P3D binaural sound

["George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxx>]

I received this with permission to post in p3d.

Hi George:

So, you've discovered binaural recordings. I've been 
listening to them for years. There are very few worthwhile 
musical recordings done binaurally.  There are a few dramas 
(e.g., I believe Stephen King's "The Mist" is one).  But 
(apart from demo recordings of little lasting interest--e.g., 
taking a shower from the point of view of the person under the 
water, or having a bee buzz around one's head), the most effective 
binaural recordings are nature recordings by Gordon Hempton. 

I should also tell you that while binaural recordings, with good 
headphones, nicely reproduce a spacious soundfield, the area they 
do least well is directly "in front" of the listener. That is,
they don't convincingly convey the space in front of the dummy 
head, but they're great at doing the back, top, and sides, and 
various areas in between. 

I should also tell you that binaural recordings may work best 
with earphones that fit snugly inside the ear, like the expensive 
Entymotic phones. And there's some discussion among binaural 
tweaksters about whether (or how much) small differences between 
one's own ears and those of the dummy head contribute to distortion 
of the stereo field. Sound familiar?

If you think listmembers might be interested in the above, feel 
free to post it.

    Hope all's well. Happy Holidays.
         Stephen Braude

email: braude@xxxxxxxx