201d from The Beatles\u2019 Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band,<\/em> stereo sound location graph, measures 1 \u2013 34 (Moylan 2007 p. 187).<\/p>\n Spectral and time characteristics and dimensions of environments of individual or groups of sound sources, and of the perceived performance environment should be documented.\u00a0 These will nearly always be stable throughout the piece of music, but changes at major structural sections can occur.\u00a0 (Moylan 2007 pp. 176-223)<\/p>\n Evaluation.<\/strong> This is an examination of the data collected to determine the characteristics and usage of the spatial dimensions.\u00a0 The following table forms a rudimentary framework for initial evaluation, knowing each piece of music will be unique in some way and thus will need a flexible set of criteria for evaluation:<\/p>\n Table 3.\u00a0 A rudimentary framework for initial evaluation of spatial dimension characteristics.<\/p>\n Conclusions. <\/strong> This is an examination of the characteristics and usage of the spatial dimensions to identify how they function and contribute to the shape, motion and message of the music.\u00a0 The uniqueness of materials, of usage and functions of spatial dimensions and of the song will become evident and understood here.\u00a0 Pertinent conclusions may rightfully take the form of some, all or none from the following table:<\/p>\n Table 4.\u00a0 Potential topics for conclusions on the functions and usage of spatial dimensions in music recordings.<\/p>\n This section will examine some of the roles of space in music at the level of the individual sound source, or small groups of sound sources.\u00a0 This structural level is also where musical materials (melodies, harmonies, rhythms, etc.) exist in their most complete and immediate forms.<\/p>\n We will examine several different recordings and versions of The Beatles\u2019 \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d to explore the qualities of various spatial elements in the music, and examine their impacts.<\/p>\n Distance is the perceived location of the listener in relation to the music, the sound stage, and\/or to an individual sound source.\u00a0 In creating or capturing a music recording, sounds become placed at a distance to the listener.<\/p>\n The amount of distance can play a significant role in shaping musical impacts and sound characteristics.\u00a0 Its impacts can be manifest in the listener\u2019s connection to the music and the musical material, the immediacy of the musical message, and a sense of context for the sound stage and the musical texture.\u00a0 Most important in terms of distance is the placement of the lead vocal; it establishes a position of the phonographic narrative, \u201cas the aural index of the artist\u2019s persona and represented emotions\u201d (Lacasse 2005).<\/p>\n Some important observations are:<\/p>\n Table 5.\u00a0 Several potential impacts of distance location.<\/p>\n In these ways we can have our perception of the physical presence of the voice and instruments, coupled with their musical materials transformed.\u00a0 The listener can be brought into a physical relationship to the music in a unique way; they can be drawn into becoming part of the \u2018story\u2019 (music) or observing the \u2018story\u2019 (music) from some distance.\u00a0 Either way, the relationship imparts an impact on the musical experience.<\/p>\n Figure 7. Sound source locations, beginning through first chorus of The Beatles\u2019 \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps,\u201d LOVE<\/em> version.<\/p>\n For the LOVE<\/em> version of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d, the distance locations of the George Harrison\u2019s lead vocal and Gibson J-200 guitar pull the listener into an intimate relationship to the musical material and the message of the music.\u00a0 There is a sense of closeness and a strong connection in these parts and, though a bit less so, the solo cello line during the material through the first verse.\u00a0 These are dramatically different from the more detached string parts of the chorus.\u00a0 In the chorus the sound stage changes in width and depth, although the distance locations and relationships of guitar and vocals do not change markedly.\u00a0 Careful attention will reveal subtle changes to the image size and the environmental characteristics of Harrison\u2019s vocal, note: this is not a change of distance location\u2014it is a change of the sound quality of the vocal\u2019s host environment coupled with a broadening of the phantom image.<\/p>\n The original \u2018White Album\u2019 version of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d contains striking differences in the character and placement of the load vocal and the acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n Figure 8. Sound source locations, beginning through Verse 1 of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps,\u201d \u2018White Album\u2019 version.