Why 8D Audio Will Be Revolutionary….

Rachael Anderson

Strange use of audio has been used in the music industry since forever, the first use of 3D audio can be traced back to 1881 where the théâtrophone was invented for the enjoyment of musical performance from the comfort of wherever the performance was not. We have come a long way since then, from the invention of earphones, record players, cassette players, cd players and now music streaming. Now we are experimenting with new ways to hear music, in a way that has never been done before, we already had things such as 3D audio and ASMR, however 8D audio allows the listener to experience audio in a whole new way.

8D audio is a strange experience as the audio travels it diverts you into another world, making you loose your grip upon reality. As you shut your eyes and zone out, the music it takes you into a whole new experience, like virtual reality with your own imagination. 

The science behind it is that the original audio is edited to be warped as the sound travels to the louder in one ear than the other and vice versa to give the illusion that it’s travelling inside your brain. Think of the audio in the cinema, how it comes from specific speakers from different directions depending on what the scene is trying to convey or get you to feel/imagine, it’s the same sort of thing.

Some would ask what the difference between an 8D song to a 3D song. The 8D audio is coming from many more dimensions as there is a larger amount layering applied to it. However, many people argue that there is little difference and it’s just the same thing. It is evident that more editing goes into real 8D audio than 3D, but it generally they both follow the same concept.

There is a huge market however for things like this in the music industry as people are getting bored of the generic flat sounds of literally every song ever. People want a bit more, a bit more experience to it and off the top of my head I can’t think of anything that great and bewildering since ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen, as that song took you into a whole other dimension , now thinking the original track was good, you should hear it with 8D audio (see link below). It’s even more mind blowing as it allows you to experience the music far more deeply.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if2lPD6_bX4

Jimi Hendrix also used experimental techniques in the production of his records to allow the listener to experience the visuals of the music, Hendrix wanted the listener to see his imagination when they listened to his songs to allow them to not only hear the music but feel it and see it. For example, his well-known song from 1970 ‘Purple Haze’ used 8D like techniques to give the illusion of distant vocals to the far right with over powering instruments and layers of extra distant vocals from all sorts of directions, just like a haze of music. This was obviously Hendrix’ vision and experience with the music that he managed to convey perfectly with the listener, allowing them to experience the music in a way that’s never been done before. 

Hendrix is known for psychedelic rock, which was a genre which was intended to replicate the experiences of hallucinogenic drugs, which take you into another world. This was a huge thing in the sixties with phenomenal groups such as The Beatles, they released many songs under this genre such as ‘What’s the New Mary Jane?’, ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ and ‘Blue Jay Way’. These tracks conveyed a whole new experience in music but one must wonder why this type of music completely died out? It was different and allowed more to come from just an ordinary track. Are artists nowadays lacking in creativity?

Perhaps this style of audio has already been done before with the likes of Queen, Hendrix and The Beatles, but it’s not what has already been done before. It’s what can be elaborated from that, an expansion on creativity. This is where 8D audio can be used to an advantage of modern-day artists, once they realise what can be done with this style of editing it will be a game changer for the music industry. As the experience of records will become more personal to the fans, the consumers. And will change the music industry forever. 

Now modern artists dabble into a little audio experimentation in their records with things like bouncing audio from ear to ear, but it isn’t anything spectacular compared to what those under psychedelic rock were doing years prior. Take The 1975’s ‘Love Me’ for example, the intro to this bounces from ear to ear in a fiasco fashion but we need more than that to get the full experience. I mean it does sound cool but it’s not enough to feel anything. 

This is why we need 8D audio to come into use, it would be a game changer to the music industry and will open a huge market for something different. In a mainstream music industry that is lacking creativity audio wise more than ever, a beautiful refreshing change from the norm….