Apparatus and method for multi-channel signal playback

A method, comprising:

• accessing at least two audio signals captured using at least two omnidirectional microphones and corresponding to a received sound, wherein the at least two omnidirectional microphones are effective for capturing the at least two audio signals coming from all directions;
• determining a directional estimation based on subbands between the at least two signals and wherein one or more dominant sound source directions are determined, each of the one or more dominant sound source directions being dependent on a direction of the received sound, where the received sound can come from potentially all directions;
• determining a first signal based at least in part on the directional estimation wherein the determined first signal comprises emphasized sub bands having the one or more dominant sound source directions relative to subbands that deviate from the one or more dominant sound source directions, wherein the subbands that deviate from the one or more dominant sound source directions are attenuated, and wherein the emphasized subbands include a mid signal of the received sound;
• determining a second signal wherein an ambience component is introduced for a sound image, wherein the ambience component includes a side signal of the received sound;
• and
• creating a resultant audio signal for the sound image using the first and second signals wherein the resultant audio signal is at least one multichannel signal having the ambience component including the side signal, the emphasized subbands having the one or more dominant sound source directions including the mid signal and the attenuated subbands that deviate from the one or more dominant sound source directions.

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memories including computer program code,
• the one or more memories and the computer program code configured to, with the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:
• determining a directional estimation based on subbands between at least two input audio signals captured using at least two omnidirectional microphones, wherein the at least two omnidirectional microphones are effective for capturing the at least two input audio signals coming from all directions, and wherein one or more dominant sound source directions are determined, each of the one or more dominant sound source directions being dependent on a direction of a received sound, where the received sound can come from potentially all directions;
• determining a first signal comprised of subbands and based at least in part on the directional estimation wherein the determined first signal comprises emphasized subbands having the one or more dominant sound source directions relative to subbands that deviate from the one or more dominant sound source directions, wherein the subbands that deviate from the one or more sound source directions are attenuated, and wherein the emphasized subbands include a mid signal of the received sound;
• and determining a second signal based on the plurality of subbands wherein an ambience component is introduced for a sound image;
• determining whether one or both of binaural audio output or multi-channel audio output should be output;
• in response to a determination binaural audio output should be output, synthesizing binaural signals from the first and the second signal, processing the binaural signals into two audio output signals, and outputting the two audio output signals;
• and
• in response to a determination multi-channel audio output should be output, synthesizing at least two audio output signals for the sound image from the first signal and the second second signal, and outputting the at least two audio output signals having the ambience component including the side signal, the emphasized subbands having the one or more dominant sound source directions including the mid signal and the attenuated subbands that deviate from the one or more dominant sound source directions.