Dude, this is fantastic stuff. I'm about to embark on an end of 2nd year project at uni for my Creative Music Technology degree. This may prove to be quite handy information, so thank you.
Don't suppose you'd be willing to sell your homemade mic setup would you? I was going to buy some, but I don't want to spend a lot. The ones I have looked at, the mic is sort of outside the ear. I'm not sure how that will effect the playback and I'm sure an inner ear mic would work better, right?
Jay Crossingham Thank you! Sorry, not for sale but if you don't feel like making a pair yourself maybe there's someone you know that can help you? The circuits are very, very simple and anyone who can hold a soldering iron can build a pair. I've never tried any commercial ones. I think having the mic outside the ear a little bit must have an effect but that being said, I have no idea how big of a difference it makes. It might be a compromise, but then again they might have better sound if they are designed well and I'm sure they'll stay in place well which cannot be said of just capsules.
The song you created is fantastic - I hope you and others create more music especially for headphones. Can you please tell me if there was any special processing of the tracks that were recorded from in ear microphones or did you just mix the raw tracks as normal? Kind regards
Thank you! The mix is very raw. All I used was some EQ (mostly to make the master a little less harsh sounding) and a compressor on the master bus. No special processing to tweak the spatial image or anything like that.
Dario Davalos Ciurliza If I ever make another pair, which would probably be battery powered, I might just make a detailed video about it. No promises though. Meanwhile, check out the schematics here (they are fairly simple even if you're not experienced with electronics): www.epanorama.net/circuits/microphone_powering.html#basics
I think recording an open-air show in the crowd or with a smaller audience like these and listen to it later with good headphones must be awesome, should bring again the feel being in the crowd. But for this to work the concert or whatever shouldn't be replayed by those big speakers.
Hi! Great video, i have one question though: I have no idea about sound recording, but is there any way that I can plug the microphones into a mobile phone as if they were headphones, and then use an app to record sound? that would make recording handy.
+Marcel Masqué Probably but I'm not sure how easy it will be. What you want is a device that's capable recording stereo audio and providing power for the mics if needed (depends on the mics). It should work if your phone has a stereo input jack for audio (not sure about the sound quality though) or if it has an USB port that you can use with an audio interface (then again that probably defeats the purpose unless you have a binaural USB mic or a very small audio interface). Third option would be to use bluetooth but then you'd need mics that support it.
Celestial Crystal ASMR For DIY parts, ask your local electronics stores. They'll probably order if they don't have mic capsules in stock, they should have everything else though. For complete mics, Roland CS-10EM seems to be a pretty common choice and you can find the dealers near you on the CS-10EM product page www.rolandus.com/products/cs-10em/ (they are also available on Amazon etc.) Note that they are powered by the recorder so make sure you have a suitable recording device. There are other products too, just google "in-ear microphones" and after finding a product suitable for you, then figure out where to buy it. The problem is that manufacturers use very different types of product names and descriptions ("In-ear microphones" vs. "3D Recording Headset" for instance) so you may have to dig a little to find them. Hope this helps!
I don't know but I'd guess Primo EM-172. It seems to have higher sensitivity and better S/N ratio. The frequency response looks a bit funky over 10 kHz though: www.primomic.de/pdf/EM172.pdf. I suggest listening to some recordings made with them and if they sound good to you, they'll probably work just fine.
I was wondering if you could answer a simple question for me? When the music plays, I hear the track very clearly coming from behind my head and panning around (how it was intended I'm sure.) Can this be done with any binaural microphone set up? I want to make a recording where somebody is talking and I want to make it sound as if it's coming from behind the listeners head and panning around, just as you've done here. Is it just as simple as placing the source from behind the head and hitting record?
