The Binaural Source - Tools

HRTF Play

nospam@example.com (Eric Larson) — Sat, 19 May 2007 13:52:45 -0700

I made a plugin for foobar2000 (PC audio software) that can do stereo convolution. This
performs the same task as the convolve plugin, but allows the left signal to be sent to the left and right outputs, and the right signal to be sent to the left and right outputs. This allows the computation of head related transfer functions (HRTFs), which are approximated by features like bs2b and crossfeed.

More information and download at:
http://people.bu.edu/edlarson/stereoconv.html

If you want some real HRTF files to try with it, I recommend IRCAM's site:
(http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salles/listen/context.html).

Happy listening.

HEAD acoustics - Auto Record and Play

nospam@example.com (Rich Lewandowski) — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:44:00 -0800

While there is much information surfacing about "dummy heads" at the moment, today's link looks at one provider in a huge market, evaluating automobile sound and sound systems, with much gear.

http://www.head-acoustics.de/Datasheets/

Handheld Binaural Recorder - Act Now for $1000 Discount

nospam@example.com (Rich Lewandowski) — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:02:57 -0800

ViAcoustics' Handheld Binaural Recorder is a portable recording system capable of making 16 bit/44 kHz or 24 bit/96 kHz, high fidelity digital recordings for listening or post-process acoustic/sound quality analysis. The Handheld Binaural Recorder is a perfect entry level data acquisition and recording system for use with the Nelson Acoustical Engineering Sound Quality Analyzer software.

The unit pictured here is using a HP Ipaq 5550 PDA in a dual slot expansion pack with auxiliary battery to control the battery powered A/D converter and microphone signal conditioner. The A/D converter communicates with the PDA via a Compact Flash adapter. A set of high
end binaural microphones made by DPA are used by mounting them on a Jecklin type disk to achieve the binaural imaging.

The Handheld Binaural Recorder can be operated as a handheld recording device, using the pistol grip adapter, or mount the unit on a tripod, using the threaded adapter on the base of the handle. The Handheld Binaural Recorder runs entirely on a 9V batteries in the A/D converter and PDA power, making it a truly portable solution.

http://www.viacoustics.com/recorder.html

Handheld Binaural Recorder Data Sheet (192k PDF file)

Buy a Neumann Head, or just learn more about it...

nospam@example.com (Rich Lewandowski) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 04:44:00 -0800

Neumann KU100 description:

The KU 100 dummy head is a binaural stereo microphone. It resembles the human head and has two microphone capsules built into the ears. When listening through high-quality headphones it gives the illusion of being right at the scene of the acoustic events.

When using the KU 100 dummy head, the binaural stereo experience moves the listener into the scene of the original performance, in contrast to other space-related recording techniques, where the acoustic event is moved to the listener. The dummy head is also used in many industrial applications as a measuring device, for example in acoustic research.

Audacity Offers Great Open Source Sound Editing and Free

nospam@example.com (Rich Lewandowski) — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 04:44:00 -0700

The listing from UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization endorses both Audacity, an open source sound editor, and Sourceforge, an amazing purveyor of open source software products:

Audacity

Audacity is a good, simple audio editor
suitable for recording, mixing, and editing ordinary tracks of
CD-quality audio, on many platforms including Windows, Mac OS, and
Linux.

Category(ies) including this link: Audio |

(Added: Mon Jun 10 2002 - Hits: 367 Rating: 10.00 Votes: 1) Rate It

Create a Binaural Story from the Freesound Project

nospam@example.com (Rich Lewandowski) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 04:44:00 -0700

Tell Your Story with soundbytes from:

The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focuses only on sound, not songs. This is what sets freesound apart from other splendid libraries like ccMixter. New to this site? Read the What is Freesound page to learn more!

Use the search function to find binaural tags.

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/

Soundfield Mic - No "Dummy Head" Needed

nospam@example.com (Rich Lewandowski) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 04:44:00 -0700

The DSF-2 Broadcast Microphone System has been specifically developed to simultaneously provide both the surround and stereo soundscape at large scale outside broadcast events such as football stadiums and concert hall venues. Its advantage over alternative methods is that the multichannel audio it generates from a ‘single point’ source is completely phase coherent. This enables the broadcaster to collapse the surround to stereo or mono for TV and radio feeds without loss of information, frequency imbalance or any of the other phase problems associated with spaced microphones or multi capsule ‘dummy head’ arrangements.

http://www.soundfield.com/products/dsf2.php

Learning and Searching Fun

nospam@example.com (Rich Lewandowski) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 04:44:00 -0700

This lifted quote contains many references already linked so you can start figuring it out.

"At OmniHead, we work with Sony CDR3000 closed headphones, a reference with very limpid reproduction.The realism of the sound environment thus created also requires a high quality definition of the signal. OmniHead uses omnidirectional microphones and a 130V DPA preamplification, an Apogee conversion, a resolution in linear under PCM 24bit/44,1KHz ProTools. Concerned by this acoustic fidelity, OmniHead will now be able to work on a 96KHz sampling going through a Yamaha DM2000 console preamplication and conversion."