<\/p>\n There is a substantial difference in the distance location of Harrison\u2019s Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar and his lead vocal in comparison to those locations we observed in LOVE<\/em>.\u00a0 They are no longer in the area of proximity that is very close to the listener, within the listener\u2019s personal space (Moylan 2007 pp. 190-191).\u00a0 They are now further away, and more detached from the listener.\u00a0 The listener is now observing the story from an appreciable distance, instead of being intimately connected with Harrison the storyteller.<\/p>\n Do these different qualities of distance bring each version to be communicating something different?\u00a0 Or do they bring each song to communicate the same message differently?\u00a0 Perhaps both are possible when proposed from different perspectives.<\/p>\n It is clear the \u201cpoignant,\u201d \u201cmeditative,\u201d and \u201csomber\u201d version of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d from LOVE<\/em> is profoundly different musically from the \u201craucous, electric\u201d version on the \u2018White Album\u2019 (Hertsgaard 1995 pp. 252-253).<\/p>\n The question remains: just how do the dimensions of distance location and sound source size and location bring the listener to a different relationship to\u2014and understanding of\u2014the music and its message?\u00a0 And how do these factors shape music\u2019s substance?<\/p>\n The answers will be found in an examination of the complete song, with its overall spatial characteristics and the spatial dimensions of the individual sources as they present, shape and\/or propel the musical materials and the song\u2019s expression and message.<\/p>\n The placement of sources along the width of the sound stage brings lateral imaging.\u00a0 Sounds are provided with locations and size.<\/p>\n In the both of the above versions of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d the lead vocal is mixed to the center of the sound stage, but the \u2018White Album\u2019 vocal image is considerably wider.\u00a0 In this way it remains quite prominent in the mix although it is at a greater distance than the LOVE<\/em> version\u2019s mix, and it is also at a lower loudness level.\u00a0 Zak (2001 pp. 156-157) describes the \u201cmultifaceted nature of prominence perception\u201d noting \u201ca sound\u2019s stereo placement cab affect prominence\u201d and \u201cencompasses all of the other parameters of the mix\u201d that allows for this perception.<\/p>\n Consider, these as well: Does the width of the lead vocal in each version contribute in other ways?\u00a0 Does this image width in the White Album version that brings the vocal more prominence also bring it more significance?<\/p>\n Important general observations regarding image size and location would begin with identifying:<\/p>\n This could lead to pertinent observations of image size, using the following table for a beginning.<\/p>\n Table 6.\u00a0 Phantom image size concerns in music recordings.<\/p>\n Table 7.\u00a0 Phantom image location concerns in music recordings.<\/p>\n Table 7 brings fundamental questions regarding location of sources.\u00a0 These two tables explore potential ways imaging can enhance, extend the character, or provide ornamentation to musical ideas.\u00a0 The impacts are potentially profound, and these tables are but a humble starting point for exploration and inquiry.\u00a0 These tables, as well as distance location can be used for blending or fusing sounds (and their musical ideas) with similar treatments, and various degrees of dissimilar treatments can bring various degrees of contrast, distinctiveness, prominence, etc.<\/p>\n Allan Moore offers, \u201cthe most important features of the use of this space [horizontal location, provided by the stereo image] are the types and degrees of density filling it (whether thin strands or blocks), and the presence in this space of \u2018holes\u2019, that is potential areas left unused\u201d (2001 p. 121).\u00a0 The \u2018taxonomy of mixes\u2019 he and Ruth Dockwray are devising holds significant promise to help us recognize and understand more deeply certain \u2018common practices\u2019 that have developed in constructing mixes (forthcoming 2010).<\/p>\n Image location can be extended to be a primary musical idea in itself.\u00a0 Recordings have incorporated \u2018rhythms of locations\u2019 into musical fabrics.\u00a0 In these instances, rhythms are created by the locations of sounds on the sound stage; patterns of locations are presented to the listener, and the repetitions and alterations of these patterns can create musical interest just as the patterns of changing pitches, timbres or harmonies.<\/p>\n Drum solos are common places for rhythms of locations, functioning in parallel with the specific drum and cymbals of the passage; for instance in The Beatles\u2019 \u201cThe End\u201d (from Abbey Road <\/em>1969) the tom drum rhythms are underscored by their separate hard-left and hard-right locations, providing a rhythm of location to the drum solo\u2019s rhythms of time and timbre.