The paper reports on an experiment designed to examine the perception of the spatial attributes of envelopment and engulfment in spatial techniques used in multichannel electroacoustic music. Four spatial techniques were examined, they were: (i) Timbre Spatialisation [1], (ii) Spectral Splitting [2], (iii) Amplitude Point Source [3], and the proposed (iv) Dynamic Spectral Spatialisation technique. The multi-channel loudspeaker configuration consisted of 16 loudspeakers, eight horizontal and eight elevated. The experiment was design whereby the four above mentioned spatial techniques were presented in three conditions: (i) Horizontal only, (ii) Elevated only, and (iii) Horizontal and Elevated, referred to as Three Dimensional (3D), loudspeaker configurations. The experiment took place in the Spatialisation Auditory Display Environment (SpADE) at the University of Limerick and has physical attributes that conform to the ITU-R BS.1116-1 listening room standard [4]. Each participant individually undertook a listening experiment whereby they were asked to evaluate each spatial technique presented in the three conditions for perceived levels of envelopment and engulfment. A factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the envelopment and engulfment ratings. The results of the analysis revealed a significant main effect for spatial techniques and loudspeaker configurations for both spatial attributes. Participants rated the Dynamic Spectral Spatialisation technique highest for levels of envelopment and engulfment. The Horizontal loudspeaker configuration was rated highest for envelopment and the Elevated loudspeaker configuration was rated highest for engulfment
