The sound of electronic music has spread like this.

The sound diffusion system of electronic music is an important part of the live performance of electronic music. The development history of electronic music live sound diffusion system is complicated. Here, we focus on enumerating and analyzing the three most representative systems in history, such as Acousmonium, Octaphonic and BEAST.

Acousmonium

Also known as the "Speaker Orchestra", Acousmonium is a sound diffusing system designed by Francoise Bayle in 1974 and introduced by GRM (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 The first electronic concert scene using the Acousmonium system at the Saint Severin Church in 1974

The initial Acousmonium system reached a massive scale consisting of 80 speakers of different sizes and models, initially using tape to reproduce sound (see Figure 2). The configuration of the speakers varies greatly depending on the composer's aesthetic and work. Its sound spread is achieved through a mixer-type interface, along with fader control. A large number of different characteristics of the speaker through a fader corresponding to a speaker for sound diffusion control is quite complicated, so Acousmonium can also be set to an input signal routing to multiple speakers, thus achieving a more fader control The function of the overall amplitude of the speakers.

Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the Acousmonium sound diffusion system first used in 1974

The most notable feature of the system is the use of asymmetric speaker arrays, while other similar systems prefer a strictly symmetrical layout. Compared with other systems, Acousmonium has more flexibility, so it is still widely used. INA-GRM uses this system for live music performances (see Figure 3). The scenes of previous Beijing International Electronic Music Festival are also used frequently. This sound diffusion system.

Figure 3 Paris Saint Germain electronic concert scene using the Acousmonium sound diffusion system in 2015

Octaphonic

Octaphonic, also known as the eight-channel system, is a sound-diffusion system that replays eight discrete-channel audio signals with eight speakers. Octaphonic's original design philosophy was to achieve equivalent sound coverage in different directions, with eight channels of speakers distributed in different orientations on a circle. The eight-channel system has grown and developed over the next few years. Many famous electronic music works have been created and performed under this system, and today they are still favored by many electronic music composers. For example, when BEAST and Jonty Harrison, director of electroacoustic music studio, played the eight-channel tape "Streams" at an electronic concert, the "Main Eight" speakers were often configured as a sound diffusion system called BEAST ( See Figure 4). The biggest feature of this configuration is the ability to effectively build a stereo image for the viewer. See the BEAST introduction below for details.

Figure 4 BEAST main Eight speaker configuration

Scott A. Wyatt, former chairman of the Electroacoustic Music Society, director of experimental music studios at the University of Illinois, and professor of music creation, also pointed out that in addition to the BEAST main eight-channel configuration, the eight-channel system has two layouts: the first is the speaker. The circular eight-channel speaker array forms a circle around the listener, and the other is a rectangular eight-channel speaker array that forms a rectangular array. The biggest advantage of the circular eight-channel speaker array (see Figure 5) is that for a mono sound source, it is possible to control which speaker is used to construct the sound image by simply controlling the sound image potentiometer without worrying about the stereo image. problem.

Figure 5 Circular eight-channel speaker array proposed by Scott A. Wyatt

The rectangular eight-channel speaker array (see Figure 6) uses a "stereo + fill" playback format. The front, side and rear are stereo pairs, and the front and rear center speakers are used to fill the sound. In this arrangement, the sound image of the mono signal can be moved in a circular manner, and the stereo image can be moved from the front to the rear. This approach can be seen as a combination of the first two approaches.

Figure 6 Rectangular eight-channel speaker array proposed by Scott A. Wyatt

BEAST (Birmingham Electro-Acoustic Sound Theatre)

In 1982, the University of Birmingham (British) launched a sound diffusion system called BEAST, which consists of more than 100 channels of loudspeaker pairs, with a set of high-frequency loudspeakers and subwoofers that can be hung above the audience. It is a sound diffusion system designed specifically for electronic music performances (see Figure 7).

Figure 7 Real-time view of the 48-channel BEAST sound diffusion system at the University of Birmingham

BEAST's smallest speaker set for sound diffusion is the main Eight-speaker configuration proposed by the famous British electronic music composer Jonty Harrison. It consists of four pairs of speakers, using the BEAST naming principle, called the No. 1 main speaker pair, the No. 2 side-mounted speaker pair, the No. 3 rear speaker pair, and the No. 4 remote speaker pair (corresponding to Figure 4).

The 3D mixer (see Figure 8) is a full-custom mixer from BEAST and the last analog mixer from BEAST. Mr. Jonty Harrison called it the "reverse mixer." Unlike a normal mixer, the mixer is a two-channel input, multi-channel output.

Figure 8 BEAST 3D mixer matrix routing diagram

Today, composers no longer use analog consoles, but instead use digital multichannel interfaces and use MIDI faders to control sound diffusion through dedicated programs. The fader's control flexibility is greatly enhanced, and the same function of the same fader can be set in the system: it can control one speaker or a group of speakers, and can also control a circular eight-channel speaker array. With this system, multiple eight-channel groups placed around different positions of the audience can be used to spread the eight-channel sound source (see Figure 9). In this case, each fader controls an eight-channel group.

Figure 9 Multi-group eight-channel system for sound diffusion in a unified BEAST system

In summary, Acousmonium and Octaphonic, as the two most influential systems in the history of electronic music development, have different design concepts and practical scope. As a representative system of Octaphonic's large-scale and complex, BEAST plays an important role in the creation and performance practice. These types of systems are both connected and sometimes competitive, and they have grown stronger and stronger in the development of electronic music. It should be noted that the system of sound diffusion cannot leave the musical works, and the standard is the tool and means of interpreting the works. The choices and individualized modifications of the system by composers and sound engineers are derived from the needs of creation. The practice of comparing the quality of the system separately from the works is often one-sided, and the results obtained are also unconvincing.

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