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Re: Stereo question

Subject: Re: Stereo question
From: "Mike Feldman" gidney_n_cloyd
Date: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:11 pm ((PDT))
Steve Pelikan wrote:

> ... In the mp3 clip http://homepages.uc.edu/~pelikas/goose.mp3

I can't access it.  But no matter...

> ...  when I listen to the recording with headphones, it sounds like
> the goose is flying behind me (rather than in front of me ....

As someone who has experimented with binaural recordings, this is a
very familiar phenomenon.  My best recordings played on headphones have
a nice soundstage, but they sound like they're inside my head --
except for sounds that actually occurred behind, which sound behind
and are *very* realistic.

I think the issue is not in your recordings, but in your brain.
Earphones play the sound into your ears very closely, and your
ears are behind your eyes.  Since most humans are eye-centric,
in-your-ear *is* behind you.  Also, hearing is to detect predators
sneaking up behind you, so if the sound isn't obviously coming
from someting in your visual field, then your 1st guess is behind.

If you want to hear a good stereo image, especially from binaural
recordings, try using speakers in a stereo dipole arrangement.
Put the speakers side-by-side and get a baffle board -- something
relatively soundproof -- I use a poster mounted on rigid foam --
and put it between the speakers with the edge of the board against
your nose.  This is to block crosstalk from a speaker to the opposite
ear.  Although this is mechanically awkward, I find it gives a very
realistic stereo image.






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