Sound object

1: Sound object: Pierre Schaeffer, the inventor of this term, describes it as an acoustic "object for human perception” and not a mathematical or electro-acoustical object for synthesis. The sound object is then defined by the human ear as the smallest self-contained particle of a soundscape and is analyzable by the characteristics of its envelope. Though the sound object may be referential (i.e., a bell, a drum, etc.), it is to be considered primarily as a phenomenological sound formation, independent of its referential qualities as a sound event. 

(Source: Schafer, R. Murray: Our Sonic Environment and the soundscape: the tuning of the world. Destiny Books 1994).  

2: In object-based production for immersive audio (spatial audio), a sound element is placed in the reproduced sound space by adding coordinates to the metadata. In a format like Dolby Atmos, the system seeks to place that source in the reproduction as well as possible, depending on the number of reproduction channels, i.e., all the way down to stereo. The object can be created in mono, stereo or another format.