[SupperTime]

So how does one get their own hrtf done somewhere, is there a company that does it?
I love Ooyh and Hesuvi but after a while I get a headache

How do I go about getting my very own? Please help

 

[castleofargh]

HRTF are measured in anechoic chambers, and require some specific equipment to avoid spending the next week moving a speaker by 5°, going back to record a sweep, move the speaker by 5°.... And that in full circle many times for each elevation angles. Unless you know someone working in one, forget about it for now.
You have not so accurate solutions based on taking pictures or a video of your head where your HRTF is modeled, but how good is this? Well for now it's not as good as sticking a mic in your ears. Also once you have those HRTF files, you still need to find something to use it with and for now...

For a more limited approach where you'll try to get the sound of a room as perceived by your ear, instead of an actual HRTF, you're in luck as a fellow member worked his butt off to do this https://www.head-fi.org/threads/recording-impulse-responses-for-speaker-virtualization.890719/ you need to find some binaural microphones or make your own. And follow the process to record yourself in front of some speakers. The end result here will be like OOYH but with your room and your ears. So, much more realistic but also probably not as impressive acoustically as some of the rooms he measured. I'd go with feeling real any day, but someone else might think differently.

Surround is Surround. It never felt completely right to me, but on occasion with a movie or some specific track, it can be a lot of fun. I wouldn't go toward Surround if perceived realism is your target.





If you don't mind paying a lot, possibly waiting a while, and then going temporarily crazy trying to figure out how to measure and create your virtual rooms, then you'll want this https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smyth-research-realiser-a16.807459/ knowing that it's still not finished(at least not on the software and certification side), and that they're still dealing with the kickstarter campaign delivery after too many years. But even then, it already does a lot more than the competition so...

It adds head tracking that is calculated on as many angles as you decided to capture(yes you have to look in each direction like an idiot, be super careful not to move the mics in your ears throughout the process and it's really hard to do without someone to help and several trials. But the result is modeled on all those captures of your own head in the actual room instead of using some average HTRF model that may or may not be a fit for your own. My personal opinion is that the effect feels very realistic, but also the full price is ludicrous and I would not buy it at full price. I'm torn between thinking it's too expensive for what it really is, and never wanting to listen to headphones at home without it ever again.
A word of caution, the result is not incredible with cats shooting lasers through their eyes. You get an experience close to using speakers. It's cool but it's not magical.

 

[sander99]

For use with Hesuvi you could measure your own so called HRIR using Impulcifer. Some things you need for that: in-ear microphones, maybe an audio interface (to get the microphone signal into your pc with good quality), (access to) a room with speakers and amps (an acoustically good room with good speakers is of course best, but you can have fun with a less perfect situation as well and there are some tricks for improving the virtual room/speakers). See:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/recording-impulse-responses-for-speaker-virtualization.890719/

There is a difference between hrtf and HRIR. The hrtf describes how sound is filetered by bending around your head and into your ears from all directions. A complete hrtf is a large set of impulse responses for both ears for many directions. (In fact in a mathematical abstract sense it would be an infinite number of directions I assume, but in practise for example a file containing impulse responses for 836 different directions.)
A HRIR (similar to a Smyth Realiser PRIR, but in a different file format) contains for a number of speakers the total impulse responses from each speaker in a room to your 2 ears. As I say it, a HRIR that you measured with your own head and ears "respects" your full hrtf because everything in it including reflections and reverberations from many directions are all hrtf filtered by your own head and ears. (Only you can not extract your full hrtf from this measurement because because the direct sound and the reflections and reverberations -and colorations by the speakers and room- are all mixed up with eachother.)

You could also buy a Smyth Realiser (expensive!) that also adds head tracking, but you would still need (access to) a good room and speakers to do a PRIR measurement. There are studio's that offer a service for this, but prices can be considerable.

Genelec offers a service to derive your full hrtf from a video that you will have to make from your head. ('your personal HRTF as an internationally recognised SOFA file format, which supports 44.1, 48 and 96 kHz sample rates and contains data for both ears in 836 different orientations').
But:
-this is not what you need for use with Hesuvi (or a Smyth Realiser)
-it costs around 500 Euro or Dollar
-I have no idea how accurate it is

[Edit: you were one minute too fast for me Castle.]

