1. A method for processing audio data, the method comprising: receiving audio data corresponding to a recording of a conference involving a plurality of conference participants, the audio data including at least one of: (a) audio data from multiple endpoints, the audio data for each of the multiple endpoints having been recorded separately or (b) audio data from a single endpoint corresponding to multiple conference participants and including spatial information for each conference participant of the multiple conference participants; analyzing the audio data to determine conversational dynamics data that includes at least one data type selected from a list of data types consisting of: data indicating the frequency and duration of conference participant speech; data indicating instances of conference participant doubletalk during which at least two conference participants are speaking simultaneously; and data indicating instances of conference participant conversations; applying the conversational dynamics data as one or more variables of a spatial optimization cost function of a vector describing a virtual conference participant position for each of the conference participants in a virtual acoustic space; applying an optimization technique to the spatial optimization cost function to determine a locally optimal solution; and assigning the virtual conference participant positions in the virtual acoustic space based, at least in part, on the locally optimal solution.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual acoustic space is determined relative to a position of a virtual listener's head in the virtual acoustic space and wherein the spatial optimization cost function applies a penalty for placing conference participants who speak frequently at virtual conference participant positions that are beside, behind, above, or below the position of the virtual listener's head.