\u00a0 In practice this can be extended to repeating the same sound (or different sounds from the same source) and establishing a pattern of soundings from different, specific locations.\u00a0 This as evidenced in the \u2018cash register\u2019 sounds of the surround version of \u201cMoney\u201d by Pink Floyd (from Dark Side of the Moon<\/em> 2003).<\/p>\n Imaging can be used to \u201cenhance the meaning of a song\u201d by contributing to the delivery and depth of message (Katz 2004 pp. 42-43).\u00a0 Katz discusses the opening of \u201cStrawberry Fields Forever\u201d where sounds are placed in unlikely positions relative to the listener and exhibit impossible image sizes to create a \u201cfantastic disposition of sound that persuades us that \u2018nothing is real.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Providing a sound with motion or some level of movement is also found, and functions as a musical gesture in itself or is used to enhance a musical idea.\u00a0 Figure 5 provides diagrams of the sound stages of the first 13 measures of \u201cHere Comes the Sun.\u201d In that figure is a box representing the area of the Moog glissando that moves from left to center at the end of the song\u2019s introduction; the motion of the sound complements and parallels its change of pitch and becomes an integral part of the musical gesture.\u00a0 Figure 6 presents the opening verses of \u201cA Day in the Life\u201d where the lead vocal is given a subtle ornamentation of motion.\u00a0 Over the course of this lengthy section, it very gently moves from the right side of the sound stage to the left, with image width varying slightly along the way.<\/p>\n Music recordings can, and often do, place individual sound sources (or smaller groups of sources) in their own, unique environment or \u2018performance space.\u2019\u00a0 These environments provide changes to the timbre, or sound quality of sound sources, as well as provide the sound sources (and their musical materials) with additional spatial dimensions. (Blaukopf 1971 p. 170)<\/p>\n Environments have their own sound qualities that fuse with the timbre of the original instrument\/voice to create a new timbre.\u00a0 This new timbre may be subtly different from the source without the environment, or substantially transformed.\u00a0 The sound quality of an environment is the result of the spacing in time and the dynamic levels of reflections and by frequency areas or specific frequencies that are accentuated or attenuated by the environment, when a source is sounded.\u00a0 The proportion of direct sound (unaltered by the environment) to the sounding of the source in the environment (reflections and their characteristic frequency response) will determine the extent the sound source will be altered by the environment.<\/p>\n In this way, as the sound qualities of environments fuse with the timbre of the instrument\/voice, they become part of the spectrum (frequency content) of the instrument\/voice, and become incorporated into the timbral balance of overall texture (Moylan 2007 pp. 195-201).\u00a0 The time elements of environment qualities provide the instrument or voice with added spatial character, as they represent the geometry of the host environment of the sound source.<\/p>\n The perceived geometry or the \u2018illusion of physical dimensions\u2019 of sound source environments contributes to the sound quality and adds spatial characteristics.\u00a0 This allows environments the potential to generate reflections (time elements) and sound quality (frequency elements) for the sound source and to use the environment\u2019s sound to (1) provide color (timbre) alterations to the instrument or voice [this is considered under \u2018echo\u2019 and \u2018ambience\u2019 by Zak (2001 pp. 70-85) and under \u2018presence\u2019 by Everett (2009 pp. 339-346)] or to (2) extend size of the sound source image, as occurred to Harrison\u2019s vocal in the LOVE version of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d above.<\/p>\n Table 8 provides some preliminary considerations for evaluating how music is transformed or enhanced by environments.<\/p>\n Table 8.\u00a0 Environment sound qualities and dimensions in music.<\/p>\n The overall texture of the recorded music has a number of dimensions; among these are the spatial aspects of the perceived performance environment and the sound stage.\u00a0 These dimensions will (1) provide a context for the music, and\u00a0 (2) establish a point of reference against which the activities and states of individual sources are measured and understood.<\/p>\n The perceived performance environment is the space within which the song takes place.\u00a0 Its size is the geometry or dimensions of the \u2018performance space\u2019 of the song, and is conceived as a combination of cues from all sources and any applied characteristics. It is static, or unchanging in its dimensions, although its dimensions may gradually show themselves as the song unfolds.\u00a0 This concept can shape the music in meaningful ways.