The Leamon Sound Device (LSD) is an advanced audio system designed

to produce new kinds of sound experiences using off-the-shelf technology

available today.

The sound experiences you hear inside the LSD are somewhat by definition

"new" because with very few exceptions, current audio systems are designed

to deliver only two channels of sound (stereo), or just a few more than that

(5.1 surround, etc.), from distinct sound sources in the space around you.

But humans can hear a lot more than two or 5.1 sound sources. In the real

world, we can hear sounds occur in front of us, behind us, above us, and at

all points in between, simultaneously. Compared to what we are capable

of hearing, traditional audio reproduction systems are woefully inadequate.

The LSD currently uses 24 discrete channels to produce a far richer "sense

of sound" than two channels -- or 5.1, or 10.2 for that matter -- ever could.

It does this by delivering up to 24 separate sound sources to the listener

simultaneously from different points in space.

Having 24 sound sources in the space around the listener means that sound can

be manipulated and experienced in ways not possible with systems that provide

fewer channels. Some examples:

- The location of a given sound can start from or change to any of 24 different

points.

- A sound can emanate from more than one speaker and grow larger or smaller

over time by increasing or decreasing the number of speakers it plays from.

- A single sound can happen at slightly different points in time on a number of

different speakers, producing strange echo-location effects.

- A piece of music can contain 24 different instruments, each with its own

speaker to play on -- no more having to share a channel or speaker with other

sounds. (Put another way, music does not have to necessarily be mixed down

to fit into a smaller number of channels.) This characteristic opens up the sounds

of individual instruments tremendously.

These and other characteristics of the LSD free artists and listeners alike to

explore sound in radically new ways. The only way to truly understand what this

means is to experience the LSD itself.

© 2004 by Roy Leamon