The final hurdle

There are several options for the creation of 3d sound in my project

1. Use the ICST ambisonic externals for max/msp to provide a very accurate 3d sound representation
2. use flash for the sound and adjust the volume and panning of each sound based on the objects position relative to the cameras view.
3. use some form of sound spatialization such as quad-phonic panning or use of a surround sound system such as 5.1

I’ve looked at some of the pros and cons of each method and will update this page when i have done some experiments with each method as well.

Ambisonics

This would work by having each 3d object in the world associated with a sound ‘track’ in max/msp which would feed the audio stream through the ambisonics engine,  then using an XML connection each tracks position would be updated fairly regularly, probably around 5-10 times a second.
In order for this to work the objects Cartesian coordinates would need to be converted into spherical coordinates before being passed to the ambisonics engine.

pros:

• very accurate representation of 3d sound
• separates the sound side of the program from the visuals spreading out the CPU load

cons:

• difficult to setup requiring very specific speaker placement and room acoustics
• to allow the listening point to move around would involve not actually moving the listener but rotating the world around them.

Sound spatialization

5.1 - by manipulating which speakers the sound is coming out of.

pros:

• easy setup - 5.1 surround sound setups are fairly common

cons:

• not really 3d sound only in 2 dimensions
• same problem as with ambisonics when wanting the listener to move around

Flash 3d sound

pros:

• listener is not limited to a fixed position.
• whole program can be done in flash meaning a wider audience could use the program

cons:

• not really 3d sound only in 2 dimensions
• all processing is done by flash so need to be very careful with resources