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Audio engineering

Wave field synthesis

What is wave field synthesis? A clear definition from the audio engineering section of our glossary, with 12 related terms and further reading.

Definition of Wave field synthesis

Wave field synthesis (WFS) is a spatial audio rendering technique, characterized by creation of virtual acoustic environments. It produces artificial wavefronts synthesized by a large number of individually driven loudspeakers from elementary waves. Such wavefronts seem to originate from a virtual starting point, the virtual sound source. Contrary to traditional phantom sound sources, the localization of WFS-established virtual sound sources does not depend on the listener's position. Like a genuine sound source, the virtual source remains at a fixed starting point.

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What is Wave field synthesis?

Wave field synthesis (WFS) is a spatial audio rendering technique, characterized by creation of virtual acoustic environments. It produces artificial wavefronts synthesized by a large number of individually driven loudspeakers from elementary waves.

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