Do you ever wonder, What is 16D Audio? Or What is the difference between 3D, 8D or 16D Audio? Well, this article got you covered. You’ll be able to understand the differences between all of them. You’ll be able to understand the concept of audio in a more systematic manner as well. Okay so I’m going to tell you very bad news and this may be bad, like very bad. There is no difference between 3D, 8D and 16D audio. Even if there is a subwoofer it is still nothing more than stereo.
How Are These Audios Actually Made?
How do all those youtube videos post that their audio has 8D and they do sound better? It is almost always due to some sort of electronic manipulation which enhances the audio or the audio is recorded through stereo pair of microphones in a 3D sound space.
What these youtube videos do is that they slowly pan a stereo field from left to right with reverb so it sounds like it is going in a circle. Doing makes the audio sound great and enhances the surround aspect of it on multiple levels. That’s how we experience those amazing soundtracks in so-called 8D or 16D quality.
Check out: Difference between Mono and Stereo Sound.
What Does The ‘D’ Supposedly Stand For In 3D/8D/16D ?
The D in them stand for dimensions. Since most music are recorded for stereo, any D beyond 2D creates some sort of alteration of the original audio signal quality. Higher the D, greater the alteration. The difference can be anything, it can subtle or it can be profound too. It completely depends upon the process of creating or engineering the audio or the source itself which plays a huge part.
What Is Real Multi-Dimensional Surround?
I’m pretty sure we have all heard about this ‘surround sound system’, the ‘surround’ quality. This surround sound comes in various formats and the most common one in 5.1 surround sound which is used widely in many media formats. There is also quadraphonic sound and the Dolby 7.2.4 which is the new sensation right now in the market and almost all movies have this surround sound.
How Do They Still Sound Different? [3D/8D/16D]
Even though there is no difference between these, the technique using which these are created different from each other.
3D audio: 3D audio is made by panning separate audio tracks on the left or the right. An example is a beat on one side and vocal on others.
8D audio: 8D audio is made by panning audio tracks left to right or right to left with a technique referred to as binaural panning. This is the technique used in video games. If you are wondering how in-game sounds are so accurate that they make you feel like you are existing in that space, this is the secret.
The video games industry is the avid user of 8D audio.
16D audio: 16D audio is made by panning separate audio tracks, mostly beats and vocals sound, left to right independently with binaural panning.
These are the difference between the technique used in creating 3D/8D.16D audio, this is not the difference itself between these audios but the difference in technique by which these are made. As I said there is no difference at all between these.
Conclusion:
I said it before and I will say it again, there is no difference between 3D, 8D and 16D audio. If you see anything like that in YouTube then just know that it is a lie. Even though there is no difference in on paper quality, the technique of process of how they are created different from each other which mostly involves audio panning.
