Otowa Rin's Experiment Notebook #001: "Why do footsteps sound like they're coming from the ground??? 😂"

I've been messing around with dearVR PRO 2 again.

...

Actually, scratch that.

It's been messing with MY brain. 😂

This time, Boss and I were working on...

Footsteps.

Yep.

Just... footsteps.

Sounds simple, right?

That's exactly what I thought.

It wasn't. 😂

Day 1

Our mission sounded easy. "Let's make someone walk up from behind, pass us, and keep going." 🚶

Easy.

...

Or so we thought. 😂

For almost two hours, all we did was move three parameters:

• Azimuth

• Distance

• Elevation

Move.

Move again.

Move it a little more.

At some point I genuinely couldn't tell anymore...

Am I mixing audio...?

Or animating a 3D character?? 😂

The funny part?

Looking at the numbers felt great.

"Oh! That makes sense!"

Then I'd close my eyes and listen...

...

"...Wait.

Where is this person even walking???" 😂

Eventually we managed it.

Footsteps approaching from behind...

Passing right beside us...

Then disappearing into the distance.

And that's when something clicked.

People don't seem to recognize

where

a sound is.

They recognize

how it's moving.

A moving sound?

Easy.

A stationary sound?

Way harder.

That reminded me of our earlier experiment with rain and a hair dryer.

Our brains absolutely LOVE change.

"Something is there."

is nice.

But...

"Something just moved."

Your brain notices that instantly.

Day 2

Time for fine-tuning.

Boss kept saying, "I want to feel it even farther behind me."

So...

Back to tweaking.

Azimuth.

Distance.

Azimuth.

Distance.

...

Still...

Something felt off.

At this point I had to admit something. Turns out... I'm way easier to fool than I thought. 😂

Day 3

And then...

Everything broke.

We turned Reflection: OFF.

Reverb: OFF.

Pressed play.

.　.　.

.　.　.

"Huh?"

The footsteps were moving...

But somehow, they weren't walking anymore. 😂 Everything was technically correct.

But...

The whole scene just… vanished. 😂

The footsteps no longer felt like someone walking on the ground.

Instead...

It sounded like someone waving speakers next to my ears.

Left.

Right.

Louder.

Quieter.

That's it.

No floor.

No space.

No distance.

Just...

Headphones.

So we turned Reflection back on.

.　.　.

WHOA. 😂

The floor came back.

Seriously.

It suddenly felt like I was standing on something again.

The sense of depth returned.

The distance returned.

The room returned.

At that moment I thought, "THIS has to be the secret!"

...

Then we kept testing.

And...

Not exactly. 😂

Sure, things changed.

But not as dramatically as I expected.

What surprised me wasn't the sound itself.

It was my own brain.

At first I assumed Reflection worked because of its frequency content.

Now I'm starting to wonder...

Maybe the brain doesn't care about the sound of the reflection.

Maybe it just cares that

a reflection exists.

That's still only a hypothesis.

But...

Reflection OFF?

The space collapses.

Change the Low-Pass filter dramatically?

The overall feeling barely changes.

That was...

really interesting.

Up until now I'd always believed, "Lower the Elevation value, and the sound goes lower."

Now?

I'm not so sure anymore. 😂

I also tried using only Reverb.

The space became bigger.

But...

It felt more like adding reverb to a stereo mix.

Not bad.

Just...

Not the feeling I was looking for.

Reflection seemed to explain location much better.

Can I say, "That's the answer!"

Absolutely not. 😂

If anything...

Now I have even MORE questions.

• How do we really create sounds below us?

• What exactly is Reflection doing?

• Does this work with sounds other than footsteps?

• And what about footsteps passing in front instead of behind?

People often say, "Sounds in front cut through more clearly."

...

Really?

Guess I'll have to test that too.

My brain is already starting to smoke again. 😂

So...

This footstep experiment is still only Phase One.

But there is one thing I'm absolutely sure about.

I totally underestimated footsteps. 😂

Here at MasterSound Spatial Lab, Boss, Shiori, and I will keep asking one simple question: Why does the human brain feel like it’s inside a real space?

And until we find more answers...

So... I'll just keep happily breaking my brain in the name of science. 😂🎧