A Virtual Reality Interface for the Creation of 3D Spatial Audio Trajectories

This paper presents SonoSpatia, a virtual reality (VR) system designed for creating 3D spatial audio trajectories. SonoSpatia leverages the immersive capabilities of VR technology to facilitate an intuitive and expressive approach for composers and sound designers willing to control positioning parameters in 3D space via gesture-based interactions. The authors conducted a user study with 12 expert composers, sound engineers, and sound designers to assess the ability of the VR interface to enhance the creative process of spatial audio trajectory creation via a more embodied interaction with the spatial audio parameters. To this end, the workflow of SonoSpatia was compared with those of conventional digital audio workstation (DAW) tools, comprising the ControlGRIS and SpatGRIS spatial audio software and the DAW Reaper. Results indicate that SonoSpatia significantly increases user engagement, satisfaction, absorption, and expressiveness over the conventional DAW-based counterpart. Notably, both the VR and DAW-based interfaces showed minimal differences in the interaction patterns, suggesting similar user interactions across dimensions despite the reported advantages of VR. Despite some challenges related to interface complexity and fine-grained control, the system was well-received by participants, suggesting a promising direction for enhancing 3D spatial audio trajectory creation with VR.