Research in spatial audio has traditionally focused on localization accuracy, spatial realism, and rendering algorithms. Comparatively little work has examined how intentionally designed spatial audio environments may influence listener physiological regulation and emotional perception. This paper introduces the concept of Social Sonic Design, a framework that examines how spatially organized sonic information within and external to XR contexts may affect autonomic nervous system response and autobiographical memory. Spatial audio cues such as proximity, elevation, and diffuse reverberation influence listener perception of environmental stability and safety. Building on these perceptual principles, the present study investigates whether object-based audio environments incorporating temporally structured and personally meaningful sound materials can influence listener physiological state. Spatial audio infrastructures were constructed from lullabies, caregiving vocalizations, and environmental sonic textures. Postpartum mothers were selected as an initial participant group because caregiving sound environments and lullaby traditions play a central role in maternal–infant interaction and emotional regulation. Immersive sonic infrastructures were produced using spatial audio capture and design techniques including Dolby Atmos multichannel rendering (7.1.2) and binaural headphone reproduction. Sound sources were modified to activate three targeted neuro-cognitive nodes and spatially distributed across the listening environment to create immersive auditory scenes incorporating foreground vocal sources, diffuse environmental textures, and spatialized reverberant fields. Participants experienced these environments in brief episodic listening sessions accompanied by visual media. The episodic presentation structure draws inspiration from media models such as those developed by Miguel Sabido, in which repeated exposure to idealized sensory environments may influence perception and behavioral response over time. Physiological responses were monitored using measures associated with autonomic nervous system activity, including heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), alongside reports of perceived calm, emotional response, and autobiographical memory recall. Preliminary observations suggest that the sonic infrastructure of immersive lullaby environments evokes caregiving memories and perceived emotional grounding among participants, indicating that spatially designed sonic environments may contribute to changes in listener perception and physiological regulation.
This case study examines the Witness Blanket VR Experience to explore how Indigenous‑led immersive audio production can support the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in virtual environments. Grounded in Indigenous epistemologies of listening, the study draws on participatory sound collection, documentation of the audio production workflow, and subjective evaluation through community‑engaged events. Results demonstrate how spatial audio and culturally grounded production protocols can enable relational storytelling, ethical engagement, and protocol‑informed VR design.
This paper presents an exploratory mixed reality prototype investigating how low-cost spatial audio and XR technologies may already enable partially believable augmented reality experiences. Rather than pursuing maximal realism across all modalities, the project relied on selective auditory realism, intentionally degraded sounds and visuals, and progressive perceptual trust building in order to create plausible auditory events within a mixed reality environment. Participants were introduced to a fictional experimental protocol progressively constructing increasingly dense auditory reconstruction around them. At the end of the experience, all virtual reconstructions abruptly disappeared, leaving participants alone in the now silent physical room, revealing the extent to which virtual events had progressively contaminated their perception of reality. Qualitative observations suggest that coherent multimodal staging and expectation shaping play an important role in perceptual acceptance alongside rendering realism itself. Beyond the presented prototype, the project highlights how current XR and spatial audio tools already enable new forms of immersive narrative experiences based on persistent ambiguity between reality and virtual reconstruction.
We present Music of the Spheres (MOTS), an immersive virtual reality (VR) sequencer that integrates natural interaction with hybrid spatial audio reproduction for music composition and performance. MOTS enables users to create and manipulate sound objects arranged in a 3D step sequencer surrounding the user. Using hand gestures, users can instantiate, position, and remove sounds, simultaneously composing both temporal and spatial musical structures. The system combines binaural reproduction for private preview in the headset and Ambisonic loudspeaker reproduction for shared listening in audience-oriented experiences. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of MOTS and highlight design considerations for intuitive musical interfaces that are uniquely crafted for VR. We also present the results of a survey of 27 participants at a public exhibition, which indicate positive responses in terms of immersion and usability, as well as a coherent spatial audio experience across the hybrid reproduction system. Finally, we outline future directions, including expanded controls, collaborative functionality, and improved spatial audio rendering.
Audio Definition Model (ADM) metadata is central to contemporary object-based audio production and sits at the core of Dolby Atmos workflows. Yet in open research, rapid prototyping, immersive media development, and playback on irregular loudspeaker arrays, Atmos-derived material remains difficult to inspect, translate, and deploy without relying on proprietary tooling. This creates a persistent gap between the spatial audio formats used in industry and the open systems available to researchers, developers, and immersive venues. This paper presents CULT DSP, an open-source spatial audio toolchain designed to address that gap by separating transcoding, scene exchange, playback, and authoring into distinct but interoperable roles. CULT ingests spatial audio exports, extracts and normalizes scene metadata, and exports it for later use; in the authoring direction, the same module packages LUSID scene data and mono stems back into ADM/BWF output. LUSID provides a stable scene and package structure shared across the stack. Spatial Root is a layout-agnostic playback engine for real-time and offline rendering on custom loudspeaker arrays. Its EngineSession API exposes the runtime as a C++ interface used by the GUI, CLI, and external host applications. Four implementation projects extend the toolchain: Spatial Seed uses CULT and LUSID for procedural authoring from stems; LUSIDstreamer treats LUSID frames as lightweight scene-state packets; immersive-allo-root embeds Spatial Root in an AlloLib audiovisual application; and ue-root prototypes a game-engine-facing host path. Together, they show how Atmos-derived metadata can be reused for playback, authoring, inspection, and immersive media development rather than used only for final delivery.
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.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being integrated into professional audio production workflows, yet a gap persists between the tools developers produce and the requirements of practising sound designers. This paper investigates this gap through a mixed-methods study comprising a survey of 76 practitioners and follow-up semi-structured interviews with 20 industry professionals. Results were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis and thematic analysis to identify patterns across both datasets. Five themes emerged from our analysis: Context, Workflow, Potential, Risks, and Right Use. Our work indicates that current AI tools perform adequately in fast-consumption media contexts but lack the narrative sophistication required for high-end sound design (films,immersive experiences etc). Practitioners demonstrate a preference for assistive, task-specific applications, particularly in audio restoration and library management, over end-to-end generative systems. This work contributes to the on-going discussion on the use of AI and AI-enhanced tools in the creative industries. We report on the current status of the field from the point of view of sound designers and creative audio practitioners, and offer a set of recommendation for sound technologist and developers based on our findings to guide the development of more informed AI tools for sound design.
Spatial audio in extended reality (XR) has traditionally been framed as a localization tool, guiding users toward discrete virtual objects or events. This paper reframes this object-centered paradigm by presenting audio formgiving, an approach in which sound defines continuous zones demarcated by boundaries that users encounter through embodied movement. We present a mixed-reality study that investigates how participants perceive, reconstruct, and navigate such sound zones. We report our findings on reconstruction accuracy and boundary ambiguities across different sound zone shapes and sizes, and how movement trajectories relate to zone recognition, as well as participants’ strategies for navigating and identifying different types of sound zones.
