Hi there.

Its going to be a bit of a long post this one so here goes.

I have been checking out Panorama i and i have got to say it is a very nice plug
but i am a bit confused as in how to use it for my specific purpose, this is what i want to do…..

I want to mix down songs uesing headphones with the pamorama plug on the main output bus.
to make it seem as though the song(s) have been mixed uesing speakers (to get the best sounding mix posible)
The main problem i am having is not knowing where to place the sound source, and weather or not to use the reverb or just the direct
sound.

Ok this is what i have got so far, if you could fill in the blanks and help me out a little that would be great :-

TO SIMULATE MIXING ON SPEAKERS:-

cartesian

X - ?                                         
                                             
Y - ?  { Would i have the source placed directly on top of the head, }
        { or placed so my feet in front? }                   
Z - ?                                         

Out put - Head phones

HRTF - my choise (more on this later)

Units feet or meaters - my choise

Width - ?

Direct - on

Reflection - ?

Reverb - ?

Then after the song is mixed down turn off panorama and export the mixed song.

Now about the HRTF, how to choose the best HRTF model for my head :-

What exactly am i listening for with the HRTF’s the most natural sound, the one with the most space, etc,etc.
Could you please suggest some test material to help me calibrate the best HRTF for my head?.

For E.G

Import mono test tone one
set the panorama controls to, this,this and this.
now go through the HRTF models and listen for….E.g the one that sound most???
Now import test tone two
go through the HRTF models and and listen for???
now you have the best HRTF modelfor your head/ears.

Or mabey post some test tones and a tutorial on your web site?

phew, told you it was going to be a long post!

Any help on the above will be greatly appreciated.

Many thanx

Homer

Hi Homer,

To simulate stereo speakers, you want to configure Panorama with stereo virtual sources at +/- 30 degrees. The easiest way to do this is to place the source location directly in front (x = 0 ft, y = 6 ft, z = 0 ft) and then set a 30 degree width on the width parameter. This will put the left channel through a virtual source at -30 degrees and the right channel through a virtual source at +30 degrees. The virtual sources are depicted in the display using semi-transparent speakers with L and R labels.

Now set output mode to headphones, select an HRTF set that sounds good to you (i.e. realistically in front with natural timbre), and then set up room reflections and reverb to suite. Personally I would turn off the early reflections and use just the late diffuse reverberation with a fairly small room size, say 50%, and short reverb time, say 1 to 1.5 sec, with just enough level to be audible and to give a sense of spaciousness and room ambience without begin objectionably “wet”. I would use a very dry source for setting up your virtual listening room - perhaps you have some raw close miced vocal recordings that have no reverb on them - that would be perfect. This way you can clearly hear the reverb of your virtual listening space. When you switch to productions it will likely be the case that the reverb in your productions overwhelms the reverb in your virtual listening space - but this is OK. The reverb in your virtual listening space should only be audible when using very dry material.

Hope this helps,

Bill

Hi billg

Thanks very much for the reply i really appreciate it, i didn’t think anyone was gona answer!

i have pamorama set up as you suggest, and it seems fine, the only problem i am haveing now is trying to dicide which HRTF sound best to me, i have to say there all sound pretty good to my ears!.

Cheers

Homer

Hi Homer,

I’ve studied the MIT KEMAR set fairly extensively (I measured them) and I’ve determined that they are very poor at producing frontally localized sounds over headphones, that is, most listeners tend to perceive the frontally located sounds as coming from the rear rather than the front. I would avoid the KEMAR set for headphone use.

Bill