Graham, I think Walter covered pretty much everything. I would
just add that I've had excellent results using binaural
"positioning" of mono tracks in post. I usually use the MIT
binaural impulses, in the convolver that I got with SoundForge
(it may be an add-on now). There are a couple of freebie
ambience convolvers out there too. The binaurally processed mono
track becomes a stereo (if by that we mean 2-channel) track, and
you just layer that with the stereo ambience track and the other
binaurally processed voice track. The "cocktail party" effect is
hugely stronger with binaural sources than with "energy panned"
fake stereo (the kind we're used to).
I love Walter's idea of steadicamming a binaural head while the
talkers stroll through the environment. The result would be
really smooth and realistic, and I think the effect would
(could) be quite amazing.
But putting it together with binaural ambience and a pair of
studio mono vocals processed into binaural should also be
wonderfully pleasant to listen to.
The cocktail party effect is essential for my 8-track
compositions when they're squashed into 2 channels, because
without spatial cues there's no way to discriminate one
"instrument" from another.
You can listen to a purely artificial binaural demo done as
described above at this link on my site:
http://timbreproductions.com/tracks/waters/doors_(binaural).ape
If you don't want to get Monkey's Audio
(http://www.monkeysaudio.com/) to decompress this lossless
recording, then use this link for MP3:
http://timbreproductions.com/tracks/waters/doors_(binaural).mp3
This first piece ("Doors") is fully binaural, and really must be
listened to on phones.
A much more abstract, inverted notion of in/out spatiality is
found in Tiny Alice, on the same page. This is partly stereo and
partly binaural, and works more or less equally well on speakers
or cans. I'm not happy with Tiny Alice yet, but it's an example
of how binaural and stereo can be overlaid without causing
excessively harmful radiation poisoning.
http://timbreproductions.com/tracks/waters/tiny_alice_(working_d
raft).mp3
ac
Allen Cobb
http://timbreproductions.com
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of Graham
Evans
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 10:18 PM
To:
Subject: [Nature Recordists] Re: best binaural mics?
....
What sort of (stereo) post-processing would anyone suggest to
treat two
monophonic voice tracks (interviewer and interviewee), other
than the
obvious meaure of seperating the two sources by moving them
slightly off
centre in different directions. I am using audacity. A hint of
stereo
reverb might help - but I am recording the voices outdoors so
won't want
too much of this.
....
Graham
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