Immersive recording with a virtual 3D microphone array using spatial information of virtual sound sources sampled in a target space.

Nakahara M, Kamekawa T, Nagatomo Y, Omoto A. Immersive recording with a virtual 3D microphone array using spatial information of virtual sound sources sampled in a target space. In: AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games. Audio Engineering Society; 2026. Paper 468. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23361

@inproceedings{Nakahara2026_23361,
  author = {Nakahara, Masataka and Kamekawa, Toru and Nagatomo, Yasuhiko and Omoto, Akira},
  title = {{Immersive recording with a virtual 3D microphone array using spatial information of virtual sound sources sampled in a target space.}},
  booktitle = {AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games},
  note = {Paper 468},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23361}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Immersive recording with a virtual 3D microphone array using spatial information of virtual sound sources sampled in a target space.
AU  - Nakahara, Masataka
AU  - Kamekawa, Toru
AU  - Nagatomo, Yasuhiko
AU  - Omoto, Akira
T2  - AVARIG 2026: Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Games
M1  - Paper 468
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23361
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - This paper proposes a method called V2MA (VSVerb Virtual Microphone Array), which virtually generates spatial room impulse responses (SRIRs) captured by a conventional microphone array using only a set of four impulse responses (IRs) measured by an A-format microphone in a target space. Based on the principles of geometrical acoustics specifically employing the mirror-image source method V2MA detects source intensities containing acoustic information of sound sources from the x-, y-, and z-directions sound intensities calculated from the four measured IRs. Subsequently, the locations, strengths, and phase characteristics of the sound sources are estimated. By applying geometrical acoustics, the spatial properties of these virtual sound sources can be updated to match a neighboring receiver position and a desired directivity, thereby yielding SRIRs at any receiver position with arbitrary directivity in the target room. While immersive recording typically requires large microphone arrays, V2MA enables virtual immersive recording using only the initial A-format microphone measurements. To verify the plausibility of V2MA, this paper compares the responses of the proposed virtual array against a real conventional microphone array using measurements collected in a rehearsal hall under various conditions. The results demonstrate that the waveforms generated by V2MA exhibit a high correlation with those of the real microphone array, with reverberation times within 5% of the just noticeable difference (JND). Regarding spatial properties, the correlation values between microphones (channels) show reasonable similarities. On the other hand, detailed temporal structures, such as C80, D50, and Ts, do not correspond well to those of the real array, partly due to differences in acoustic characteristics between virtual and real microphones. Future work will focus on addressing these limitations to improve accuracy.
ER  -