Method of synthesizing a three dimensional sound-field

DETAILED DESCRIPTION What is claimed is: 1.
A method of synthesizing a three dimensional sound-field using a system including a pair of front loudspeakers arranged in front of a preferred position for a listener and a pair of rear loudspeakers arranged behind said preferred position, the method including: a) determining a desired position of a localized sound source in said three dimensional sound-field relative to said preferred position; b) providing a binaural pair of signals comprising a left channel and a right channel corresponding to said localized source in said three dimensional sound field; c) controlling the gain of the left channel signal of said binaural pair of signals using a front signal gain control means and a rear signal gain control means to provide respective gain controlled front left and rear left signals respectively; d) controlling the gain of the right channel signal of said binaural pair of signals using a front signal gain control means and a rear signal gain control means to provide respective gain controlled front right and rear right signals respectively; e) controlling the ratio of the front signal gains to the rear signal gains as a function of the desired position of said localized sound source relative to said preferred position; and f) performing transaural crosstalk compensation on the gain controlled front signal pair and rear signal pair using respective transaural crosstalk compensation means, and using these two compensated signal pairs to drive the corresponding loudspeakers in use.
2.
A method as claimed in claim 1, in which step e) is performed such that the ratio of the front signal gains to that of the rear signal gains is determined from the azimuth angle of the said localised sound source relative to said preferred position.
3.
A method as claimed in claim 1 in which step e) is performed such that the ratio of the front signal gains to that of the rear signal gains is a continuous function of the azimuth angle of the said localised sound source relative to said preferred position