Binaural Recording

Binaural recording can quite literally capture the world of sound as you actually hear it, but it’s a technique that hasn’t yet hit the mainstream. Grant Bridgeman dons his headset...

Recording and reproducing music in stereo has been the norm for more than 40 years now; indeed, it’s become something that we take for granted. Increasingly, musicians and engineers are going beyond stereo and looking into the realms of mixing in surround format, particularly for soundtrack work. And yet, the majority of playback systems go only part of the way when it comes to simulating the way in which sound surrounds us in the natural world. Binaural recording techniques literally capture the sound at you ears, and re-create every nuance of a listening environment when played back over headphones. But before we look at the specifics of binaural recording itself, let’s examine how our ears and brain decode and perceive the audio information that surrounds us every day.

This feature first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 37
Filed under Ten Minute Masters

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