Octophonic sound is a form of
audio reproduction that presents eight discrete
audio channels using eight
speakers. For playback, the speakers may be positioned in a circle around the listeners or in any other configuration.
Typical speaker configurations are eight spaced on a circle by 45° (oriented with first speaker 0° or at 22.5°), or the vertices of a cube to create a double quadraphonic set-up with elevation. In reference to his own work,
Karlheinz Stockhausen made a distinction between these two forms, reserving the term "octophonic" for a cube configuration, as found in his ''
Oktophonie
(Octophony) is a 1991 octophonic electronic-music composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen. A component layer of act 2 of the opera , it may also be performed as an independent composition. It has a duration of 69 minutes.
Function in ''Dienstag' ...
'' and the electronic music for scene 2 and the Farewell of ''
Mittwoch aus Licht'', and using the expression "eight-channel sound" for the circular arrangement, as used in ''
Sirius'', ''
Unsichtbare Chöre
''Unsichtbare Chöre'' (Invisible Choirs) is an eight-channel electronic-music composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen. A component part of the opera ''Donnerstag aus Licht'', it may also be performed as an independent composition, in which form it ...
'', or Hours 13 to 21 of the ''
Klang'' cycle. While
quadraphonic sound
Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...
uses four speakers positioned in a square at the four corners of the listening space (either on the ground or raised above the listeners), this cubical kind of octophonic
spatialization
Spatialization (or spatialisation) is the spatial forms that social activities and material things, phenomena or processes take on in geography, sociology, urban planning and cultural studies. Generally the term refers to an overall sense of soc ...
offers both horizontal and vertical sound spatialization, meaning listeners get a sense of height. In order for such movement in space to be heard, it is necessary that
rhythms be slow, and
pitches change mainly in small
steps
Step(s) or STEP may refer to:
Common meanings
* Steps, making a staircase
* Walking
* Dance move
* Military step, or march
** Marching
Arts Films and television
* ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong
* ''Step'' (film), US, 2017
Literature
* ...
or in
glissando
In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a glide from one pitch to another (). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is distinguished from the co ...
s.
Some notable composers who have worked with octophonic spatialisation include Karlheinz Stockhausen,
Jonathan Harvey,
Gérard Pape, and
Larry Austin
Larry Don Austin (September 12, 1930 – December 30, 2018) was an American composer noted for his electronic and computer music works. He was a co-founder and editor of the avant-garde music periodical '' Source: Music of the Avant Garde''. Austin ...
. The first known octophonic (that is, eight-channel) electronic music was
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
's ''
Williams Mix'' (1951–53) for eight separate simultaneously played back quarter-inch magnetic tapes. Austin later made a surround-sound octophonic mix of ''Williams Mix'', ''Williams (re)Mix
d' (1997–2000), using the score and different sound sources. This version is intended to be played back on eight speakers surrounding the audience in a 360° circle, using (unlike Cage's original version) stereo source recordings heard in adjacent speaker pairs. Octophonic sound (in the general sense of eight-channel playback) was stimulated primarily by "the equal coverage it provides to all listening angles" and also by the precedence of eight-channel (initially tape) sound and subsequent ease of playback.
See also
*
Height channels
References
Cited sources
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{{Music technology
Sound production technology
Spatial music