The transfer of multichannel spatialization schemes from the studio to the concert hall presents numerous challenges to the contemporary spatial music composer or engineer. The presence of a reverberant listening environment coupled with a distributed audience are significant factors in the presentation of multichannel spatial music. This paper presents a review of the existing research on the localization performance of various spatialization techniques and their ability to cater for a distributed audience. As the firststep in a major comparative study of such techniques, the results of listening tests for monophonic source localization for a distributed audience in a reverberant space are presented. These results provide a measure of the best possible performance that can be expected from any spatialization technique under similar conditions. Keywords: Sound localization, distributed audience, spatial music.

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In this paper, we present a framework for recording real musical auditory scenes for interactive virtual acoustic reproduction over headphones. The framework considers the parameterization of real-world soundfields and subsequent real-time auralization using a hybrid image source method/measurement-based auralization approach. First Order (FOA) and Higher Order (HOA) Ambisonics are utilized together in a single system to provide an optimized and psychoacoustically justified framework.

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Timbre is a crucial element of believable and natural binaural synthesis. This paper presents a method for diffuse-field equalisation of first-order Ambisonic binaural rendering, aiming to address the timbral disparity that exists between Ambisonic rendering and head related transfer function (HRTF) convolution, as well as between different Ambisonic loudspeaker configurations. The presented work is then evaluated through listening tests, and results indicate diffuse-field equalisation is effective in improving timbral consistency.

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