\u00a0 To understand how, we can begin by considering:<\/p>\n Remembering the PPE establishes a context for the music as an overall space within which the listener \u2018hears\u2019 the piece of music as existing.\u00a0 We consider the character of this environment and how it complements or shapes the music.\u00a0 We consider the state of this environment as static and unchanging, or if it changes we consider when and how.<\/p>\n In usage, the perceived performance environment might exist in a number of states.\u00a0 The following ways seem to be most common, and more certainly exist:<\/p>\n Most commonly, and typical of classical and jazz recordings, the qualities of the PPE are static, and do not change.\u00a0 Recordings intended to capture or replicate a \u2018live\u2019 listening experience will have all of the characteristics of the PPE apparent from beginning to end.<\/p>\n In recordings with more manipulated productions the dimensions of the PPE might unfold, being gradually presented to the listener over time, but one single environment exists and does not change.\u00a0 The Beatles\u2019 \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d is one example of such a recording, where instruments and voices are gradually introduced during the course of the song, and provide the listener with an expanding and contracting PPE.\u00a0 A single performance space is evident, but the listener is provided with only portions of the environment until the full instrumentation and breadth of the work arrives after 2 minutes have passed.<\/p>\n Some songs have more than one PPE.\u00a0 This is not common, but this does occur.\u00a0 It may take the form of juxtaposing two or more perceived performance environments as the piece changes from section to section, with striking changes of character.\u00a0 The Beatles\u2019 \u201cA Day in the Life\u201d transports the listener from one PPE to another by way of an orchestral bridge (1:45 to 2:15); Lennon\u2019s first section (0:00 to 1:45) has an overall environment that is substantially different from McCartney\u2019s section (at 2:15).\u00a0 The listener is then brought to a third PPE at 2:50, then at 3:18 abruptly returning to the first perceived performance environment.<\/p>\n It is common usage in recordings with a single PPE to have sources change in distance locations and horizontal location to the listener and size, and still exist within the same overall environment.\u00a0 This often occurs between major sections, with verses having one set of relationships and choruses having another.\u00a0 This is a typical use of the sound stage being used structurally in delivering the message and expression of a song: placing the listener at different perspectives to the musical materials and performers between major sections, while maintaining a consistent point of reference in a single perceived performance environment.<\/p>\n As we learned above, the boundaries of the sound stage (left-right width, front-rear distance) are fluid, and have the potential to change as the work unfolds.\u00a0 Returning to the two versions of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps,\u201d we can recognize that a change in the width and depth of the sound stage occurred in the LOVE<\/em> version as the Introduction, Verse 1 and first Chorus unfolded.\u00a0 The White Album version used the sound stage differently: the sound stage boundaries were established at the very beginning, and created a context within which all of the entering instruments and voices were placed and established their locations.<\/p>\n In considering the sound stage and its relationship to the musical materials, the following Table 9 could serve as an initial point of departure to lead to pertinent evaluations and conclusions:<\/p>\n Table 9.\u00a0 Considerations of the sound stage.<\/p>\n Thus far we have been examining spatial qualities and relationships of two-channel, stereo recordings.\u00a0 With surround sound, there are a number of important potential states that can be very different from stereo recordings.<\/p>\n While all but one of the spatial dimensions discussed above remain conceptually unchanged, how they relate to the listener\u2014and to the listener\u2019s location\u2014can be markedly different.\u00a0 The medium can surround the listener with the sound of the music.\u00a0 This provides potential for a very different experience, with greater flexibility and potentially greater emphasis on the music\u2019s spatial qualities.<\/p>\n The overall spatial elements of the perceived performance environment and the sound stage remain.\u00a0 The PPE has the same dimensions and functions in surround as in stereo recordings.\u00a0 The sound stage in surround has the potential of new dimensions from stereo.<\/p>\n The differences relate to the potential size of the sound stage, potential size of the sound sources, and the listener\u2019s relationship to the sound stage and its sound sources.