[jimbobuk]

Hi,

I recently brought a preamp/battery module and some in ear binaural mics from the US (i am in the UK) and have been playing around with them and my creative jukebox3, recording samples as waves at 48khz... I am still having problems setting it up in some ways, and these samples were done on a windy day so there are some intermittent problems.. anyways if you wanna give them a go try here

http://www.btinternet.com/~jimtreats...n_To_The_Lake/

They are in MPC format, which is the highest lossy codec around... a tiny plugin is required to play these files within winamp..

http://www.ca5e.tk <----- homepage of winamp plugins creator

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/mpc/bin/winamp-alpha.zip
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/mpc/bin/in_mpc.exe

Zip for those who r paranoid, exe for those that want it easily installed... close winamp before install.. restart after install and drag mpcs onto winamp and they will play... the file extension .mpc should get associated with winamp if not you can add it yourself if you want... ( a couple of restarts of winamps may make the extension get associated with winamp so I hear )

Alternative downloads for playing mpc can be found at the main homepage for the format

http://www.private.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/

A big page, this is the section you will be looking for

http://www.private.uni-jena.de/~pfk/...der-binaries16


Anyways ... feedback would be good... more samples will be uploaded when i negotiate properly with another webspace provider.. some of these samples are class... my HD600s are nice with these samples but i think the fact that they sit off of your ears lessens the effect... my etymotic ER-4Ps are close to holographic for me with the original waves... Enjoy (tho i admit they're a bit dull

 

[jimbobuk]

ok, so no one is interested... ohh well

i was hoping that headphone lovers would like something that is basically for headphones only... ohh well.. i'll try else where for feedback

 

[kelly]

jimbo
Sorry man, I'm way interested but won't be able to check em out until Monday or Tuesday. I don't have a good soundcard on the home system. Don't give up on Head-Fi yet. There are a few of us interested in binaural, we're just not always so quick to respond.

 

[kerelybonto]

jimbobuk, very nice. Anyone who hasn't listened to any binaural recordings should download these, plug in your favorite cans, and then see if you still thing headphones can't give you the soundstaging of speakers. In the lake clips you can tell where every quacking duck is. The 'surprise' in one of the later clips is right there, about to take off the left side of your head. The bus shelter clip sounds exactly like you just walked into one. I just wish there was more music recorded in this format.

My only criticism is that you definitely needed the windscreens on your mics.

What kind of mics are you using? I have been considering buying some mics for recording live shows and some binaural action on the side. How much WAV audio can you record on your Jukebox3?

Oh, and for the rest of you Windows users out there who don't use winamp, try using this codec to decode the MPC files.

Thanks, jimbobuk.

kerely

 

[jimbobuk]

Yay, some replies.. I remember reading peoples responses to binaural before in here ..

I will be making more recordings as, and when... when I get anything good i'll upload samples.. going to try and get them complete, onto another ISP... they (crosswinds) aren't talking back to me about making sure its ok.. they r obviously my files, my copyright..

ANyways... to answer some points

Quote:

My only criticism is that you definitely needed the windscreens on your mics.

I actually have windscreens on these mics.. they are the in-ear ones from soundprofessionals.com ... they come with windscreens (look like the foam outer layer on cheapy in ear headphones) ... trust me it was a HORRIBLE day.... VERY VERY blustery... usually they r fine...

Quote:

What kind of mics are you using? I have been considering buying some mics for recording live shows and some binaural action on the side. How much WAV audio can you record on your Jukebox3?

THese are the mics

SOUND PROFESSIONALS
LOW NOISE IN-EAR BINAURAL MICROPHONES
SP-TFB-2

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cg...B-2&type=store

This is the battery module, preamp

SP-SPSB-7

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cg...B-7&type=store

This i got with preamp, and bass roll off, this is what cost the money :/

THey just plug into your jukebox3 linein and away you go... As i am sure you all noticed.. there some slight buzzing in the right channel (i think, maybe left) when it gets quiet... i am looking into this.. i tried reproducing this at home in a quiet room and wasn't able to.. even using mobile phones etc (what i thought was causing it)

I am pretty sure i have heard it have a rythmn to the buzzing i am wondering if the shock of walking ain't helping... either that or cold or moisture or level settings..

I have the preamp turned all the way up, the line in on the jukebox3 set to max, +12 db ... This is too much, i cough on other recordings and cause it to clip... i have recorded before at 0db on the jukebox and i think this was too low... may try for +8 next time with the preamp turned slightly down from maximum...

