Height Layer Comparison (2024)

Co-Principal Investigator, Author, Audio Engineer

Most immersive microphone arrays assume reasonably sized point sources, especially concerning the placement of height microphones. However, the pipe organ is not often considered a reasonably sized point source. In turn, the established practices related to height microphone layer placement become unreliable in capturing a pipe organ performance for multichannel formats. The impact of height microphone layer position on perceived realism of a pipe organ recording is explored.

This publication (presented at the 157th Audio Engineering Society Convention) may be found here.

A Dolby Atmos binaural rendering of this recording is provided here, but a more in-depth comparison tool (uncompressed, including different binaural renderers and the ability to toggle between height microphone layer positions) may be found here.