Raum und Klang 2026

Raum & Klang

Spatial Audio Network Conference

Program

Speaker

Gallery

Tickets & Location

23. + 24.09. 2026

Conference for Spatial Audio & Immersive Creators

Meet leading experts, pioneers and visionaries to rethink the future of immersive audio and set new creative impulses.

• Artistic research meets industry
• Cross-disciplinary dialogue across music, film, games, XR and media art
• Talks, listening sessions, deep dives, workshops and breakout discussions
• For composers, designers, developers, researchers and producers
• Local voices meet international partners

Developed by ZiMMT in partnership with the Spatial Audio Network Europe (SANE)

Program

Over two days, expect engaging expert talks, demos and listening sessions that bring together artistic practice, technological innovation and industry. RAUM+KLANG puts a strong focus on real-world use cases and practical application, while always considering the latest research and ideas shaping the field: talks meet hands-on workshops and deep dives into current tools and production methods, breakout discussions enable focused conversations between artists, developers and industry partners, and live performances demonstrate Spatial Audio in practice.

We’re looking forward to inspiring talks, lively discussions and great conversations!

The conference language is English.

23.09.
Day One

09:00 • arrival / check in / say hi

09:30 • Welcoming and Listening Session

10:00 • LISTENING/HEARING – From the Acousmonium to the Object: Three Generations of Spatial Sound • Adrien Zanni / Holophonix

A behind-the-scenes look at LISTENING/HEARING, a listening room at the Venice Biennale featuring 60 speakers across a 3D dome, octophony, and Italy’s first acousmonium. The talk explores three approaches to spatial sound, sharing workflows, artistic choices, experiments with HOA, WFS and KNN, selected excerpts, and the experience of being both developer and artistic user of HOLOPHONIX.

10:30 • Audio Brewers (Alejandro Cabrera)

Alejandro Cabrera gives an introduction to the philosophy behind Audio Brewers and its tools for immersive mixing and production workflows. Using one of his own musical compositions, recorded in Ambisonics and mixed in 7th-Order Ambisonics (7OA) with Audio Brewers plugins, he demonstrates the practical application of these tools. He analyzes the mix step by step and showcases the possibilities for immersive performances.

11:30 • Rethinking ambiX and mcfx: How to Master Large Loudspeaker and Microphone Arrays • Mathias Kronlachner

Since their release in 2014, the ambiX and mcfx plugins have been important tools for Ambisonics as well as loudspeaker and microphone arrays. This talk presents new features for large-scale spatial audio setups, ranging from effects processing and monitoring of complex loudspeaker installations and microphone-array recordings to network-based spatial audio jam sessions and the planning of optimised loudspeaker dome configurations. The open-source plugins are available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

12:00 • LUNCH BREAK

13:00 • Unique Approaches to Spatial Audio and New Features in LEMM3D • Martin Recker

How can spatial audio become an instrument for intuition, complexity and creative excess? Hauptmeier|Recker explore composition and live performance with LEMM3D, presenting new features and unconventional strategies from their practice. They share ways of navigating complex spatial setups and intuitive improvisation in a live-setup.

13:30 • Grapes 3D Audio Control • Felix Deufel

14:00 • Mazetools Botany – Sound Gardening • Jakob Gruhl

How does an experimental music tool evolve into an interactive game? In this talk, Ectoplastic co-founder Stephan Kloß traces the development of Mazetools—from its early audiovisual instruments to Botany, a multisensory plant world where music literally grows. Using the project as a case study, the talk explores how artistic research, immersive audio technologies, and game design can come together to create new ways of engaging with music, creativity, and interaction.

14:30 • The inside-out approach to spatial sound creation • Patryk Kizny

What happens when space and architecture become co-creators and mediators of sound? This talk explores new approaches to live performance and composition using spherical beamforming arrays such as the Singing Watermelons and IEM’s IKO. From unconventional multichannel setups and ambisonics to beamforming, Patrick Kizny reveals surprising approaches to sound creation and perception.

