Binaural audio effects

Monday, 19 October 2009 07:11 Filed under Music Written by Daniel Andersson

This is actually a rather old audio clip and most of you've already heard it before but it's still fun listening to.

The 3D effect is made with a special recording technique called binaural. Instead of recording with set up microphones everything is recorded with a dummy head. Two microphones (one for each ear) are put inside the head  which has authentic ears with auditory canals. The sound will then bounce inside the external ear exactly as it would on a real person and reach the microphones with a small time difference them between depending on where the sound source is located in the room. When the recordings are played back your brain will then interpret these time and amplitude differences between the left and right ear speakers as if you would actually stand inside the very room it was recorded in.

To get the binaural effect to work you need a pair of earphones / headphones as it won't work with ordinary speakers.

So here it is - The Virtual barbershop of Manuel and Luigi. Close your eyes and enjoy!

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Get the MP3 in better audio quality here. (Right click / save)

There are also music recordings made this way however the effect is not always as obvious.

Tchad Blake is a record producer who occasionally uses this technique. Pearl Jam has a couple of tracks recorded binaural by him on their Binaural album and the 'Chapman stick'-playing Tony Levin took the technique even further on his From the caves of the iron mountain album where Tchad recorded the trio playing inside a waterfilled cave walking around inside the cave, sometimes out in the water, wearing the microphones inside his ears.