<![CDATA[The digital transformation of cultural documentation has led to the emergence of immersive media technologies that more fully portray performing arts events. However, much of the traditional art documentation in Indonesia still relies on the typical stereo recording techniques which have a disadvantage in capturing the spatial dimensions, aural environment and performance experiences. This paper discusses the usage of First Order Ambisonic (FOA) in documenting the Balinese modern traditional performing arts as an effort to create an immersive cultural experience through the application of spatial audio methodology. The research is practice based, qualitative descriptive with stages of pre-production, technical experimentation, testing of ambisonic microphone setup, production and evaluation of recorded findings. Data were obtained through field observations, production workflows, and technical testing and analysis of outputs from spatial audio recording. The results reveal that FOA is able to deliver more immmersive spatial aspects of performances than standard stereo approaches, especially the movement of performers, spatial distribution of gamelan sounds, atmosphere of the surroundings and acoustic resonance of the performance locations. Furthermore, environmental sound aspects that have been historically deemed noise can also offer ecological acoustic identity in cultural performances. This study contributes to the development of immersive media-based cultural documentation and proposes spatial audio as an alternative method for digital heritage preservation within the framework of media convergence. ]]>
