At JIM26 in Lille, Arnau Gran i Romero proposed a demonstration of a spatial synthesizer he is developing as part of his PhD thesis. This synthesizer is based on a spectral reformulation of 2D ambisonics introduced in the AES paper “Exploring 2D Ambisonics by Amplitudes and Phases” (Bonardi et al., 2026).
This reformulation describes the sound field in terms of amplitudes and phases, by analogy with harmonic sound synthesis. It provides a unified framework in which common spatial operations are reduced to convolutions, while paving the way for continuous distortions of the field, allowing for a gradual transition between a point source and a diffuse field.
The tool translates this model into a synthesis environment whose distinctive feature is that it separates the generation of the space from that of the source: the space itself is synthesized, to which pre-existing sounds are then applied. It embodies the Faust library currently being developed by the G3S team around this reformulation, within an environment more geared toward composition. The tool prioritizes musical understanding through in-depth work on the perception of processing modules, presented to the user via more intuitive controls and a clearer representation of space. 