Chesky: Releases Ulitimate Heaphone Demo Disc

[TitaniumTroy]

I will be ordering one these to use at AXPONA 2014's Ear Gear Expo.
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/article ... tion-disc/
Plus Chesky is launching a Binaural selection of recordings
http://www.hdtracks.com/binaural

 

[PaulyT]

Cool. I'll probably try to pick up one of those.

 

[Flint]

Get some binaural recordings and don't move your head while listening on headphones. It is like being there in real life - but you cannot move your head for the illusion to work fully.

 

[malsackj]

So with binaural being mics in an artificial head. My question is has there been a study on the human hearing and will the ears have a cardioid pattern from each ear giving a more figure eight.

When we look at the pattern of a mic or speaker and determine on axis or off axis. Can we see a similar pattern for the general human with normal response. What is the pattern in relation to the head?

Flint has stated and most of us agree that sounds from the rear tend to be less directional and the front we are capable of minute differences. Sound stage and the like.

I tried to google and did not see an answer to my quest.

 

[Botch]

A timely bump! :handgestures-thumbup:

A recent "Dr. AIX blogplop" includes a link of some samples he's posted on his site, I don't think they're binaural recordings but rather a "surround" mix for headphones. I don't have a way to listen to downloaded music on phones but I know a lot of you do this, so here it is:

There are 11 Headphones[xi] examples on the FTP site (if you haven't yet requested the access credentials, please click here http://www.realhd-audio.com/?page_id=60). They are:

1. Mosaic - Guitar Noir AIX 80018 Laurence Juber, acoustic guitar/ Domenic Genova, acoustic bass/Steve Forman, percussion

2. The Gypsy Life - The Gypsy Life AIX 85053 John Gorka, vocals & guitar/Amelia K. Spicer, background vocals/Susan Werner, piano & BGV Russ Rentler, mandolin/Michael Manring, fretless electric bass

3. Say A Prayer For You - Hanna/McEuen AIX 80048 Jamie Hanna, vocals and guitar/Jonathan McEuen, vocals & guitar/TJ Russell, electric bass/Jesse Siebenberg, drums

4. Primavera - Primavera AIX 80050 Destani Wolf, vocals/ The Banda Brothers

5. On the Street Where You Live - Tormé Sings Tormé AIX 83042 Steve March Tormé, vocals

6. Mujaka - The Latin Jazz Trio AIX 80011 Luis Conte, percussion/David Garfield, piano/Dave Carpenter, acoustic bass

7. Libido - Threads AIX 85063 James Walker, flute / Bryan Pezzone, piano / Tim Emmons, electric bass / Mike Packer, drums

8. The Kerry Dance - I Play The Piano AIX 85059 Terry Trotter, piano

9. Goldberg Variations Acoustica - The AIX All Star Band AIX 86060 Dean Parks, guitar/Laurence Juber, guitar/Jim Cox, piano/Alberto Lopez, percussion/Kevin Axt, electric bass/MB Gordy, drums

10. Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 - Allegro BWV 1050 - Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 & 5 1338AX The G. Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra

11. The Pines Of Rome - The Pines of the Appian Way - Beethoven and Respighi - Symphony No. 6 and The Pines of Rome AIX 80006 The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra/Zdenek Macal - Music Director

I have processed about 2 minutes of each of these tunes through the Smyth Realiser and digitally captured the output as a two-channel file. To demonstrate the effect of the processing, I switched from the Surround Virtualization to the normal headphone mix a couple of times during the playback. There should be a dramatic shift in the sound between these two options.

The room is my surround mixing room and the filtering in my own.

In listening to these files during the transfer process yesterday, I preferred the "processed" version to the normal version. In the Oppo Headphones, I found the difference to be very dramatic and I had a very hard time listening to the normal stereo version. This is not universally the case. Some listeners like the normal "inside-your-head" version better. Not a problem.

The future of audio reproduction is going to be multichannel and the Headphones[xi]™ processing allows convincing surround playback using headphones. It certainly is different than normal headphone listening. But as I stated a couple of days ago, this is not the only way to bring surround sound to headphones. I'll tackle Headphones X, Astound Sound, Darin Fong, Beyer Dynamic and new Korg processes in future posts.

BTW The tunes that I have uploaded in Headphones[xi] format are the same ones that are available as High-Resolution stereo tracks...the only difference is the processing and the upper sampling rate limit of 48 kHz. The Symth box is limited to 48 kHz at the present time.

 

[Flint]

So with binaural being mics in an artificial head. My question is has there been a study on the human hearing and will the ears have a cardioid pattern from each ear giving a more figure eight.

When we look at the pattern of a mic or speaker and determine on axis or off axis. Can we see a similar pattern for the general human with normal response. What is the pattern in relation to the head?

Flint has stated and most of us agree that sounds from the rear tend to be less directional and the front we are capable of minute differences. Sound stage and the like.

I tried to google and did not see an answer to my quest.

Every human is different. The outer ear provides some amount of directionality at the frequencies it affects based on size and shape. Usually Binaural recordings are made with wideband flat response Omni-directional mics on a dummy head, or similar. If you want to get hardcore, some use Omni mics placed about 1/2" to 1" away from the head so that when the recording is played back with over the ear headphones, you are reproducing exactly what was experienced exactly where the transducers are away from your ear and all of your physical ear stuff will add the natural coloration you are accustomed to.

Yes, there have been tens of thousands of studies on how we hear and how we can reproduce it. That knowledge is used not just for home listening, but also for critical stuff like fighter pilot audio (so he can hear multiple voice conversations simultaneously and listen to the one he needs by focusing on the one which is in a specific illusionary position in the cockpit). It is a well studied science.