Despite significant advances in the development and adoption of spatial audio, many musicians do not embed the technology within their creative processes. Instead, spatial audio technologies are more often used to create immersive adaptations of fundamentally frontal compositions or performances. This paper presents and evaluates a means of spatial music making, referred to as the immersive drum circle. The system facilitates group performance and composition, in which participants stand in a circle and perform on electronic percussion pads, with sound spatialised so that the listener experiences the music as if positioned within the ensemble. The system’s design is presented alongside implementation details, as well as feedback from musicians obtained as part of an educational workshop which aimed to inform how spatial audio can be used creatively in music. In addition to interacting with the system, participants auditioned the resulting spatial music across three playback scenarios representing: gaming, tracked and non-tracked headphone-based music consumption, and a live concert environment. The results show that the immersive drum circle system is a viable tool for music creation and a practical means of inspiring future compositional techniques.
