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Those of you doing binaural field recording, or those who have experience with it:

What kind of setup are you using? What have you found creates the most accurate sound field? Are most of your recordings for pro projects or as a personal hobby?

I'm also working on creating binaural assets that can be mixed into a binaural ambience in order to be able to create an artificial binaural soundscape. Anyone have any experience with this?

I am currently using an in-ear set I made with Countryman B6s, as well as a homemade binaural head. I've done a little work with the KU100 in the past. I'm going to be doing an experiment soon where I will be using test equipment to compare my homemade head to the KU100.

Colin Hart
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  • Hey Colin,

    I've never quite understood the end goal of acquiring a bunch of binaural sounds. Its not as though people watch tv or films on headphones. Maybe for incorporation in music? Personal hobby? As a professional I've never really been able to justify pursuit of those kinds of recordings. thoughts?

     – Rene Aug 11 '10 at 14:34
  • @Rene - Nearly everyone that owns an iPod Touch, iPhone, Android, (Insert smart phone here), downloads apps and often uses headphones. A perfect market for binaural audio! "Surround Sound" out of headphones that can be integrated into mobile media and gaming. I've been doing a number of projects that are pushing this front, but there isn't a lot of reference material out there, so I find myself doing a lot of my own research. – Colin Hart Aug 11 '10 at 16:58
  • headsmack mobile games and apps! I completely didn't think of that. There could be some really cool usages there. – Rene Aug 11 '10 at 17:10
  • @Rene - Most definitely! I've got some really cool stuff that I'll be releasing soon, hopefully – Colin Hart Aug 11 '10 at 17:32

2 Answers2

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Hi Colin,

I own two setups, both with decent sound field but as with many binaural recordings it can sound a bit empty in the center.

My first setup is a pair of Soundprofessionals SP-TFB-2 with XLRs that I run into my Tascam DR100 with phantom power.

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-TFB-2

They fit very nicely in your ear and I suggest you get them with the small windjammers.

My other pair is the Soundman OKM II microphones (comes with the A3 adapter or alt XLR adapter) to mini jack into my Zoom H2 powered mic input.

http://www.soundman.de/englisch/english.htm

The OKMs sounds better in my opinion however they do not fit as well as the SP-TFB-2. Actually I read a paper from a German SAE student comparing them with the KU100 and he claimed that most audio engineers could not tell them apart in blind tests.

Would be great to hear your conclusions if you get the chance to compare.

You can hear some recordings on my blog: http://inmyears.wordpress.com/category/binaural-recordings/

where the last 3 posts have been recorded with the OKMs.

I know Logic Pro has the option of binaural mixing but I have not tried this feauture myself..might be worth a go!

Have fun and sorry for any Swenglish...(thats Swedish + English...).

Pete

SonicPete
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  • Thanks!

    I have been doing a lot of work with Logic's binaural panning options. Seems to work decently well with mono sounds, but you run into all sorts of phase issues when dealing with stereo ones. I am currently doing 3 different projects in binaural, and was attempting to get away with the Logic panning, but it just isn't convincing enough. There's a bit of strange coloring as well, I'm guessing because of strange phase things going on. Worth some of your time to play with though. It's fairly interesting.

     – Colin Hart Jul 22 '10 at 19:32
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Hey Colin,

Would you mind posting a photo of your countryman set up? I currently my DPA 4060s in knit hat.

sepulchra
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  • I have a few of the pictures, both of my homemade head and my in-ears here: http://www.colinhartonline.com/?cat=27 – Colin Hart Jul 27 '10 at 23:22