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WONDER - a software interface for the application of Wave Field
Synthesis in electronic music and interactive sound installations
M.A.J. Baalman, M.Sc.
Electronic Studio, Communication Sciences,
University of Technology, Berlin, Germany
email. marij@baalt.nl
Abstract
Wave Field Synthesis is a novel technique for sound
spatialisation. To make the technique usable for
composers and sound artists, work has been done on
creating an interface software to work with the
technique. The program consists of a composition
tool, a grid specification tool and a play function.
The program is controllable via OpenSoundControl,
making it possible to control the system from most
commonly used programs for composition or live
performance.
1 Introduction
Wave Field Synthesis is a novel technique for
sound spatialisation, that overcomes the main
shortcoming of other spatialisation techniques, as
there is a large listening area and no "sweet spot". In
the paper presented last year (Baalman 2003), the
first experiences for application of the technique in
electronic music were described. In the present
paper, the further development of the project is
described as well as some work in progress for
application of the technique in sound installations.
A short, comprehensive explanation of the
technique is given, a description of the system used
in the project at the TU Berlin and the interface
software, followed by a description of the sound
installations that are in the process of being made.
2 Wave Field Synthesis
The concept of Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) is
based on a principle that was thought of in the 17th
century by the Dutch physicist Huygens (1690)
about the propagation of waves. He stated that when
you have a wavefront, you can synthesize the next
wavefront by imagining on the wavefront an infinite
number of small sources, whose waves will together
form the next wavefront (figure 1).
Based on this principle, Berkhout (1988)
introduced the wave field synthesis principle in
acoustics.
By using a discrete, linear array of loudspeakers
(figure 2), one can synthesize correct wavefronts in
the horizontal plane (Berkhout, De Vries and Vogel
1993). For a complete mathematical treatment is
Daniel Plewe
Electronic Studio, Communication Sciences,
University of Technology, Berlin, Germany
email: d Jpl@gmx.de
Figure 1. The Huygens' Principle
7!
Figure 2. The Wave Field Synthesis principle
referred to Berkhout (1988, 1993) and various other
papers and theses from the TU Delft1.
An interesting feature is that it is also possible to
synthesize a sound source in front of the speakers
(Jansen 1997), something which is not possible with
other techniques.
1Sound Control Group, TU Delft,
http://www.soundcontrol.tudelft.nl
Proceedings ICMC 2004
