This set-up has an added advantage of looking very discrete no one will know you are recording sound rather than listening to it. A far simpler solution is to use your own head, with small microphones placed in your ears that look reassuringly like earbuds for an mp3 player. Recording binaural sound is relatively simple you just need a replica head with microphones placed within the replica ears.

Although it is a simple and effective process, one of the drawbacks is that it only works over headphones, but with the burgeoning interest in VR, perhaps its time has come again. The result is an uncannily realistic sense of audio space.īinaural is not new in fact, it goes back to the end of the 19th century, but every few years it seems to have a revival. The dummy ear canals mimic the way our eardrums receive sound and distinguish where it comes from. Get (or be) a dummyīinaural recording does this by placing microphones exactly where your ears would be in a dummy head. Since we only have two ears, complete 3-dimensionality should be achievable with just two sound sources, if they can accurately reproduce the way your ears hear the sound. Surround sound systems add speakers behind you.īinaural recording, also know as 'dummy head' stereo, takes a much simpler approach.

By Roland Denning.Ĭonventional stereo sound aims to create a sound stage in front of you, as if you are sitting in the stalls at a concert. Burgeoning consumer technologies will serve to increase the importance of binaural recording, so here's a quick introduction on the subject.

Binaural mic