[darinf]

For those of you on Windows Creator's version, there was a bug in the Out Of Your Head software. The green "play" buttons for playing test audio in the Out Of Your Head Control Panel caused Out Of Your Head to crash.

We have fixed that bug in the latest release of Out Of Your Head. You can upgrade to the latest version by downloading and installing the free trial from our website.
You can read the Windows Out Of Your Head release notes here.

Another note, when Windows does a major Windows upgrade, sometimes it will reset the audio configuration of the Out Of Your Head VIrtual Audio device. If that happens, Out Of Your Head can sound very distorted like static or crackling.
To solve this, there are two things to check with regard to the Out Of Your Head Virtual Audio device.
You can follow the steps here: Out Of Your Head Driver Speaker Setup
And here: Work Around for Out Of Your Head “OOYH Output Error” Bug
(Even though you may not have the "Output Error" message, switching the sampling rate from 32-bit to 24-bit and back to 32-bit seems to help fix the distortion issues.)

Contact us via e-mail or our contact form if you have any questions or problems with the updated version.

-Darin

 

[Kev K]

I've spent hours reading about OOYH, but I'm still unclear on one point. Can OOYH replace Dolby Headphone, et. al.? Can OOYH take, as its input, a raw, untampered audio track in the DTS (etc.) format?

I think I'm asking is if OOYH decodes multi-channel audio formats.

My video player and its internal audio renderer offers the option to "pass-through" DTS, TrueHD, etc., and send it via exclusive-mode WASAPI to a device over S/PDIF or HDMI. I would want to send it to the OOYH driver instead.

 

[darinf]

I've spent hours reading about OOYH, but I'm still unclear on one point. Can OOYH replace Dolby Headphone, et. al.? Can OOYH take, as its input, a raw, untampered audio track in the DTS (etc.) format?

I think I'm asking is if OOYH decodes multi-channel audio formats.

My video player and its internal audio renderer offers the option to "pass-through" DTS, TrueHD, etc., and send it via exclusive-mode WASAPI to a device over S/PDIF or HDMI. I would want to send it to the OOYH driver instead.

Hi @Kev K ,
Out Of Your Head does have the same function as Dolby Headphone and other virtual surround software.
However, Out Of Your Head accepts decoded, discrete, PCM audio from 2 to 8 channels. Out Of Your Head requires the media player software or game to decode any encoded multi-channel formats like Dolby or DTS. Most, if not all media players will do the decoding. Tehn the raw PCM audio is fed to Out Of Your Head for processing, resulting in a 2 channel signal for your headphones.

So, just to be clear, Out Of Your Head does not decode. But it does not need to since the media player will do that for you.

From your video player, you would not use the "pass-through" option. You would just set your media player to output to the Out Of Your Head Virtual Audio device. Your media player will see the Out Of Your Head Virtual Audio Device as a 7.1 compatible sound card and decode the multi-channel content and then send the decoded PCM to Out Of Your Head. You do not need to use WASAPI. You can use Direct Sound. This way you don't have to worry about doing any sample rate conversion for Out Of Your Head.

I hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any other questions.
-Darin

 

[Kev K]

Thank you! It's exactly what I needed to know. I'm looking forward to buying and enjoying it.

 

[BeatsWork]

Interesting read and tantalizing possibilities https://developer.nvidia.com/vrworks-audio-sdk-depth?ncid=em-ded-vrnr-14888

@darinf - Time to start playing with Dev kit

 

[darinf]

Interesting read and tantalizing possibilities https://developer.nvidia.com/vrworks-audio-sdk-depth?ncid=em-ded-vrnr-14888

@darinf - Time to start playing with Dev kit

Hi @BeatsWork ,
Thanks for posting. Interesting technology for sure. However, I am not sure if it can be used with Out Of Your Head.

I always use the analogy of CGI or real-time 3D graphics rendering in games vs. videotaping a real scene. While there are amazing real-time rendering engines, even a real-time ray-tracing engine can only get close to a video recording of a real scene, we can fairly easily tell the difference between computer rendered graphics vs. a recording of a real scene.

The same analogy applies for real-time 3D audio rendering vs. Out Of Your Head. Out Of Your Head is based on "recording" or capturing a real environment vs. computer rendered audio. Like real-time 3D graphics, it it pretty obvious which is a "recording" of a real scene vs. a computer generated one.

Obviously real-time computer generated video or audio has huge advantages in terms of flexibility, but the trade-off is realism.

Maybe the NVidia technology can be used simply as a high powered Out Of Your Head rendering engine. We will take a look for sure.