Not had chance to play with the bass roll off, its set at the default (OFF)...

overal i am very happy with it... with etymotic ER-4s i am soooo impressed with binaural recordings, the effect of being there is far far more than on my HD600s... i have tried on some real cheapy cans of someones at work and his seemed to be really good at binaural playback.. sat near to the ear, definately a coloured (bass heavy) cheapy pair of £20 cans.. but annoyingly they reproduce binaural much better than my work cans, £100 Beyer DT250-80s...



Thanks kerely for the mpp link, this is definately an option for playback for those that don't use winamp.. but luckily there is another option which is just been created in the last week or so.. homepage is below

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/foobar2000/index.html

or direct download is

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/foobar2000/foobar2000.zip

This is a low resource, high quality player.. its very early.. and being updated very regularly.. it doesn't really have a UI but it doesn't touch your windows install, its just an exe that sits in a folder on its own.. for testing stuff thats great.. it plays mp3, mpc, ogg, flac out of the box.. new external dll for monkeys audio playback pretty much covers it.. if anyone is using a Creative based sound card it also supports SSRC* resampling out of the box.. its really neat, only 200k

It opens like a tiny app, a bit like notepad or something.. drag and drop files (music) onto it and they appear.. use the menus or hotkeys to play.. its a bit minimal but is very neat, and no resource hit.. its great for trying music tho as it don't affect your system at all and has features above using the command line decoder, as such i'd recommend it if you dont want to fiddle with or use winamp

(*the resampling is because all the sound that comes out of new (SBLIVE or above) creative cards is actually always output at a fixed 48khz ( i can confirm this by the LEDS on my DAC connected to my comp ) .. unfortunately music is usually 44khz, and upsampling this to 48 is done really badly by the creative drivers... resampling it in a better way before then improves quality, tho it is slight)


Hmm, got some keyboard woes over here at the moment, think i've lost some of what i was typing (shift stayed held down, judicious deleting did occur

) I think i've typed enough tho....

when I get more online I will post on here.. i agree, i love listening to this stuff, thats why i stumped for the equipment to record my own.. and yeah the soundstage is quiet bizarre, unnerves some ppl when they first hear it

I'll be sure to go a rambling some more to pick up more suprises.. hopefully they'll be wind noiseless, clipless, buzzless etc.

Laters

 

[jimbobuk]

I have a new sample available online, its a longer one (6 mins) ... i've managed to get it on my other ISP..

accessed via jimtreats.com -> mytreats -> binaural

or directly

http://jimtreats.crosswinds.net/MyTr...ural/index.htm

not tested them, should work... through explorer it didn't like the long filenames and .mpc extension (saving it out as .htm instead?!?!?) saving via download accelerator worked.. get back to me if u have similar probs and i'll look into what causes that.. even save as doesn't work :/

 

[TimSchirmer]

interesting stuff there!

sounds like it was a rather windy day.

 

[jimbobuk]

yeah, i think there is only so much windscreens can do... I will try to get better recordings done soon, possibly today actually.. I have fixed the buzzing problems i was having too... the wind was VERY high on that day... If people could make suggestions of interesting sounding places they've been in i could try and go get some, i have my own ideas of what I want to record.. I ain't travelling far right now so I am talking about general places that will sound roughly the same anywhere in the world..

Of course you could just go to these places and hear it yourself

 

[kelly]

Ok, I listened.

The wind is not that bad. I hear wind when I'm outside sometimes, you know.

I thought they were well done but I think this thread is misplaced and might get more attention over in the source/technology forum.... since there's not actually any music in them.

 

[Zurg]

Um....er...well...

Posting the files in MPC format basically guarantees that 95% of the people that view your thread will never listen to the samples. If you want lots of feedback I would encourage you to post MP3s or wav formatted files.

just my $.02
-Z

 

[dd3mon]

wow.. very cool.. if you already have winamp it takes about 15 seconds to install the plugin from the exe.. just do it

Very impressive stuff thru even my HD600's.. Feel like I'm outside =D Front to back imaging is a little off from what I can tell.. not very solid in some instances.. however I obviously don't know how the real events that were recorded took place..

thanks alot, enjoyed this.. any other binaural recordings (or music) anyone would like to post would be appreciated.

-dd3mon

 

[jimbobuk]

Quote:

Ok, I listened. The wind is not that bad. I hear wind when I'm outside sometimes, you know. I thought they were well done but I think this thread is misplaced and might get more attention over in the source/technology forum.... since there's not actually any music in them.

