One of the most important tasks in audio production is to place sound sources across the stereo field so as to reduce masking and immerse the listener within the space. This process of panning sources of a multitrack recording to achieve spatialization and masking minimization is a challenging optimization problem, mainly because of the complexity of auditory perception. We propose a novel panning system that makes use of a common framework for spectral decomposition, masking detection, multitrack sub-grouping and frequency-based spreading. It creates a well spatialized mix with increased clarity while complying to the best panning practices. Both real-time and offline optimization-based approaches are designed and implemented. We investigate the reduction of inter-track auditory masking using the MPEG psychoacoustic model along with various other masking and spatialization metrics extended for multitrack content. Subjective and objective tests compare the proposed work against mixes by professional sound engineers and existing auto-mix systems.

Authors: Tom, Ajin; Reiss, Joshua D.; Depalle, Philippe
Affiliations: McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Queen Mary University of London, London, UK(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 146 (March 2019) Paper Number: 10178
Publication Date: March 10, 2019
Subject: DSP: Part 1

Click to purchase paper as a non-member or you can login as an AES member to see more options.

No AES members have commented on this paper yet.

Subscribe to this discussion

To be notified of new comments on this paper you can subscribe to this RSS feed. Forum users should login to see additional options.

Start a discussion!

If you would like to start a discussion about this paper and are an AES member then you can login here:
Username:
Password:

If you are not yet an AES member and have something important to say about this paper then we urge you to join the AES today and make your voice heard. You can join online today by clicking here.