News and Views

A Q and A plus a link from recent emails:

Name of sender: Evil Joe

I was wondering if the binaural effect would be the same if I had a surround
sound speaker system. Like two front speakers, two rear speakers, and a
subwoofer/center speaker. Thanks.

Hi EJ:

Most modern binaural recordings sound excellent in plain stereo, and will probably sound very good on a surround system, just as good stereo does.

But it will not be surround sound, neither will it sound the same as Binaural played back with headphones, or with just two "crosstalk-cancelled" stereo loudspeakers.

Binaural recordings played back through good headphones can also reproduce the up and down dimension: above and below as well as around you in a horizontal circle, and reproduce the effects of closeness or distance much better than a 5.1 surround speaker setup can.

Steve
The Binaural Source

and to illuminate, enjoy this binaural multimedia art from Jeff Anderson:

http://digdagga.com/2009/01/ghost.html

There are stories within stories, even in this Radio Lab program on "Emergence" which made my head turn more than once to see the source of the sounds. Of course, then the illusion evaporated and I refocus on the message.

Download the MP3 of the Radio Lab program "Emergence" by clicking on this line

So what do we make of recorded sound in our lives? Does the affect alter our paths or is the act of listening everything?

...and what does that say about background use in movies and the rare television use? Can you see the story?

Audio Engineering Society
Detroit Section
P. O. Box 721464
Berkley, Michigan, U.S.A
Telephone: 248-699-9219

Detroit AES
AES is the professional society for audio engineers.
Non-members and guests are always welcome at Detroit Section AES Meetings.

Speaker: Wade Bray of HEAD acoustics, Inc.

Topic: The History of Binaural Technology

Audio recording and presentation abstract - click on "more" below

Thankful for a rich subject area, daily additions will resume, perhaps with your guidance. Meanwhile, catch up with previously submitted entries and imagine how a podcast should sound.

Want to send your idea or feedback? Click for a form.

This snippet is from the binaural discussion on Sursound but not in that
item and/or item comments.

"Both Head Acoustics and Bruel and Kjaer have made products for doing binaural recording or measurements using a human head. They are like the Sennheiser MKE2002 in that they place microphones close to the ear canal entrance of a human subject. I have used the B&K 4101 and it works much better than the MKE2002. It is also much more expensive than the Sennheiser device. It is important to note that you need to know what the diffuse-field response of the system (microphone plus head) is, so that it can be equalized out in order that the recording can be played back on diffuse-field equalized headphones, or on loudspeakers."

Head Acoustics BHM III.3

Bruel and Kjaer 4101

Ambisonic => Binaural:
It is possible to produce material ambisonically, either using studio techniques or by recording with a soundfield microphone, and then to convert it to binaural. It should also be fairly trivial to apply head tracking in order to fix the sound images to the surroundings, and not with the listeners head. The basic technique is to use a virtual reproduction system, and associate an HRTF with the location of each of the virtual loudspeakers. In this way, by summing up the ear signals from the HRTF filters from each of the loudspeaker location, one can calculate the ear signals that would have been heard if the listener had actually been listening to the loudspeaker reproduction. This virtual reproduction idea works in principle with ANY loudspeaker system.

Motion Tracked Binaural at CIPIC:
The folks at CIPIC, notably Ralph Algazi and Richard Duda, have published a number of papers on a binaural-like system that they call Motion Tracked Binaural, or MTB.

Check out: http://interface.cipic.ucdavis.edu/CIL_html/CIL_MTB.htm

Binaural v Holophonic is the subject of this page of discussion forum

You'll find links, including one to the famous holophonic Zuccarelli matchbox, discussion of binaural related to the Tuesday, September 26th item, and an audio related website with an interesting operational model. The first link in the page is dead.

Boston Scientific Announces FDA Approval of

Harmony™ HiResolution® Bionic Ear System

versus

The Gizmodo Entry for the Bionic Ear

and another Gizmodo entry

Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Is Like Sex in Your Ear Canal

• USB Port (For direct connectivity to supported USB Storage Device)
• Records audio to Uncompressed WAV format or MP3 format
• Selectable bit rate, up to 320kbps
• Microphone input with Phantom power
• Built-in Phono preamp for direct connection of Turntables
• LED Indicator shows memory remaining on target drive
• 6-bar VU meter with peak hold and Overload indicator
• 1/8” (3.5mm) Headphone monitor output

View the Manufacturers Web Page

See the Manufacture's Product Page

HEADPHONE BINAURAL:

• provides 360-degree virtual audio - all around you!
  
• requires no special equipment - just your stereo headphones
  
• you can experience it anywhere - in privacy or with
  someone else
  
• not only loudspeaker-compatible but also gives you
  superb surround sound via any matrix surround decoder