Blauert's Bands

  • 2025-05-16
  • One-minute read

Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology / (ICST) Zurich University of the Arts

Blauert’s Bands

What this tutorial covers How to use Blauert's Bands (frequency-dependent directional perception) to enhance front/back and height perception in Ambisonics — by coupling the ICST Encoder's Y and Z axes to the IEM MultiEQ via OSC.

For the voice and its directivity perception I conducted experiments with the Blauert’s Bands.

Ritungsbänder

Thus I coupled Y Front ↔ Back and Z Top ↔ Bottom with the IEM-Multifilter.

RichtungsWahrnehmung

OSC Routing

Height (Z-Axis → IEM MultiEQ)

OSC OUT · Port 8008
ICST Encoder OSC-Out Height → /MultiEQ/filterGain4 {sz, -5.3, 0.0, 5.3}
OSC IN · Port 8008
Z → IEM MultiEQ: /MultiEQ/filterGain4 (Float)

Front/Back (Y-Axis → IEM MultiEQ)

OSC OUT · Port 8008
ICST Encoder OSC-Out Front → /MultiEQ/filterGain4 {sz, -5.3, 0.0, 5.3}

OSC Connection

IEM MultiEQ — Frequency Bands

Height (8 kHz boost) Height8000

Front Front

Back Back

Workflow Steps

1
How can I make the presence of the front/back and the feeling of highs and lows more audible?
2
Create OSC communication between Encoder (Y, Z axes) and IEM MultiEQ (Blauert's Bands).
3
Set up a Mono-Encoder FX-Chain "Blauert's Bands-Ambi".
perceptionpsychoacousticsbinauraltheory