<\/p>\n The spatial dimensions at the individual sound source level remain the same for distance location and lateral location and image size, with the potential change that sound sources have the potential to be placed anywhere around the listener and have greater size.\u00a0 Environments of individual sources (or groups of sources) have the potential to exist in a very different and unique manner in surround: the fusion of the direct sound with the reverberant sound that always occurs in stereo (and in our real-world experiences) may be altered in surround to place the two entities in different locations (Holman 2008 p.135), providing a very different\u2014and potentially surreal\u2014experience.<\/p>\n The following tables outline the important variables and dimensions of surround sound\u2019s sound stage and phantom images characteristics (Table 10), the unique potential locations of ambiance (Table 11), and the listener\u2019s potential locations and relationships to the sound stage (Table 12):<\/p>\n Table 10.\u00a0 Variables and dimensions of the sound stage and phantom images in surround sound.<\/p>\n Table 11.\u00a0 The potential locations for the placement of ambiance in surround sound recordings.<\/p>\n Table 12.\u00a0\u00a0 The listener\u2019s potential locations and relationships to the sound stage in surround sound recordings.<\/p>\n In surround sound, the listener\u2019s relationship to the sound stage continues to establish a relationship to the music and its communications (expressions\/emotions and meanings).\u00a0 The listener is placed at some distance from the concepts: perhaps intimately close (by very near sound sources of significance), perhaps at a considerable distance.\u00a0 The relationship of the reverberant energy to the listener, and the use of the rear channels can bring the listener to be observing the performance (recording) within an environment they are experiencing but not necessarily occupying, within an environment they occupy, or even by being seated within the ensemble and its sound stage (especially when instruments are located behind the listener and the rear sides).<\/p>\n The distance location of the listener relative to the sound stage can extend from being largely detached from the sound stage, to being very close to the front of the sound stage.\u00a0 These are the same as stereo recordings.\u00a0 What is strikingly different about surround is that it is possible to place the listener within the sound stage, which will provide a very different presentation of the music to the listener.\u00a0 Phil Ramone (2007. p. 254) shares his approach to mixing a surround sound recording of Elton John\u2019s Radio City Music Hall concert in June of 2004:<\/p>\n \u201cThe beauty of mixing . . . in 5.1 surround sound is that it allows us to purposefully design the mix to make the listener feel as though they\u2019re sitting in a certain spot in the venue.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s cool to bring the listener onto the stage, giving them the sense that he or she is standing right next to Elton [John] and his piano.\u00a0 There\u2019s something about that close proximity that allows for a lot of detail to be heard\u2014detail that you would never<\/em> hear if you were watching the concert in a big arena.\u201d<\/p>\n Location in surround continues to include the size and lateral location of images, with the concepts discussed above.\u00a0 Obviously, with surround sound the size of the sound stage can be extended considerably, as the boundaries can be pushed to surround the listener, and the size of images can also be extended to any size up to 360\u00b0 around the listener \u00a0(though difficult in production practice, conceptually this is possible).\u00a0 How the size of the images and locations of the images interrelate with the associated size and locations of the musical materials presented above factor equally in surround.<\/p>\n The separation of sound sources (and their musical materials) and their host environments is possible, and is potentially important.\u00a0 The location and size of ambiance\/environment sound can significantly transform the significance, prominence, character and\/or sound qualities of sound sources and their musical ideas.\u00a0 This must be factored into an examination of how spatial properties enhance, transform or present music.\u00a0 Figure 9 depicts the surround lateral locations of the Lowry organ, tamboura and John Lennon\u2019s vocal from \u201cLucy in the Sky With Diamonds (from Yellow Submarine<\/em> 1999); the placement of the vocal\u2019s ambiance away from the direct sound image is represented by the density of dots.<\/p>\n Figure 9.\u00a0\u00a0 Surround image placements from The Beatles\u2019 \u201cLucy in the Sky With Diamonds\u201d (from Yellow Submarine<\/em> 1999) (Moylan 2007 p. 237).<\/p>\n Figures 10 through 15 provide illustrations of the changing sound stage for the surround sound mix of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d from LOVE<\/em>.\u00a0 Listening to the music recording on an accurate surround sound system will provide an experience substantially different from the two-channel, stereo version discussed above.