15:00 • Listening Session + COFFEE BREAK

16:00 • Room Acoustics in Spatial Audio • Natalia Szczepanczyk / Holoplot at Sphere

Spatial audio aims to place and move sound precisely, yet the room still shapes what we hear. Drawing on experience with large-scale immersive audio projects, this talk explores how room acoustics affect spatial reproduction, how far today’s technology can compensate for challenging spaces, and where it reaches its limits. An honest look at why acoustic design still matters.

16:30 • Biggest Fan, Harshest Critic: Immersive Audio in Practice hits Reality • Martin Rieger

Which stories actually need 3D audio – and which are better served by plain stereo? Martin Rieger works format-independent and argues that immersive audio isn’t automatically the better choice. Drawing on real projects, he shows where spatial sound unlocks something stereo never could – especially for VR and immersive storytelling with head-tracking – and where it’s just expensive overhead. Honest, with real life examples focussing on headphone projects.

17:00 • Hochschule Mittweida • Prof. Annika Neidhardt

Systems for Extended Reality (XR) aim to render virtual content into the user’s natural environment or seemingly modify it. This requires analysing the environment’s acoustics and rendering audio accordingly, without noticeable delay. While high physical accuracy remains challenging, how accurate does it need to be? The focus is on the technology, psychoacoustics, and artistic potential of Audio for Extended Reality.

17:30 • Music Tech Germany • Claudia Schwarz

18:00 • DINNER & LIVE ACT

24.09.
Day Two

09:00 • arrival / checkin / say hi

09:30 • Listening Session

10:00 • Spatial Audio Gathering • Enrico Dorigatti

Bridging technical expertise, artistic vision, philosophical takes, and practice-based scholarship in spatial audio: the Spatial Audio Gathering (SAG) experience

This talk introduces SAG (Spatial Audio Gathering), an international conference established in 2024 to bring together diverse perspectives and lines of inquiry in spatial audio. It explores how SAG’s community-oriented approach can catalyse research and creative practice within and beyond academia, while sharing insights into its origins and the work of its organising committee.

10:30 • Ambrio • Nicolas Geysens

Ambrio built the world’s first DJ and performance mixer for spatial sound. To make spatial sound accessible while keeping it familiar, spatial control sits entirely in the artist’s hands, at the heart of the performance: the mixer. An all-in-one solution, it renders classic stereo inputs internally and maps them flexibly to any speaker setup, from 8.1 analogue outputs to audio-over-Ethernet. The focus: how artists want to express their music in space, hands-on and live.

11:30 • MIAM • Jocelyn Raphanel

12:00 • LUNCH BREAK

13:00 • Position Tracking and Spatial Audio • Paul Hauptmeier

Hauptmeier|Recker present a practical and artistic approach to combining position tracking, interactive sound design and spatial audio. Drawing on a current artistic production, they share the concepts, approaches and custom technical solutions developed for the project. A live demonstration during the listening slots offers a practical insight into the work and its technical setup.

14:30 • Spatial Audio in Anthropology • Dr. Angela McArthur

In her talk, “Spatial Futurisms,” Dr. Angela McArthur explores how spatial sound practice can open up new perspectives on the future of art and culture. She examines how the complex and demanding approaches involved in spatial sound create space for experimentation, innovation, and alternative forms of artistic expression. Drawing on her experience leading a Master’s programme in Spatial Sound as well as her own artistic practice, she considers the potential of spatial sound art in the context of AI-driven cultural industries.

15:00 • Listening Session

..:.. • Pan Acoustics • Sebastian Oeynhausen

What are the differences between VBAP/DBAP, Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA), and Wave Field Synthesis (WFS)? Sebastian Oeynhausen introduces the most common spatial audio techniques and explains why WFS is particularly well suited to creating a natural and realistic sound image. Using ACS and Pan Immerse 4D Audio, he will also demonstrate current WFS-based solutions in a live demo.

