Reverb, Spatial & Immersive Audio with Orchisama Das | WolfTalk #026

Orchisama Das is an outstanding audio researcher known for her work in virtual acoustics, artificial reverberation, and immersive audio. She holds a PhD from Stanford University’s prestigious CCRMA and has contributed to groundbreaking research at leading universities and major tech companies.

During this interview, we talk about her path in academia and industry. Orchisama shares her thoughts about the realities of audio research, offering great insights and a very frank and honest perspective on her journey.

We dive into technical topics such as artificial reverberation, virtual acoustics, immersive audio, and open problems in DSP, as well as topics like the gender imbalance in the audio research industry and how to stay productive and motivated during research.

The episode is scattered with many resources and tips for anyone interested in learning the mentioned topics. It is a very inspiring and informative talk for people who are doing audio research, or curious about getting started.

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Episode contents

From this podcast, you will learn:

• How Orchisama Das started her journey in audio research and her path to earning a PhD at Stanford University’s CCRMA.
• About her internships at Tesla and Meta Reality Labs, as well as tips and advice on how to get internships as a researcher.
• A big picture technical overview of artificial reverberation, virtual room acoustics, and immersive audio.
• Resources for learning about these topics, including books, papers, and tools.
• Tips and advice for a good research carrer.
• Her thoughts on the gender imbalance in audio research and ways to address it.

This episode was recorded on November 21, 2024.

00:00:00 Podast Intro

00:00:38 Orchisama Das

00:02:34 Wolfsound: DSP Pro

00:04:33 Orchisama's Background and Introduction

00:05:17 Early Interest in Music

00:06:25 From Electronics to Music Technology

00:10:45 Applying to PhD Programs

00:12:01 PhD Research at CCRMA

00:20:45 Sponsor: JUCE

00:22:26 Internships at Tesla and Meta

00:27:10 Postdoc at the University of Surrey

00:31:27 Moving to Industry: Sonos

00:36:34 Back to Academia: King's College

00:40:44 Artificial Reveberation

00:56:49 Spatial Audio

01:01:29 Machine Learning for Audio DSP

01:04:43 Tools and Technology Stack

01:07:29 Personal Audio Plugin Projects

01:09:08 Productivity Habits for Researchers

01:11:24 Book Recommendations

01:13:10 Focus Music

01:14:04 Do You Need a PhD for Industry Research?

01:15:25 'Women at Sonos' Resource Group

01:17:01 Gender Diversity in the Audio Industry

01:18:36 Comparing Research Institutes

01:20:41 Composing and Performing Music

01:23:23 Connecting with Orchisama

01:25:06 Outro