Yeah it varies.. those samples are excerpts from the whole recording.. it varies.. but a lot of the entire recording is ruined by wind noise... what I personally like about listening to recordings is to get a good length one that you can really sink into the atmosphere of the place.. I will be putting some of these online at some point, but I'll only do that when I have one that I am happy about for the whole length of it.. On your recommendation i've added a thread with the link to the source/technology forum.. I'll see how that goes.. Thanks

Quote:

Um....er...well... Posting the files in MPC format basically guarantees that 95% of the people that view your thread will never listen to the samples. If you want lots of feedback I would encourage you to post MP3s or wav formatted files. just my $.02

Thanks for your $.02 ... and you are probably right... I may try to upload these current samples in mp3 format to get the ball rolling.. I may also put up a few of the test samples I have around here that convinced me years ago of mpc's superiority... the big thing about alternative codecs is that the problems with mp3 don't neccesarily surface very often, when they do they can ruin a track, or part of a track.. of course if you have never heard the original CD for that area you may not even notice this problem.. what you get with MPC is the knowledge that these kind of problems hardly ever happen.... as in at least 100s to 1000s of times less likely than any other codec... Ogg Vorbis is full of problems in music that even lame mp3s can cope with... mp3s themselves suffer, but with --alt-preset lame mp3s you can reduce a lot of these problems, but doing that means a big increase in bitrate... all my future samples will be in MPC standard bitrates (160-170k avg) ... its still widely known as transparent at this setting, and performs better than lame --alt-preset insane (320k CBR) mp3s on troublesome samples (although the artefacts at this size of bitrate are very small, i am just saying that they are not noticeable at ALL with mpc, at nearly 1/2 the rate)

I am just keen to try and let ppl see how easy it is to use MPC.. the flip side for your own listening of your own CDs off of your computer using MPC may then be one step closer, its only then when you are really thankful when you start to hear recordings polished up compared to your long standing mp3s you made..

Quote:

wow.. very cool.. if you already have winamp it takes about 15 seconds to install the plugin from the exe.. just do it Very impressive stuff thru even my HD600's.. Feel like I'm outside =D Front to back imaging is a little off from what I can tell.. not very solid in some instances.. however I obviously don't know how the real events that were recorded took place.. thanks alot, enjoyed this.. any other binaural recordings (or music) anyone would like to post would be appreciated.

Glad you liked them.. I will definately be posting up newer samples, hopefully of better subjects and under better conditions.. when I do I'll inform anyone interested on here.. glad you found it easy to install the MPC stuff.. it really is very very easy if you go down the winamp route.. given a choice the mpc decoding is superior under winamp 2.xx but the winamp 3.xx stuff works... I don't use it myself, as i prefer winamp 2.xx... but I am starting to be swayed round to the new smaller foobar2000.. optimum audio quality, low system resources but one day it will be the perfect jukebox system, operatable without a monitor or keyboard, over just infra red remote control... a real hifi reciever if you like....

I have HD600s myself and like the sound of these recordings through them but it can vary.. as ever with the HD600s.. a quiet background is needed.. i've spent money silencing my PC but still that and other things contribute far too much to my un-enjoyment of stuff out of them... they are not particularly great at reproducing the binaural effect but you do get most of it... the front-back of the recordings varys... a slight turn of my head during recording (when i listen close to making the recording with what actually happened fresh in my mind) can send the sound into strange directions... without that knowledge other people probably interpret it as sounds doing completely different things.. as a whole you have to try and keep your head fixed.. difficult thing to do when trying to not get run over

The actual front to back of those samples i don't think is too strong... the dog's 2nd bark appears behind me whenever i listen.. and the bus on the "strolling through ducks..." sample ends up behind you.. interestingly at the last minute it also flips sides to the left ear, when it was definately over my right shoulder... i suspect i'd turned my head.. the cool thing is that the mics are possibly more sensitive than my actual ears.. or more importantly whilst i am in the world your brain filters things out i think... as such that bus was very far away by the end.. as such i'd moved on to things around me... in the recording it stays around for a good while longer...

 

[jimbobuk]

not had chance to check yet but i've just uploaded all the samples in mp3 format (lame --alt-preset extreme) i will make sure its all working later

Check them out now if you want, those who didn't wanna do the mpc thang.. but still the mpc versions are the recommended ones

 

[jimbobuk]

Well now the christmas holidays have begun i've been able to play catch up on my recordings... a new set of samples are up... only in mpc format...

i also made a very long recording this afternoon.. going to pick it apart now to try and find some good stuff...

 

[eric343]

Very cool

My Etys definitely kick my HD600s' butt for binaural stuff... DEFINITELY.