-Darin

 

[Takeanidea]

For those of you who have purchased or trialled out of your head software and are wondering as to what the difference might be between this and the Smyth Realiser, I have now listened to both. I went to Can Jam London on Sunday primarily to do the demo.
The difference between the 2 are light years apart. The Smyth Realiser does not sound hollow and compressed , like many of the pre sets on OOYH. It is virtually indistinguishable from the speakers it sampled. The experience was the same as being at in a normal room listening to a top class speaker system.
For those of you who are worried that the Smyth Realiser has some of the drawbacks of the OOYH software and are reluctant to take that sort of financial risk , there is absolutely no need to be.
I believe that both OOYH and Smyth Realiser use exactly the same technology. The difference in realism from getting the real thing as opposed to software that uses analogue samples from it is startling

 

[castleofargh]

one of the differences is simply that the calibration on the realiser is done on your own head. so of course it is more likely to work for you. on the other hand OOYH relies on a preset standard that will work great for some people, work well for most, and will just not hit the sweet spot for those with heads/bodies that are too far away from the target(the reason why using the free trial makes so much sense). it's like a lefty using a right handed pair of scissors. it can feel really wrong on some pairs, but you can't blame the scissors or the guy for being a lefty. that's just how it is with standardized stuff.

 

[Takeanidea]

I take it you've heard both? What was the better one for you? The analogue recordings from a Smyth Realiser A8 or an uncompressed exact match of your own ears and headphones?

 

[castleofargh]

I'm waiting for my A16, jumped on it as soon as I learned about the kickstarter campaign. OOYH doesn't have the same functionalities and clearly not the same cost!!! it feels a little unfair to put them against each other just because room simulation is such a deserted business(although VR googles have forced a few people to wake up about it).
my experience with OOYH wasn't good and I expected it. I hoped it would work because it would have been so cool, but expected problems. I also don't get good results from binaural recordings. and almost any standard based on the average human simply doesn't "do it" for me. it's the sad conclusion I've had to reach over years of trying everything I could. the very obvious thing about me not being standard is my size and the size of my skull, maybe other aspects of me related to audio are non standard, but I guess this is already enough to lend me a VIP sit in the human audio minority club.
but some people get great results with OOYH, just like some people are amazed by some binaural albums recorded a specific way, crossfeed settings, or even some surround effects. anything where those guys are lucky to have a body and headphone real close to what the system was targeting, and they get the experience as it was intended. lucky bstards.^_^
my point in the post above is that my or your experience of OOYH don't necessarily reflect the experience of other users with other bodies and headphones. I'm the unlucky lefty in my scissor analogy, so I really need customized simulation like the Realiser does and is so far, alone to do. so yes it's a superior solution for room simulation, a customized one. but it's hard to forget the price difference.

 

[darinf]

Thanks to @Takeanidea and @castleofargh for your posts. Great discussion. And thanks for your responses, @castleofargh . You are spot on in your responses. And I am glad that even though Out Of Your Head didn't work for you, you recognize that it doesn't mean that Out Of Your Head will not work for anyone.

Out Of Your Head is an interesting product since two people can have completely different impressions of it and both people are right!

I agree with both of you for the most part. There is no question that a custom measurement using your own HRTF will always yield a better result. Just like most things, if you have the resources and opportunity to do whatever it takes to get the best quality, then that's great! But not everyone can do that. So Out Of Your Head offers a possible solution that is more accessible for people. It's not perfect by any stretch. I'll be the first to admit that.

I also think that testing the system in the same room with the speakers that were measured can help make the overall impression MUCH better since you brain has all the real visual and audio cues to help reinforce the effect. When we do custom measurements for customers, we do an A/B comparison between the headphones and the speakers and almost all of the time, the customer cannot tell the difference using Out Of Your Head vs. the real speakers.

But all I want people to know is that regardless of what other people say, just give it a try for yourself with your ears and your headphone system. It's rare in the audiophile universe that you can try a product for yourself for free with relatively little effort rather than relying on reviews and impressions from others.

If it doesn't work for you, that's fine. But for many of our satisfied customers, it works well enough for them to purchase Out Of Your Head.

TLDR: YMMV
But it's easy enough to test for yourself.
-Darin

 

[Smugsie]

I finally purchased the OOYH software and chose Quad ESL Speakers. Quad ESL Speakers go very well with Sennheiser HD600's because the sub-bass lift is so huge that I have to adjust the settings all the way down to -22db. The setting also reduces treble and separates the sub-bass from the rest of the spectrum and this definitely feeds my basshead needs. Originally I was going to buy the JVC SZ-2000 for my bass needs but OOYH seemed much better (and cheaper).

My only problem with OOYH is that 25% of the time there's always clipping and it sounds like crackling speakers when the source is slightly above -10db. I have to reset the software a good 2-3 times to relieve the clipping.

 

[Bloos]

I find that if I change speakers presets a few times (5-10 times) quickly before switching back to my normal setting, this be usually solves the "crackling" issue.
Also, restarting whatever program's playing the audio sometimes helps

 

[Fox1977]

I also face this problem and it's quite annoying... I often have to close and restart OOYH 3-4 times before all the crackling noises disappear. I have no idea why it happens (and sometimes it works fine from the first attempt)

 

[tumble]

I have the same problem. Also, sometimes OOYH doesn't process sound at all — when that happens to me I can fix it by re-setting its volume in Audio Midi Setup (this is on a Macintosh), but having to do that is a hassle. (And doesn't fix the crackling issue.)

I don't want to discourage anybody from buying this, because it's SO much fun, but they need to know what they're getting. It's certainly not something you should expect to buy, set and forget.

I really wish Darin would re-write this as an Audio Unit. I know it's not going to happen because he wants to keep the DRM on it.