Europe's Fifth Student 3D Audio Production Competition in Ambisonics 2021

In 2021, the Student 3D Audio Competition was held for the fifth time in a row. There were again high-quality, elaborate submissions with trend-setting ideas. The award ceremony took place on November 19, 2021 online and with public viewing events live with binaural audio.

The 3D categories:

  • Contemporary / Computer music
  • Audio drama / Documentary / Soundscapes
  • Music recording / Studio production

The winner productions

Robert Seaback

Gold Winner in Category 1: Category 1: Contemporary Music, Computer Music

Still Life

Norwegian Academy of Music, with Still Life
Open Cat3DA Player

Wei Yang

Silver Winner in Category 1: Contemporary Music, Computer Music

a_voi(ce)_d

University of Washington, with a_voi(ce)_d
Open Cat3DA Player

Michael McCrea, Selina Oakes, Rapolas Daugintis

Bronce Winner in Category 1: Contemporary Music, Computer Music

The edge of the sea ...

Aalto University, with The edge of the sea chatters with a lifetime of echoes, whistles and blows
Open Cat3DA Player

Chung Tat Sham

Gold Winner in Category 2: Audio Drama / Documentary / Soundscapes

What is your Soundmark of the year?

Universität der Künste Berlin, with What is your Soundmark of the year?
Open Cat3DA Player

Marcel Remy

Silver Winner in Category 2: Audio Drama / Documentary / Soundscapes

Darkride

Stuttgart Media University, with Darkride
Open Cat3DA Player

Julian Zehnder

Bronce Winner in Category 2: Audio Drama / Documentary / Soundscapes

Flowerfield

Hochschule der Künste Zürich, with Flowerfield
Open Cat3DA Player

Selim Mrad

Gold Winner in Category 3: Music Recording / Studio Production

On the art of misleading

Erich Thienhaus Institut Detmold, with On the art of misleading
Open Cat3DA Player

Stefanos Ioannou

Silver Winner Category 3: Music Recording / Studio Production

Volière

Erich-Thienhaus Institut der HfM Detmold, with Volière
Open Cat3DA Player

Lucca Riitano, Jan Lukas Feldmann

Bronce Winner in Category 3: Music Recording / Studio Production

Prelude in g-minor WoO10 – Spatial Organ

HAW Hamburg, with Prelude in g-minor WoO10 – Spatial Organ
Open Cat3DA Player

Many thanks to the Jurors who evaluated the contributions with highest verve and compentence:

  • Sebastia Amengual Gari, FB Reality Labs, Redmond, USA
  • Tom Ammermann, New Audio Technology, Hamburg, Germany
  • Joseph Anderson, Washington University, Seattle, USA
  • Natasha Barrett, Oslo, Norway
  • Hans-Martin Buff, Buffwerk, Rimsting, Germany
  • Florian Camerer, ORF, Wien, Austria
  • Thibaut Carpentier, ircam, Paris, France
  • Clovis Gouaillier, Univrsité du Québec à Montréal, Canada
  • Michael Iber, University of Applied Science, St. Pölten, Austria
  • Mads Kjeldgaard, NOTAM, Oslo, Norway
  • Matthias Kronlachner, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Mantautas Kruskauskas, Lithu. Acad. of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Paweł Małecki, AGH Univ., Krakow, Poland
  • Daniel Mayer, IEM, Graz, Austria
  • Nils Meyer-Kahlen, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
  • Ana Monte, DELTA Soundworks, Sandhausen, Germany
  • Annika Neidhardt, TU Ilmenau, Germany
  • Lasse Nipkow, Silent Work GmbH, Zürich, Switzerland
  • Filip Panelić, Visoka Škola Elektrotehnike i Računara, Belgrad,Serbia
  • Gerriet Krishna Sharma, Berlin, Germany
  • Martin Supper, University of Arts, Berlin, Germany
  • Dietz Tinhof, Tonmeister/VSL, Vienna, Austria
  • Christian Vaida, cvmusic film/ton, Heidenheim, Germany
  • Ernst van der Loo, Oslo, Norway

Sponsors of the Competition

Munk Productions

New Audio Technology

Harpex Ltd

SSA Plugins

ambiXes

FLUX:: Immersive

Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik der Kunstuniversität Graz (IEM) and Verband Deutscher Tonmeister (VDT)

The Competition is a cooperation of the Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik der Kunstuniversität Graz (IEM) and Verband Deutscher Tonmeister (VDT). The contribution format is 5th order Ambisonics as there are many free production tools available and no licence fees have to be paid.
Contributing to the Competition is an important step for the students into the professional world of pro audio. At the same time there are attractive prizes for the winners waiting. Many thanks to the sponsors of this year's Competition!

Headtracking with Camera-Tracked 3D Audio Player (Cat3DA)

How can we deliver multi-channel immersive audio content across the web to the listener? A good basis has been established with the new Cat3DA player (camera-tracked 3D audio player), a tool that allows to stream channel-based 3D audio cotent that the local browser of the listener rendered to head-tracked headphone playback. The motion capture of the head rotations is done by the webcam of the listener's computer.

To make use of it, webcam use must be allowed in the browser tab running the cat3da player.

The combination of Cat3DA including head tracker, together with the competing productions of the Student’s 3D Audio Production Competition 2020 are experimental content of the VDT-Live event by which the advantages of headtracking to binaural playback over the web can be perceivably experienced. The programmers of Cat3DA recommends the following browsers for playback: Firefox, Opera, or Chrome.

The Real-time processing of the headtracking information and the audio processing that it controls pose a certain computational load, and altogether some initial pacience when loading. At the same time, sufficient bandwith to receive the multi-channel audio stream is required. We therefore recommend a good internet connection. If you consider following the stereo live stream of the S3DAPC finals ceremony and intend to change listening to the on-demand Cat3DA streams for their higher spatial-audio resolution while the submissions play back during the ceremony, maybe consider using two independent computers.

Listen to productions of other years

Become curious? All award-winning submissions of the 3D-Audio Competitions of other years can be heard binaural with headtracking here:

2023 2022 2020