New audio software released by University’s Applied Psychoacoustics Lab (APL)
The University’s Applied Psychoacoustics Lab (APL) has developed new audio software which delivers a more natural and spacious stereo sound to headphone listening.
APL DUOPAN is built on Professor Hyunkook Lee’s advanced psychoacoustic model of time/amplitude panning and spectral shaping.
It is a psychoacoustic panner designed to bring natural spatial width and depth to sound engineers’ mixes, and while optimised for headphone listening, it also translates well to loudspeakers.
Professor Lee, who heads up the APL, and his former PhD student and now colleague, Dr Dale Johnson, along with the APL team have developed DUOPAN to give an entirely new way to sculpt and correct stereo images.
Conventional panning can sound unnatural on headphones, with images appearing inside the head and making it difficult to achieve smooth, linear movement across the stereo field. DUOPAN has been designed to solve this issue, and it provides an entirely new way to sculpt and correct stereo images.
On headphones, it achieves a binaural-like imaging, placing sounds slightly outside the head for a more natural and immersive experience. DUOPAN can also correct spatial imbalance issues in stereo recordings and route its output to any pair of loudspeakers within a multichannel mix.
Professor Lee, who is also Director of the University’s Centre for Audio and Psychoacoustic Engineering, commented: "DUOPAN reflects my long-standing research into how we localise sound and perceive spatial impression in audio. I wanted to make that science accessible with a tool that simply sounds right, whether you’re mixing in stereo or immersive formats. I’m genuinely excited to see how engineers and creators will use it to bring new dimensions to their mixes.”
DUOPAN is now available as a commercial plug-in product and has already received support from a number of key figures in the industry, including Mastering and Mix Engineer Bob Katz; Recording and Mixing Engineer/Producer/Songwriter Hans-Martin Buff; Immersive Recording Engineer and Producer Morten Lindberg; Mixer, Producer and Songwriter Emre Ramazanoglu; and Mixing and Mastering Engineer Aaron PhatChief Gandia.
Bob Katz – “DUOPAN is the pan pot that I’ve been dreaming of for years! Finally, a pan pot with image stability and dimensionality. That widens the sweet spot and lets us create mixes that are compatible simultaneously with both speakers and headphones.”
Hans-Martin Buff – “DUOPAN is one of those wonderful tools that I didn’t know I needed but now don’t want to live without. Panning just became a creative tool, rather than a way to move sounds.”
Morten Lindberg – “By uniting level, time, and spectral shaping in one tool, DUOPAN delivers a far more natural and convincing result than a traditional power panner.”
Emre Ramazanoglu – “DUOPAN allows you to pan sources with a beautifully natural result that we’re just not used to with conventional panning ITB – a unique and invaluable tool!”
Aaron PhatChief Gandia – “DUOPAN is not just a panning plugin! It’s also a depth-enhancing plugin thanks to some psychoacoustic magic. This plugin opens a portal into the depths of your mix you didn’t know was available to you! Whether using it on a mono track or a stereo track, each can benefit in their own way, specially taking advantage of the Dual Band mode.”
DUOPAN follows on from the success of APL VIRTUOSO, the cutting-edge 3D audio software that virtualises stereo or immersive loudspeaker setups and listening rooms for headphone listening.
APL DUOPAN
a psychoacoustic panner for natural stereo imaging
Further Information
Photo credits: Adobe Stock / APL / Genelec
Photo captions: APL DUOPAN in action (1); the APL DUOPAN panel (2); Professor Hyunkook Lee (3)