Capturing and Rendering 360º VR Audio Using Cardioid Microphones

This paper proposes a new microphone technique and a binaural rendering approach for 360º VR audio. Four cardioid microphones are arranged in a horizontal square, with 30 cm spacing and 90º subtended angle for each of the four pairs of adjacent microphones, in order to obtain the stereophonic recording angle (SRA) of 90º for a quadraphonic loudspeaker reproduction. The signals are binaurally synthesized with quadraphonic read-related impulse responses. This allows production of the same SRA for each of the four 90º segments whenever the listener rotates his or her head by 90º in a VR environment with a head-tracker, which is confirmed by a listening test. For vertical sound capturing, upward- and optional downward-facing cardioid microphones are added.