Uploaded February 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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http://ruipenha.pt/
electricspring.co.uk
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cerenem/projects/creativecodinglab

Presented as part of the Electric Spring, Max/MSP Power Users Symposium 2013

Rui Penha discusses the use of Max in his creative practice, a talk given as part of the Max Power Users Symposium at the 2013 Electric Spring festival of electronic music, held at the University of Huddersfield.

Sound is always in space, in the sense that “there is no non-spatial hearing” [Jens Blauert], and the experimental placement of sounds in space as a musical parameter is something that dates back to at least the 16th century. Nevertheless, the intentional control of sound spatialization is undoubtedly amongst the most important conquests of electroacoustic music. It is thus without surprise that a survey of recent research — or even just a quick search online — reveals the existence of many tools for sound spatialization, either commercial or freely available, and several composers developing their own custom solutions for specific pieces. In this symposium, I will be presenting Spatium: a set of free, open source and modular software tools for sound spatialization that aims to bring (yet) another contribution to this field. I'll also discuss some of the options considered during its development, including a perspective over the history of sound spatialization. Spatium is comprised of two spatialization renderers, ten spatialization interfaces , two Audio Unit plugins and three Max objects and it is available for MacOs X. Both the software and its source are available for download at http://spatium.ruipenha.pt, were one can also find video tutorials and musical examples.