Binaural Recording

DonkeyRhubarb

I have to do a presentation on binaural recording technology. I know roughly how it works and it makes sense to ME, but I have to get up and give a lecture on it. Theres a lot of stuff on it on the net, but is very complex and difficult to get to grips with. Does anyone know of an easy way to describe binaural recording which I can expand on? If I can get the ground work, I should be fine. Regards all and thanks in advance (if anyone has a clue what Im talking about lol!):D

OMcGovern

I read up about binaural sounds when I was messing around with a Biofeedback device. ( A ThoughtStream galvanic skin response detector ).

The idea is that you play a sound at one frequency through one ear, and a sound at another frequency through the other ear.
Your brain ends up "hearing" the difference between them.

So, certain frequencies in may calm us down, eg very low frequencies.
However our ears can only hear to about 20Khz I think...

But if you play say 20.2Khz in one ear, and 20.3khz in the other, then you can "hear" a frequency / beat difference of 0.1 khz.
( ignore the actual figures quoted, I just used them as an example )

So certain low frequencies may have a calming effect on the brain.

regards,
Owen

BopNiblets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural

You could bring an mp3 player with some actual binaural samples, or go one step further and do some basic recordings with a dummy head in the lecture!
Maybe do it with a laptop and have and MP3 player handy to pass around (assuming they won't nick it )

wavin

DonkeyRhubarb wrote:

I have to do a presentation on binaural recording technology. I know roughly how it works and it makes sense to ME, but I have to get up and give a lecture on it. Theres a lot of stuff on it on the net, but is very complex and difficult to get to grips with. Does anyone know of an easy way to describe binaural recording which I can expand on? If I can get the ground work, I should be fine. Regards all and thanks in advance (if anyone has a clue what Im talking about lol!):D

think software called sbagen does some of this binaural stuff


edit:ya heres their site. http://uazu.net/sbagen/

dalk

DonkeyRhubarb wrote:

Does anyone know of an easy way to describe binaural recording which I can expand on?

The way i would describe a 'binaural recording' to someone is to say, that it is a recording technique that tries to mimic the interaction of your body and ears to sound waves, rather than just your ears, which is more akin to standard mic recording.

A good example would be a binaural recording of someone brushing their teeth, versus a standard mic recording of the same.

Listening back with headphones, the binaural recording will sound like you are actually brushing your teeth. The standard mic recording will sound like listening to someone else brushing their teeth.

So, I suppose you need to stress the importance of a "body", something other than air that soundwaves pass through, in binaural recording. And the effect this has on frequencies perceived.

DonkeyRhubarb

Thats a great start, thanks all. I particularly like the idea of the 'brushing your teeth' recording. Im gonna be bringing in a laptop with Adobe Audition with a few samples for people to hear. Most people will never have heard of the technique before, so it should spur some discussions. I pretty much have my head around the whole understanding, it's just putting it into laymans terms that catches me out, so I should have something to start with now. Feel free to give any other pointers, Im making a powerpoint presentation now for the overhead projector, just to keep me on track. Regards all, Mike