<\/p>\n The musical parts are spaced further apart in the surround mix, and given more room and less competition\u2014and in some ways less connection to one another.\u00a0 The dimensions of the sound stage evolve as the music progresses, with the listener gradually becoming more and more immersed in the music of the song, as they are further and further enveloped by the sound stage and the sound sources\/musical materials; still, the sound stage does not fully envelope or immerse the listener with instruments or voices from the rear, and a certain degree of observation (and detachment) is maintained. \u00a0Differences in distance locations and lateral locations and image sizes are also evident and significant.<\/p>\n Figure 10.\u00a0 Surround Sound mix of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d from The Beatles\u2019 LOVE<\/em>, measures 1 \u2013 8.<\/p>\n Figure 11.\u00a0 Surround Sound mix of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d from The Beatles\u2019 LOVE<\/em>, measures 9 \u2013 24.<\/p>\n Figure 12.\u00a0 Surround Sound mix of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d from The Beatles\u2019 LOVE<\/em>, measures 25 \u2013 40.<\/p>\n Figure 13.\u00a0 Surround Sound mix of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d from The Beatles\u2019 LOVE<\/em>, measures 41 \u2013 48.<\/p>\n Figure 14.\u00a0 Surround Sound mix of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d from The Beatles\u2019 LOVE<\/em>, measures 49 \u2013 56.<\/p>\n Figure 15.\u00a0 Surround Sound mix of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d from The Beatles\u2019 LOVE<\/em>, measures 57 \u2013 72.<\/p>\n Consider: How are these spatial differences between the stereo and surround mixes significant musically?\u00a0 Do these changes in spatial quality communicate something different (change of the concept of the song or its meaning or its substance)?\u00a0 Do these changes in spatial quality bring the materials and their presentations to merely communicate the same substance differently (change the quality of the material as ornamentation, but not alter its substance)?<\/p>\n An elegant and eloquent correlation has been drawn between the use of space in the LOVE<\/em> versions and the White Album version of \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d and the \u2018Explorations in Visual and Acoustics Space\u2019 of McLuhan and Powers (1989 pp. 62-63):<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a matter of the experience of time and space.\u00a0 A Westerner, for example, arranges flowers in<\/em> space; the Chinese and the Japanese harmonize the space between<\/em> the flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n This observation of the West concept to the White Album contrasting with the Eastern character of the LOVE<\/em> versions was graciously provided by Thomas MacFarlane during the Question and Answer session following the delivery of this paper on November 15, 2008.\u00a0 This is a very pertinent way of interpreting space and the relationships of sources differently, depending on the context and character of the music\u2014those intangibles that are often so difficult to incorporate into music analysis and understanding.<\/p>\n This is the beginning of a search for a greater understanding, and not intended to offer an overview of practice, or a theory of principles.\u00a0 It has been offered to establish a framework and to start a context for inquiry and for discovery of how space functions in recorded music.<\/p>\n Spatial qualities of recordings are potentially striking, and their sonic significance is undeniable.\u00a0 These spatial qualities can become an integral part of the composition or add important characteristics of many types.\u00a0 They can:<\/p>\n The underlying questions remain:\u00a0 How do we define the activities and states of spatial qualities as musical materials (concepts) or as ornamental embellishments within the musical texture?\u00a0 How do we calculate their impact on the music, their functions and significance?<\/p>\n My appreciation and thanks to Simon Zagorski-Thomas for having the forethought and tenacity to make this organization, journal, and series of annual conferences a vital community.<\/p>\n Thanks and gratitude to Thom MacFarlane for reaching out to me in offering a significant insight into differing cultural and aesthetic perspectives on space and the placement of sounds\/objects in space\/between spaces.<\/p>\n Deep respect and thanks to Allan Moore for sharing his prepublication manuscripts with me, and for his significant research and scholarship in the areas surrounding this paper, and so very much more related to the music of our times and its origins.<\/p>\n To my colleagues from near and from far who attended and participated in ARP08: thank you for making the conference a rewarding experience for my University of Massachusetts Lowell colleagues and students, and for me.<\/p>\n |