This summer, Alt-J will make proper music history. Their recently announced show at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium on June 15 will be the first gig on the continent, and quite possibly the first in the world, to use immersive hyperrealism technology – “clever computer stuff,” as keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton puts it – that’ll make the gig sound like it’s optimised specifically for you, wherever you’re standing in the venue. NME flagged down Gus and sound expert Sherif El Barbari – director of Alt-J’s tech pals L-ISA Labs – to explain exactly what it is and why it’ll sound so awesome. Read more at http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/alt-j-forest-hills-stadium-new-york-immersive-sound-2249446#YURxqjLIe7oP7i6Y.99
So before this article I had no idea that alt-J’s immersive sound show was the first time a rock band has tried to do anything like this! I’m fascinated. I wish I could go! Check out these highlights from the interview with Gus and sound expert Sherif El Barbari :
“Using our intuitive hardware and software tools, the mix engineer can then place and manipulate any sound object anywhere within the visual panorama and our L-ISA processor determines how to send the appropriate audio to the appropriate arrays. The end result is that for the majority of the audience, all sounds come from where they are seen – which better connects the audience and the artists. And by not sending all sounds to the same sources, the instruments and vocals are not fighting one another for space. They all have physical space in the mix. Overall – the result is lower distortion, greater consistency, a much wider audio panorama and correct localization between the audio and the visual.”
In short: if you’re going to this show, I’m super jealous of you!
“And will you tour with it, if it goes well?
Gus: “The band is never able to know exactly what’s going on but I think the plan is to road-test it at this New York show and if it goes well, hopefully do it elsewhere.”
PLEASE let it go well!
“The sound effects in your music are incredibly detailed, particularly on the new album. Will they be part of the experience?
Gus: “That’s the plan. That’s really why we think it’ll work so well for our music because we do love using sound effects and samples. We’re going into a sound stage to analyse all three of our albums and figure out which sounds we want to mess around with so that we can find those wicked noises that might be hidden in the tracks, pull them out, amplify them and start to do some fun things with them.”
I think if I heard the “YYEAHH” sample from AAW Intro/Deadcrush in audio quality this good I’d cry.
