Binaural Audio as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2016-05-06
·
1,034 words · ~5 min read
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now there is plenty of audio file grade sound equipment out there that promises
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a super realistic experience but let's
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face it it is pretty darn hard to fool
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your ears into thinking that you're listening to something live as opposed
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to a recording or a stream even if you did blow your life savings on some
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amazing headphones or speakers but believe it or not there's actually a
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relatively old and fairly straightforward technology that can
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surpass even the most ridiculous surround sound speaker setups in terms
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of spatial realism I'm talking of course about Bal recording but what is that and
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how does it fool our brains into thinking we are right in the middle of a
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scene well it helps to keep in mind exactly how your ears work when you hear
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any kind of sound let's say it's your pet doing its best Yan cat impression
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from down the hall the sound waves are going to arrive at your ears at slightly
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different times and they'll also be slightly louder in one ear than the
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other your brain takes these minute differences and processes them to figure
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out exactly where the noise is coming from Boral audio takes advantage of this
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fact by recording an audio track in the first place in a way that mimics our
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natural hearing the idea itself is actually very simple to create a BAL
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recording two High Fidelity microphones are placed about roughly the same
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distance apart as your ears from each other some recording studios even embed
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the mics inside of a dummy human head complete with realistic ears to get an
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even more accurate sound Imaging and bippity boity the result is an amazingly
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accurate reproduction of Ambient sound that fools your brain into thinking the
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noises are really happening around you and since the concept behind banaro
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recording is so simple it was thought of long before the Advent of modern digital
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audio in fact it was first introduced for telephone phones all the way back in
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the 1880s but didn't become more common
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until fairly recently thanks to the falling prices of both recording
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equipment and headphones yes headphones only you
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cannot use this on your freestanding speakers because of the way the
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recordings are made remember the microphones are placed right where your
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ears would be the effect is nearly impossible to duplicate on regular
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speakers but the good news is that you at least don't need Super high-end
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headphones powered by some exotic tube amplifier to enjoy the effect a cheap
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pair of earbuds will actually do the trick just nicely well that's all fine
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and well Linus then but so where can I hear this Bal stuff I mean I don't
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really see a whole lot of it on Spotify although it is still pretty hard to find
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in music and movies various producers and musicians have been experimenting
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with it and a large community has popped up on YouTube around banaro recordings
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featuring everything from music to walking tours of New York City to
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Virtual Barber shops that are actually kind of creepy it's a very weird
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experience but if you're not into random novelty YouTube videos I totally get
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that and if you're waiting for banaro audio being part of your everyday
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listening experience if you're a gamer you'll be pleased to know that the
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future looks very bright because virtual reality game developers are seriously
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pursuing the use of Bal sound in headsets such as the Oculus Rift and
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Sony's Project Morpheus except instead
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of just using two microphones VR developers are experimenting with rings
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of microphones on dummy heads to create a true
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360° binural sound experience that is
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preserved no matter which way you turn wearing your head-mounted display and as
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virtual reality technology continues to mature game Publishers will seek more
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and more interesting ways to achieve full immersion in 3D sound and our ears
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may be in for just as much of a treat as our eyes you know what's a word for
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things you can hear all this talking about listening audible so head over to
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audible.com tequ and you guys can check out their vast selection of audio books
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it is all about joining the club so you get one audio book per month which you
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can listen to on your phone or your mp3 player if you still have one of those in
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your car or wherever it is that you've got a little bit of time to sit and
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listen to a book but not necessarily the time to sit and stare at one and it
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entitles you to all kinds of other cool stuff like discounts on further audio
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books you can check out all kinds of cool stuff I usually pick something from the best sellers like the Martian by
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Andy Weir and narrated by RC Ray it's a
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story of like a astronaut a man who assumes he will be the first to die on
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Mars after he is Stranded by a dust storm that forces his crew to evacuate
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very cool stuff anyway guys that's audible dog / tequ to join the club now
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those of you who have are still watching this show and have managed to not sign
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up for audible yet oh yeah and did I mention the first month and therefore
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your first audiobook is absolutely free yes it is free so I think that's pretty
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much it guys thanks for watching like the video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it sucked leave a comment if
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you have suggestions for future videos and as always don't forget to subscribe
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and follow and all of that noise and I know I've been teasing this one for a
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while actually no I'll tease something else we have a new Channel Super Fun
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that is not dildo racing we paint my car
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which seemed like a good idea to someone I guess check that out at the link up
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there