Immersive Audio Formats

The last years have  seen a trend to higher channel orders. The currently established surround format has now been expanded with height channels to formats such as Auro3D und Dolby Atmos. The newest multichannel setups have up to 22 speakers in a sphere around the listener.

These new formats offer a huge potential for recordings. On the one hand, they can be used to perfectly capture a beautiful sounding room such as a church and offer a listening experience that is as authentic as it can get. On the other hand,  these technologies may be used to create an entirely new art form and stage a performance by acoustically placing the listener in the center of the ensemble, which would be impossible in real life. In this situation, instruments can either be static or moving in space. This may be especially interesting for contemporary music.