18:00 • CLOSING

Speakers

Alejandro Cabrera

Alejandro Cabrera is a composer, musician, audio engineer, software developer, and founder of Audio Brewers, a company specializing in professional immersive audio software and plugins with native Ambisonics processing. His work focuses on intuitive and efficient spatial audio workflows for producers, composers, and sound engineers. He develops innovative tools for higher-order Ambisonics, including encoding, decoding, beamforming, analysis, visualization, and creative audio effects.

alejandrocabrera.net

Angela McArthur

Dr. Angela McArthur directs the interdisciplinary master’s program in Spatial Sound (Art/Science) at the Department of Anthropology at University College London. Her research focuses on marginalized onto-epistemologies, marine sound environments, and the intersections of artistic practice. She works with the IKO loudspeaker system and other spatial audio systems and advocates for greater diversity in access and representation within sound art and beyond.

http://angelamcarthur.com/ angelamcarthur.com/

Paul Hauptmeier

Paul Hauptmeier is a composer and multimedia artist based in Leipzig. He studied electroacoustic composition at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar and at the "University of California San Diego". Since 2009 he works as part of the artist duo Hauptmeier|Recker in the field of composition, sound and multimedia art. The duo is engaged in diverse domains, spanning opera, live electronic performance, radio art, electroacoustic music, and site-specific installation.

Since 2022, the duo teaches sound art at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art. Paul is a founding member of the ZiMMT in Leipzig, where he conducts research in the field of spatial audio and organises workshops, panels, concerts and exhibitions on the subject. Besides multichannel based 3D audio, he has a strong interest in augmented reality in the field of sound and multimedia art. His latest works and sound installations have been presented in international festivals and institutions like: Sharjah Biennale UAE (2025), Venice Biennale (2024), Festspielhaus Hellerau (2024), Ses Dotze Naus Ibiza (2024), Tallinn Music Week (2024), European Media Art Festival (2023), Telliskivi Tallinn (2023), Venice Biennale Musica (2022) and many more.

hauptmeier-recker.de

Matthias Kronlachner

Matthias Kronlachner is an audio engineer specializing in embedded software, spatial audio, and live performance. He studied at IEM Graz and works on audio solutions for the home and automotive sectors. As a musician, he combines live electronics, bass, and clarinet, and develops large-scale speaker installations. He is also active in the open-source audio community and is known for the ambisonics and multichannel plugin suites ambiX and mcfx.

Sebastian Oeynhausen

Sebastian Oeynhausen is Product Manager at Pan Acoustics and has been part of the company for more than eleven years. With extensive technical experience in audio networks, mixing consoles and audio matrix systems, as well as live, theatre and conference sound reinforcement, he drives the development of modern and intuitive audio solutions. His projects include Pan Immerse 4D Audio, a sound system for rendering and controlling audio objects.

https://pan-immerse-4d-audio

Felix Deufel

Felix Deufel Felix Deufel is a sound artist focusing on sound and space, spatial hearing, and the significance of soundscapes for both humans and the environment. His artistic works encompass room installations, compositions, field trips, and research. Deufel is the founder of Not a Number Studio, which has recently released Grapes 3D Audio Control, a creative tool for spatialization. In 2020, he established the Centre for Immersive Media Art, Music, and Technology (ZiMMT) in Leipzig, providing a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation in the realms of immersive media art and technology.

Deufel is Co Initiator of both, Spatial Audio Network Germany and Spatial Audio Network.

grapes-3d.com
notanumber.space
felixdeufel.net

Martin Recker

Martin Recker (Composer and Multimedia Artist) Martin Recker is a composer, sound and multimedia artist. He is part of the internationally active artist duo ‘Hauptmeier|Recker’, with whom he has been working since 2009. Together they have realised concerts and sound installations for renowned festivals such as the Venice Biennale and the Sharjah Biennial.he studied composition with Robin Minard and Maximilian Marcoll at the HfM FRANZ LISZT Weimar and at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki with Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski

His artistic practice includes spatial audio live electronics, large-scale and site-specific sound and multimedia installations as well as compositions for theatre and opera on prestigious stages. In addition, he composes spatial music for film and radio plays.As co-founder of the ZiMMT in Leipzig, Martin Recker researches spatial audio and curates events and panels with which he sets decisive impulses for the scene of immersive music in Germany and internationally. Martin Recker has been a lecturer in sound art in the Department of Time-Based Arts at the BURG Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle since 2022.

hauptmeier-recker.de

Natalia Szczepanczyk

Natalia Szczepanczyk is a Berlin-based acoustic consultant specializing in room acoustics and spatial sound. With over 15 years of experience across UK acoustic consultancy and pro audio, she has worked with Genelec, HOLOPLOT and d&b audiotechnik. At HOLOPLOT, she contributed to the audio system for Sphere in Las Vegas; at d&b, to Soundscape’s En-Space room emulation. She now advises architects, venues and sound designers on acoustics for immersive sound.

