![]() ![]() Instead a method for capturing the shape of ears using cameras is much more practical. ![]() The techniques usually used to capture impulse responses of acoustic spaces aren’t really practical for most users, involving significant equipment resources and operator skill. So a way to capture personalised HRTFs is clearly desirable. The two are not the same and there are some issues with Spatial Audio and binaural which are specific to Spatial and not to Atmos. This binaural rendering has developed over the last few years and it is important to distinguish between Atmos and Apple’s Spatial Audio. While ‘proper’ Atmos involves listening on a speaker array of 7.1.4 channel widths and higher, and much of the film and TV Atmos content out there will be consumed using some extremely clever soundbars, almost all Dolby Atmos for Music content will be heard over headphones as a binaural rendered version. Plugins from companies such as Sparta, Noisemakers, SSA and Harpex all allow use of personalised HRTFs HRTFs And Dolby Atmos If you can capture a personalised HRTF which is specific to your ears you will experience a more convincing effect. If the crucial summations and cancellations to which your hearing is so finely tuned don’t fall in the the right places, you are left with indistinct localisation and the 3D quality doesn’t occur.ĭesigners of rubber ears for dummy head mics (I’m sure that’s not their proper job title but someone has to do it) must decide on an average ear, and if your ears differ too much from this then your experience will be compromised.īinaural audio used to be a niche area but as well as (slightly weird) AMSR videos on YouTube, Binaural has come to the attention of a whole new type of user because of the use of binaural in gaming and AR applications. If your physiology differs too much from the dummy mic, the effect is compromised. The thing I was seeing in that teaching space, with most people bowled over by the experience but some left unimpressed, was the issue of translation. A good binaural recording can be unsettlingly realistic. These mics are the size and shape of a real head and have detailed, anatomically accurate pinnae which, by diffraction and reflection, colour the sound and capture the spatial cues necessary so when replayed over headphones creates an immersive audio experience which goes far further than stereo. The way most binaural recordings are made is using a dummy head microphone. This information is known as a Head Related Transfer Function and can be captured and used to process audio in real time, much like convolution reverb using an impulse response. The precise shape of the outer ear, the pinna, is unique to us as is the shape of our heads and torsos, all of which colour the sound our ears receive and our hearing systems become very finely tuned to our specific physiology. For this we need to introduce the ways in which our unique physiology affects the sounds we hear. However this doesn’t explain how we can perceive sounds to be coming from behind or above us. Sounds coming from the right reach the right ear first, are a little louder and the left ear is masked by the head being between that ear and the sound source making it sound slightly different. The basic mechanism by which we locate sounds from left to right is well understood. Why did some people experience an utterly convincing, immersive experience while some just heard a slightly odd stereo recording? The answer is the effect of Head Related Transfer Functions. Whoops of excitement would show me who was really “getting” it but more interesting to me were the people who were left underwhelmed. ![]() However the best for getting an instant response was playing a binaural recording over headphones. Mid-side processing, time aligning mics on a 4x12, centre channel removal using inverted polarity to remove a vocal. There are a few audio crowdpleasers which I’ve found to be ideal material with which to grab the attention of people interested in audio who haven’t yet come across them. I used to run a music tech course and every year I’d be faced with a room full of new students with more enthusiasm than experience. In this article Julian looks at the significance of our own physiology on how well binaural renders translate to the listener and explores some potential solutions to this lack of translation for some listeners. ![]()
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