ABSTRACT
There have been a number of proposals for systems that use more than two loudspeakers to overcome stereo systems limitations, and Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) is one such system. WFS can be considered a holophonic method of sound reproduction, capable of generating sound fields that maintain the temporal and spatial properties that represent virtual sound sources within an area bounded by loudspeakers. Using WFS, virtual sources can be placed not only along the speaker array, but behind and in front of the array as well. In order to derive a simple wave field synthesis driving function, the primary source is assumed to be omnidirectional. Using a WFS system, it is possible to reproduce both point sources and plane waves. The sound field of a natural environment usually contains foreground sound objects that carry information about speech, objects close by, and music, and some information about the room. In general, foreground sound objects require a well-defined position in the reproduction space.