Jakob Gruhl

Jakob Gruhl is a Creative Producer, musician, and co-founder of Ectoplastic. For over ten years, the lab has combined interactive experiences with music, art, and game technology. Its projects include the Mazetools apps, the VR experience Modyssey, the 3D fashion archive Drasta Digital, the Mimikey installation, and the current project Mazetools Botany. Ectoplastic also collaborates with research and development partners across cultural and artistic projects.

https://ectoplastic.com/botany

https://ectoplastic.com

Martin Rieger

Martin Rieger is a sound engineer working exclusively on immersive 3D audio – for over ten years, across 100+ projects in 15+ countries, from 360° field recordings under extreme conditions to post-production in his Munich studio (VRTonung). As a creative-technical interface, he consults for corporations like Mercedes, VW and BMW, as well as various audio manufacturers and startups. He's a founding member of XRBavaria e.V. and shaped the German job profile "Designer for Immersive Media."

Annika Neidhardt

Annika Neidhardt is Professor of Audio Engineering at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, Germany. For more than 10 years, she has conducted research in Spatial Audio and Virtual Acoustics, focusing on the technology and psychoacoustics of audio for Augmented and Extended Reality. Her research includes perceptual room acoustics, acoustic models, and efficient implementations. She leads the “Audio and Acoustical Engineering” programme and is establishing a new 3D Audio Lab.

hs-mittweida.de/prof-dr-ing-annika-neidhardt

Enrico Dorigatti

Enrico Dorigatti is a sound and digital artist and creative technologist exploring non-determinism, audio-visual interaction, generative systems, and shared agency between artists and external agents. A conservatory graduate with a background in IT, he holds a PhD in Creative Technologies from the University of Portsmouth. His artistic and scholarly work has been presented internationally. He is co-organiser of the Spatial Audio Gathering.

spatialaudiogathering.org
enricodorigatti.com

Adrien Zanni

Adrien Zanni works across sound engineering, research, art, and software development. He holds a Master’s in Sound from the Louis Lumière National School and a PhD from Paris 8 (CICM), where he developed tools for writing sound space in collaboration with HOLOPHONIX and IRCAM. His work has been presented at venues including the Venice Biennale and Avignon Festival. He is now CTO of HOLOPHONIX.

holophonix.xyz

Patrick Kizny

Patrick Kizny is a creative entrepreneur, artist and inventor working at the crossroads of art, technology and design. With over two decades of experience in film, visual effects and creative technology, he now leads Slovox, an independent spatial sound R&D lab in Poland. Slovox explores new paradigms for spatial sound diffusion, composition and performance. Its flagship development, the Singing Watermelons, is a family of spherical beamforming arrays for creating sonic sculptures and new ways of listening.

kizny.com
slovox.design

Nicolas Geysens

Nicolas Geysens is part of the founding team at Ambrio, a Brussels-based startup developing the world’s first spatial DJ and performance mixer. As Co-Developer and Artist Relations Lead, he supports artists in embracing spatial performance and translates their creative needs into the mixer’s design. With 15 years of international experience as a DJ and music producer, he also performs with the mixer and shares his expertise through coaching.

ambriosound.com

and more...

Gallery

Take a look back at last year’s conference and explore a selection of talks and contributions from the programme.
You can find videos of selected talks from last year in our YouTube playlist: –> HERE

Tickets & Location

One-Day Pass:
€100,75 (regular)*
€64,00 (reduced)*

Two-Day Pass:
€150,75 (regular)*
€100,75 (reduced)*

Limited seats! *inkl. fees

Location:
ZiMMT (Zentrum für immersive Medienkunst, Musik und Technologie)
Torgauer Straße 80 / 04318 Leipzig / Germany

Raum & Klang

Spatial Audio Network Conference

23. + 24.09. 2026

Program

23.09.
Day One

24.09.
Day Two