To create a rich sonic narrative for Boom’s “music video without video,” we relied on several advanced sound design techniques, constructing an explorable world around the song using only audio. Binaural field recordings in Bushwick, Brooklyn and Ithaca, NY brought those locales (both meaningful to the band) to life, while sound effects recorded in-studio added to the two distinct sonic narratives. All recordings were layered over and under the stems of the existing X Ambassadors track, and mixed using Windows Sonic to create a 3D, spatialized audio experience that responded to mobile devices’ internal gyroscopes. For instance, when you listen to the Bushwick version of “Boom,” you hear the bustle of Brooklyn: honking cars, busy road traffic, the sound of shoes hitting the pavement, etc. This is woven into the song itself, and the user can choose how much of this “ambient” noise to mix into the track.

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Platinum-selling rockers X Ambassadors have wide appeal among international alt-rock fans. The band contains two brothers, Sam (frontman) and Casey Harris (keyboard), who grew up in Ithaca, NY before getting their break while living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC. Casey is blind. Binaural audio is a method of recording using two microphones, which results in a 3D stereo sound for listeners, when they use headphones. Windows Sonic is Microsoft’s spatialized audio platform, which allows for recordings to be mixed in 3D.

Ithaca and Brooklyn, New York, which provided the app’s authentic and interactive audio foundations — on top of which were laid spatialized voiceover and scene-boosting assets that all serve to take the listener virtually inside X Ambassadors’ world. Added to these naturalistic soundscapes were the song’s stems, now spatially animated as well, such that singers and instruments move dynamically around the listener. With 360 degrees of rotational freedom, the user is placed at the center of the action and can aurally focus on the different sonic elements by pointing their phone in the directions that interest them. Also able to control the volume blend between song and soundscape, each listener’s experience is uniquely different and amplifies the Boom app’s immersive audio storytelling.