 

[castleofargh]

eheh, our posts got quantum entangled.

 

[SupperTime]

So in other words just be happy with the hesuvi presets...

 

[sander99]

So in other words just be happy with the hesuvi presets...

?? Not at all, using your own Impulcifer HRIR would most likely be a great improvement.

How did you come to your conclusion?
-Castleofargh saying it's not magical or that he doesn't like surround? That doesn't mean it doesn't work.
-Maybe you think because a HRIR is not the same as full hrtf that means it doesn't function properly, that something would be missing in the binaural simulation because it doesn't use a full hrtf? That is not the case, a personal made HRIR does function properly and is completely in accordance with your full hrtf, your full hrtf is not needed, all information from your hrtf that is needed is implicitely present in the HRIR, I just wanted to clarify that there is a difference between hrtf and HRIR.
Lack of headtracking is a limitation, but still a personal measured HRIR is much better than a generic preset.

 

[bigshot]

I think he's saying it's too much work. That is the big problem with surround sound with speakers too. The more sound sources, the more difficult it is to implement. I'm someone who likes to experiment and optimize, but there's something to be said for one button setup too.

 

[SupperTime]

?? Not at all, using your own Impulcifer HRIR would most likely be a great improvement.

How did you come to your conclusion?
-Castleofargh saying it's not magical or that he doesn't like surround? That doesn't mean it doesn't work.
-Maybe you think because a HRIR is not the same as full hrtf that means it doesn't function properly, that something would be missing in the binaural simulation because it doesn't use a full hrtf? That is not the case, a personal made HRIR does function properly and is completely in accordance with your full hrtf, your full hrtf is not needed, all information from your hrtf that is needed is implicitely present in the HRIR, I just wanted to clarify that there is a difference between hrtf and HRIR.
Lack of headtracking is a limitation, but still a personal measured HRIR is much better than a generic preset.

I am not experienced with command line stuff and It seems to difficult for me. I wish I could go somewhere, pay and get it done

 

[sander99]

I am not experienced with command line stuff and It seems to difficult for me. I wish I could go somewhere, pay and get it done

Ah yes, I see. It is all a bit intimidating indeed. When I tried to install Impulcifer initially I ran into some problems. But after Jaakko corrected a few small typos in his instructions I managed to install it by just carefully following his instructions to the letter (copying and pasting the commands into the command prompt).
But I never got around to buy my own microphones. Because I have a Smyth Realiser A16 on order anyway I am not so motivated to do that.

 

[castleofargh]

Ah yes, I see. It is all a bit intimidating indeed. When I tried to install Impulcifer initially I ran into some problems. But after Jaakko corrected a few small typos in his instructions I managed to install it by just carefully following his instructions to the letter (copying and pasting the commands into the command prompt).
But I never got around to buy my own microphones. Because I have a Smyth Realiser A16 on order anyway I am not so motivated to do that.

I'm the same. The notion that I would get an A16 made me lazy(at least on that specific matter of speaker simulation). Before, I was trying all the HRTF publicly available all the binaural impulses, from people, to church reverb. And when I stumbled upon something that felt even partially good for me(like good at some angles, or a type of reverb I enjoyed), I would manipulate those impulses in all sorts of ways. Try all the ideas I could have in a VST host to turn a stereo signal into multichannel and then try to work out the best FR to apply to each convolved channel to maintain a fairly horizontal elevation all around. It's crazy the many days I've spent on making something bad out of inadequate HRTF, HRIR or just random recording of a clap in a room. And I did it because any step in the right direction was taking me away from basic crossfeed, and toward bigger more consistent/relaxing imaging. It simply was worth it for me.

Then there were signs of the A16 starting to be delivered and since I haven't done one thing for speaker simulation(or all the failed ideas that were supposed to be it in my todo list). That machine had all the objective reasons to answer my needs, so I stopped trying long before getting mine.