[jopi]

Hi there,

I thought that some of you may appreciate listening to high quality binaural recordings of audio dramas.

Check out www.zbs.org

ZBS Foundation is a non-profit organization that puts out weird and whacky audio plays. My favorite is 'The fourth tower of Inverness', which isn't a binaural recording though, but worth listening to.
Most of ZBS's production are not simply read audio books, but stories specifically written for audio with lots of audio effects, music, etc.

They recently started recording audio plays by using binaural recording techniques and I just listened to Fats Cats yesterday through my etys. Very spooky, I instinctively turned my head a couple of times when a voice started talking to the right or a door opened, etc.
Check out Dr. Fritz when you open the web-site for binaural recordings.

Try it out.

 

[SBomm]

I suggested some ZBS stuff probably a year ago and never received a reply to my thread.
I like the Jack Flanders stories too. The on location environment recordings are like like taking a trip to India, Bali or Brazil a very nice way to escape without going anywhere.
ZBS also produced a play of Dinotopia which is very faithful to the original book by James Gurney. My son and I like to listen to it while looking through the book.

 

[johnny sack]

what exactly is binaural sound?
When i bought my headphones, someone told me that i should check it out...so i found a few links and all i heard were some crappy footsteps and some noises in a park.
So what is it exactly?

 

[Achilles]

Quote:

Originally posted by johnny sack what exactly is binaural sound? When i bought my headphones, someone told me that i should check it out...so i found a few links and all i heard were some crappy footsteps and some noises in a park. So what is it exactly?

They use a dummy head with microphones in its ears to record sound. As this captures much of the natural reflections and reverberations of sound in a 3d space, it has the potential of presenting the music as it would sound if you sat where the dummy sat. None of this Dolby headphone junk, this method actually presents a realistic sound stage with greater separation than is possible by any multi-speaker setup - that's the potential at least.

Unfortunately, because American headphone use is not acknowledged as the force it is (binaural recordings sound best through headphones, where as current recordings are made to sound best through speakers) and because many pop music forms are electronically mixed to separate channels (instead of being captured live or together as symphonic recording) the concept, though old, as never taken off (it fairs better abroad).

As for audio dramas, I wish I could enjoy them but they strike me as being, in every way, inferior to audio books. And after suffering through that binaural Steven King production I lost all interest in 3d audio dramas.

 

[Orpheus]

i went to the web page... and they have lots of stuff. how do i know which ones are binaural and which ones are normal?

 

[jopi]

Check out the Dr.Fritz link.

 

[kuma]

i've tried few binaural recorded music demo with my phones.

wholy **** is the word!

Suddenly, no more headphones. The stuff is happening in front of you just like speaker listening.

Pity mainstream music does not come in this format.

 

[Orpheus]

Quote:

Suddenly, no more headphones. The stuff is happening in front of you just like speaker listening.

you know, i haven't tried these samples yet.... but of all the clips i have tried, i have never really felt any of the sounds were realistically "in front" of me. the stereo image does seem to feel quite expanded.... and sometimes i get a feeling some sounds are in back. but rarely does anything every sound like it's happening directly in front. like some clips try to do a 360 degreee rotation around you... and i can feel the sound travel to the side, then through my head, then to the other side, then through my head again.... i dunno... maybe my brain is weird.

 

[KnightRT]

Your ears may differ somewhat from the dummy ears. Consider moving the cans forward a bit on your ears.

DI

 

[Orpheus]

yeah.... i've tried that. i've tried angle'ing them... moving them.... various other things...... but i never get a good image in front or in back. i even posted a thread earlier where i tried a couple different setups.... a fully closed phone, medium closed, open .... speakers.... etc... nothing really presents sound as i feel in real life.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

You might want to try in-ear phones, like the Ety's, or the Shure's.

 

[Orpheus]

so you're saying you guys think binaural give pretty close front and back imaging?

 

[tirrell]

I noticed in one of your threads you said you would send a person a free cd as long as they pass it along. Could you possibly do the same for me?

Thnk You
Tirrell

 

[Ebonyks]

Bah, etys, IMO are the only phones that can capture binaural well. And i haven't even used the Ety-B's...