Song and Soundscape – Immersion and Presence in Spatial Audio

Returns is a creative practice research project, involving multichannel recordings of traditional folk songs performed in rural locations. This writing discusses how aspects of immersion and presence were considered over the making process alongside the dissemination method of head tracked headphone-based listening via Apple’s spatial audio. Perceptual immersion, narrative immersion, and certain dimensions of presence are aligned with praxis, resulting in findings from across production processes and the playback system. We propose that these individual parts form a synergy to enhance immersive potential.