3d sound field simulation

I've been trying to build an ensemble that can simulate spatial positioning with a pair of headphones (i heard it can be done) but I was wondering if any of you have knowledge of this kind of thing.

I tried using an xy square to position the source on the x and z planes (with the centre being the listener), and I have a slider to adjust the height of the object. But the guts is the hardest part.....

I have a few things done that seem realistic, like slight low pass filtering the farther away the source is, and some reverb the farther away it is. And the 0.63 second delay if the source is hard left or hard right (velocity of sound/distance between your ears). And obviously panning when the object is left or right, but it still doesn't sound realistic.

Does anyone have any knowledge or suggestions they could offer?

thanks

 

There are already ensembles in the library that do this if I recall correctly. They'll even produce a doppler effect if the sound whizzes by you fast enough.

 

It is harder to do it on headphones, obviously because the sound is so direct. It can also depend on the headphones.

mark
www.darklogik.org

 

Short of having a proper surround setup, headphones are much better than loudspeakers for this sort of thing. Just listen to a binaural recording.. its fun. With a good recording, you can close your eyes and almost think you're there.

That being said, there are lots of good spatialization algorithms online, and if you know C, they'd be the first thing I'd look at. Check out www.musicdsp.org.