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Hello Recording Community,
A friend and myself have taken up an independent study in our university course and decided to replicate the sound of an airplane in flight then crashing. It will be presented as an installation where groups of people can go through the experience together. We want to do this with all foley work and on location recording, but all binaural.
We can't afford a binaural head but I have thoughts about building a jecklins disk. Can anyone recommend a good choice of stereo pair microphones for this job? And will we need any special headphones for playback? Any problems with multitracking and mixing binaural recordings?
We are both really new to binaural recording and any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Comments

David French Mon, 11/06/2006 - 10:00

Something head-shaped will serve you better than a Jecklin Disk...try to get a busted manequin from a local store. If you could stand it, you could even use your own head. As an aside, since everyone's head is different, the most realistic binaural experience will come from recordings where your own head was used as the baffle, but for this to work, in-ear mics are necessary.

You don't need special headphones, and as for mics, any flatish small diaphragm omni will be a good choice.

anonymous Thu, 11/09/2006 - 22:57

Yeah, find someone with an average head-shape, and be-head them, use the severed head. It won't cost a penny.

On a more serious note, if you want "all binaural", Etymotic Research make ear-phones designed to play back binaural recordings. Normal phones work fine, but won't convey the "full experience".

What a hassle!

Good luck with it,
Ali.

CircuitRider Fri, 11/10/2006 - 09:23

Wow. I remember reading something about this method a couple of years ago, and listening to a binaural recording at Epcot when I was a kid, but it always seemed to be used to show you what crumpled paper sounded like. I think the one at Epcot was the sound of a haircut or something. I know the effect is supposedly lost without headphones, but do you think there are any advantages to using this method to record music for normal distrubution channels? I may try this Jecklin disc thing myself.

anonymous Fri, 11/10/2006 - 22:59

Negative Terminal:

- Head shape and ear lobe effects are an essential part of binaural recording. You can't just use a Jecklin Disc or featureless mannequin head and expect good results.

- Uh, how does one recreate the sound of an airplane crash in a way that can be acoustically recorded, especially in surround??

Positive Terminal:

- You can use your own head.

http://www.core-sound.com/lcmics/1.php

- Any decent set of headphones should work for playback. Earbuds tend to work best. My personal faves are the B&O A8.

VonRocK Sat, 11/11/2006 - 00:09

Rosemary wrote: Wow! I have no idea what any of this means.
Oh, well. :?

Rosemary :D

I thought it was another social deviant at first. Then I googled it. There's nothing like a crisp, cool google search to quench your thirst.

I love the internet. I love the amount of power at my figertips. I really like these forums.

Nothing constructive to see here, please carry on and expand my knowledge further.