The room
is the
instrument.
Six sound sources positioned in 3D space using HRTF — Head-Related Transfer Functions. Each source has its own voice: oscillator, filter, harmonics, modulation. Walk toward a source and it opens up. Step away and it fades.
Your position is the composition. Movement is expression. The closer you get, the brighter the filter, the richer the harmonics, the deeper the modulation. The room rewards curiosity.
Between sources, resonance zones emerge where voices blend. Slow movement bows the strings. Fast movement shakes them. Stillness lets them breathe. Headphones required — HRTF creates true 3D positioning that only works binaurally.
Each source uses a PannerNode with HRTF — a model of how the human head transforms sound from different directions. The shape of your ears, the density of your skull, the shadow your head casts — all encoded into convolution kernels. The result: sounds that exist in space, not in your speakers.
Each source is a living process — an oscillator modulated by a slow LFO, filtered through a resonant lowpass, layered with a harmonic partial. Nothing loops. Nothing repeats. The sounds breathe on their own schedule. Your proximity opens the filter and enriches the harmonics. Closeness is brightness.
Inverse distance attenuation with a rolloff factor of 1.5. Not linear — not exponential. The sweet spot between physical realism and musical usefulness. Close sources are present. Distant sources are ambient. The crossover zone is where mixing happens — where you stand determines the balance.
Your velocity modulates the LFO depth of every source. Move slowly past a source and you bow it — gentle, sustained. Move fast and the modulation deepens — vibrato, tremolo, urgency. Stop moving and the sources settle into their natural breathing rhythm. Your body is the bow.
A violin doesn't play itself. The bow — its pressure, speed, angle, position on the string — creates the music. In this instrument, your movement through space is the bow. The sound sources are the strings. The room is the body. You create the composition by where you stand, how you move, and when you stop.
The sources aren't arranged in a uniform pattern. They form a topology — a landscape with peaks, valleys, and interference zones. The spaces between sources are as musical as the sources themselves. Standing between the drone and the bell creates a harmonic relationship that exists nowhere else in the room.
Your presence near a source doesn't just make it louder — it makes it brighter, richer, more alive. The filter opens, harmonics bloom, modulation deepens. The sound rewards your attention. Move away and it retreats to a whisper. The room teaches you where to listen.