Can't guarantee success but you should be able to do it with almost any half-decent binaural microphone. Sounds from behind seem to work pretty well usually. I don't know how big of a role do realistic ears play but it seems like you don't even need a full head for that. Even the popular 3Dio, which probably isn't the absolute best when it comes to the spatial image because of it's shape, can do that (never had one but I've heard plenty of recordings). Also, while people hear binaural recordings differently, to my experience, if you record a sound behind the head, people actually hear it behind them unlike the situations where the attempt is to play a sound in front which seems to require a head/ears similar to the listener. _Is it just as simple as placing the source from behind the head and hitting record?_ Yeah, it's pretty much that simple. And if you already have a normal recording of a sound you can also re-record it by playing it through a speaker behind the microphone. That's how I did a lot of the sounds on this video.
MotorGoblin Thanks for the reply, helps a lot! The reason I ask is because a lot of examples I've seen on binaural recordings don't seem to have any real clarity from behind the listening position (except the barber shop and interrogation chamber videos) That is until I found yours! I'm not sure why more engineers don't take advantage of this technology, because it's so immersive!
Yeah! I have been looking for this for...more than a year now! But I have a question, what did you use to record the output of the mics? A digital recorder? Something attached to a regular computer? Besides, thanks a lot for uploading this! I am just upset that I watched this after spending much more on in-ear microphones :/
PC + audio interface, in this case MOTU 8pre but basically any audio interface or recorder with a two channel input should do depending on how you want to power the capsules (batteries, phantom power, external power supply..)
Thanks a lot! I'll give it a shot. I was using a regular recorder. Also, its very interesting that you chose to use a lot of high pitched sounds in this video!
3x10E8 No problem. And yeah, the effect definitely works better with high pitched sounds. I assume it has something to do with wavelengths being shorter than the distance between ears and outer ears being so small that they only really have an effect on high frequencies.
That's an interesting thought. However, we are looking in the kHz range, so the wavelengths are going to be much bigger (tens of meters). My money is on how much power we are transferring into our ears through headphones...its a long shot...but I think there might be an impedance matching problem :)
^No, I'm wrong. These are sound waves, not light waves...Wikipedia is with you! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_localization#Evaluation_for_high_frequencies
+Carl Henrik Janson Yes. Because I used my own body when recording I hear this in full 3D - left/right, front/back, up/down. The localization in the front/back dimension varies a lot from person to person. For example, a friend of mine told me he hears everything coming from the back when listening to this recording and when I listen to other people's binaural recordings I also tend to hear most of the sounds in this dimension coming from the back or inside my head. I wonder if the trend is to hear sounds more likely from the back than from the front in confusing situations because to me it seems that to hear a sound in front of you the sound has to have pretty specific qualities that are obviously different to everyone and I guess it would make evolutionary sense for the brain to say "if you can't see it in front of you, it's probably behind you".
+MotorGoblin Indeed, the font goes into head, and it is deeply annoying to be unsuccessful like that! Regarding the back it kind of remains in what I would call half-back-half-inside-head, and this is a common result for all binaural recordings I have ever heard, also my own. I have done numerous half-binaural recordings with the mic hanging in my spectacles with similar results. Also the left/right is much easier to hear "externalized" from my own and other people's recordings, but there is an artificiality in that the externalized sound is heard in a peculiar kind of "birds perspective", probably because vital height and front/back information is lacking from the recording. And close mic recordings to the right or left; there is something strange with them, even if external. So the quiz is to understand what in the auditory system that causes the front/back and height information to be sent to the brain for 3d interpretation. One theory worth taking a closer look at, is the bone conduction of your scull "totality". If you close the ears and talk, you hear your own voice internalized and strange, meaning you will also hear this combined with the acoustic impressions via the ear canal. It is likewise a fact that your own voice sounds different when you speak compared to when you listen to a recording of it. So there is an added element of bone conduction that definitely contributes to the overall "raw material" sent to the brain. When we hear our own voice, we hear "much more" of the voice than persons in the room. I suspect, thus, that it is the sum of the bone conduction and the air conduction that is mandatory in order to reproduce the "raw material" in full for a completely realistic 3d playback. Unfortunately, how to add the bone conduction to a recording? Not possible and we are stuck, or what? Anyway, I am going to put the mic literally inside the ear canal opening today and make a few tests. If I am closer to hearing an externalized front stage I shall report it here, if not, the puzzle goes on. I am changing from Panasonic wm-61a to another type based on this purchase as it was recommended here and there: DIY Stereo Microphone Kit of Parts with Primo EM-172- Z1 capsules - Capsules : Matched Pair . I Purchased from FEL Communications LTD
This is the first place I've seen the same issue I've had: I've listened to dozens of real and synthetic binaural recordings and NEVER has the sound appeared to come from in front of me. At best, it's inside my head, and more typically, the front as well as the rear sounds come from behind. It's very realistic, but always sounds like an environment where no sound comes from the front. If you ever encounter or make a recording where the sound comes from front, post info about it please!!!!!
