Spat (or Spatialisateur in French)Spat is a software suite for spatialization of sound signals in real-time intended for musical creation, postproduction, and live performances.
Spat (or Spatialisateur in French) is a real-time spatial audio processor that allows composers, sound artists, performers, and sound engineers to control the localization of sound sources in 3D auditory spaces. In addition, Spat provides a powerful reverberation engine that can be applied to real and virtual auditory spaces. The processor receives sounds from instrumental or synthetic sources, adds spatialization effects in real-time, and outputs signals for reproduction on an electroacoustic system (loudspeakers or headphones). Its modular signal processing architecture and design are guided by computational efficiency and configurability considerations. This allows, in particular, straightforward adaptation to various multichannel output formats and reproduction setups, over loudspeakers or headphones, while the control interface provides direct access to perceptually relevant parameters for specifying distance and reverberation effects, irrespective of the chosen reproduction format. Another original feature of Spat is its room effect control interface relying on perceptive criteria. This allows the user to intuitively specify the characteristics of a specific room without having to use an acoustic or architectural vocabulary. Spat is, for instance, used for real-time 3D audio rendering with a 350-loudspeaker array in IRCAM’s variable acoustics concert hall.
