The magic of Spatial Audio in VRelax for ultimate relaxation!

VRelax delivers proven results through expertise and attention to smart content. The use of Spatial Audio in our app is part of that. But what exactly is that and how does it work?

Sound is everywhere 

We all know that sound plays an important role in our lives. From an early age we can hear, even in the womb we can hear the heartbeat and sounds in the environment. We cannot close our ears for a moment and our hearing does not shut off even at night. It's actually never completely quiet. Just close your eyes and listen carefully to make sure you don't hear any sounds at all.

Without sound, we miss a lot of meaning in what we see and experience. Just think of a movie without sound, ice that doesn't crack as a warning when you step on it, chips that don't crack… Without sound, we feel less connected to the environment and we have trouble giving meaning to what we see. 

Sound is therefore important to feel connected to the environment and to give meaning to what is happening in that environment. And just like in the real world, we want to use sound in this way in the virtual worlds. For this we use Spatial Audio.

What is Spatial Audio

Spatial Audio, also known as spatial audio, is a technique that ensures that the VR experiences of VRelax feel and hear as you would experience sound in the real world. In the real world, all sorts of things happen around us that cause noise. A ticking clock on the wall, passing cars, leaves rustling in the trees… All these sound sources are all around us and are not caused by loudspeakers. If we want to reproduce sound for, for example, a video or in our case VR, we do need speakers or headphones for that. But to reproduce this sound as faithfully as possible, we want to be able to locate the reproduced sound sources in the space around us from the direction that corresponds to the visual representation of the sound source. And therefore cannot be traced back to a headphone or speaker setup. When that is the case, we speak of spatial audio, or Spatial Audio.

Differences between traditional audio sources and the Spatial Audio effect.

telepresence

To properly experience spatial audio in VR, you use headphones. A binaural audio file is played on these headphones, which is synchronized with the video and includes the head tracking of the headset, so that the sound sources remain with the visual source. 

Every sound source that is played in the headphones cannot be traced back to the drivers of your headphones, but gives you the idea that they are somewhere in the three-dimensional space around you. Together with the images you then get an enhanced feeling as if you are actually in a different environment than you actually are. And that is called telepresence. 

Why do we use Spatial Audio

Spatial Audio allows us to create the most faithful reproduction of how we experience sound in real life. As a result, more senses are stimulated and the feeling of immersion, that you are part of the environment, is more credible. In addition, Spatial audio provides an increased perception of the perceived audio visual quality. Of course, this also depends on the recording quality of the audio used, the added sound design and the audio post-production. But in general, one experiences a higher quality experience when using Spatial Audio. The increased quality makes it pleasant to listen to and can therefore be used for longer periods of time. 

Healthy faster with better sound

There is also a heightened sense of immersion and because the sounds correspond to what one sees in the environment, one gets a realistic association with that environment, ie it is correct and there is no doubt about the credibility of the experience. This will convince the user more quickly and the purpose of the application, to relax, will also be achieved much faster and without mistrust about what one is experiencing. 

So we use Spatial Audio to move around in the environment, to stay longer in the 'flow' of the experience so that people can enjoy a relaxing experience longer and better. This naturally ensures better health and well-being for our users.

Jelmer Althuis / Creative Audio Director @VRelax