It will likely not happen unless some innovation manages to record and 'induce' what is normally perceived by the brain through bone conduction. If we are veryvery lucky we will discover a third hearing faculty that is concentrated to a point in the body in such a way that it can be provoked during playback
Syncing the audio might be problematic but it should work if you find a way to do that accurately. I really recommend using something that records stereo though.
So how do you actually record this stuff ? any special software needed ? do you record both channels separated and then join them to a single stereo file ?
Every sound is a single take recorded as a stereo track in a DAW program (Cubase in this case). Any audio software/recorder will do for the recording, all you need is a way to record stereo audio. You don't need to use effects or mix it in any way (I used a little bit of EQ and a master bus compressor but that is not necessary). If you want to layer multiple sounds together then you need a program that supports multiple tracks. Any DAW or something like Audacity should do the job.
Hey! Great video. But I am a total newbie when it comes to sound recording and the equipment. I've lot of questions and I need help with. Example; how do I record with two small capsule in my ear without a main "body" for me to draw out de sound to put into my computer. I'm sorry if I sound retarded. Im trying a new approach to create portfolio, so im exploring out binaural
Lim Jing Ri Glad you like it! I'm not sure if I follow you but the way I did it was I soldered each capsule to an XLR mic cable with a circuit that allows the capsules to be powered by phantom power of my audio interface (see www.epanorama.net/circuits/microphone_powering.html ). In retrospect, I'd make them using a battery (fairly simple circuit and works with portable recording devices). Note that there are also commercial products for this if you don't want to make the mics yourself. Both in-ear mics and dummy head mics. So, to summarize, you need capsules, a circuit that powers them, mic cables and a recording device (e.g. an audio interface for your computer or some portable recording device) that can record stereo. You might get away with an integrated sound card too, I don't really know how good they are these days since I haven't used one in years. If by without a body you mean human body, you need to build a dummy head, I've seen people do this out of styrofoam for example. Hope this helps!
First of all I am really appreciating your explanation and I would like to thank you for your time and guidance. You have made a very detailed explaination but due to my lack of knowledge in this field, I cant really get how to go about doing this. I live in Singapore and I understand it will be hard for you to pinpoint where can I get the equipment and stuff. So I would like to ask is it possible for me to gather a list of to buy list and how to build manual and head down to the electronic store and ask the staff to build one for me at a smaller fee?
Lim Jing Ri Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it. If you go to an electronic store with a parts list (or print out the circuit, I suggest the basic circuit shown here www.epanorama.net/circuits/microphone_powering.html#basics ) they should at least provide you with the right parts or maybe order some capsules if they don't have them in stock (they should at least have everything else). Or maybe you can order stuff online. If you are not familiar with electronics, maybe you can ask someone to help with the soldering etc. That said, there was one time I bought a cable and the store didn't have the right kind so they just made me one on the spot without me even asking for it, so you can always ask, just don't expect miracles :) Btw, check out this video, it explains the basic concept pretty well: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LycH4cXgx7Q.html
hey! thanks for the great video, but I'm wondering if you could just use a pair of passive microphones and plug them into a 2 channel interface and use its preamps to get the level you need. would be easier for me I guess haha thanks in advance :)
Sure, that should work. That said, I've never tried it myself so I don't know how much different the audio quality will be. I actually did another pair just a few days ago, this time with battery power. Seems to work a lot better than the simplest "hack" with phantom.
