can someone explain binaural mics?

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pucho812

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I know what they are supposed to simulate. But how are they constructed,etc,etc,etc. Saw a Newmon head the other day and had an idea ofiing doing something similar out of a mannequin head.
I am thinking it's either2 omni capsules or 2 PZM capsules but I am not sure.
 
> it's either2 omni capsules or 2 PZM capsules

What is the difference between an omni flush-mounted in a surface, and a PZM? (none)
 
thanks PRR.
makes perfect sense.
This Idea could really happen.

Would be my first from sctrach baby. now all I gotta do is find a mannequin head in Los Angeles. should be easy enough.
 
There's also the bowling-ball mic. I swear one of these days I'm going to finally build that one. Problem #1 is that the $2 old bowling ball feels like it was custom-drilled just for my hand (but how often do I bowl? Maybe every 5 years), problem #2 is that those Panasonic capsules are just too noisy for me nowadays.
 
> all I gotta do is find a mannequin head

Wig shop. They make styrofoam "heads" for parking your wig at night and it keeps its shape. Can't cost much.

Craft shop has 6" and 8" styrofoam spheres. This is not the exact shape, though maybe around Easter they have "big eggs" which would be closer.

Neither of these normally has ears. The use of ears in dummy-head recording is debatable. For speaker reproduction, you probably don't want ears on the dummy head. Dummy-head recordings don't come into great focus on speakers, but can be frighteningly realistic on headphones. Here you need ears, because headphones swamp earlobe effects and that's not normal. A scrap of cardboard may be all you need: you can't make an exact match for everybody's varied ears, you just try to get some 4KHz rise to give the impression.
 
wig shops dod come to mind but I am thinking more department store style heads. out of plastic. Plus it's a little less messy when one cuts it.

The use of ears in dummy-head recording is debatable.

true. We had a loner german head at my old work for a while it was unusual would be my take on it. Chade tblake loves them.

As for design, I am thinking along the lines of 2 omni capsules and mic circuits mounted into the head. Drilling out ear canals and mounting the capsules in there. then tying it into a circuit.
 
If i understand this correctly you use the mannequin head to space the mics out correctly, and the head also makes the sound hit the mics more like how sound comes to our ears, blocks some of the info from getting to the other mic(ear) and such. And I have even seen people who have gone as far and giveing their mic heads ears to make this interaction even more like it is in real life with out ears. Now doesn't this make a recording that only sounds good on headphones, since if you put it on speakers you just get all that pesky head interferance all over again and end up with hyper binarual sound or something. It never made any sense to me. Or am I missing something?

adam
 
a manequin head... DownTown LA..... j

you should try to drill the hols at a slight upward angle.... unless you are splitting the head in half to get the capsules in there, if so, split it (saw through it) at where the ears will go. and then carve out (by hand) a more realistic shape for the ear canal. this will effect the sound.. whether the ear canal is curved or straight

ears would be sorta eay to mad from plaster.

take a mould of your ears... use earplugs, and then lie your head in its side into some moulding latex. and wait for it to set. then pour the plaster or other type of latex (which would probably be more durable and better to use) and wait for it to set. and then how you affit the ears to your dummy-head is up to you


where is Cynthia Plaster Caster.......(. but for the ears.).... when you need her?????
 
[quote author="PRR"]> Or am I missing something?

No.

It is a specialized technique.[/quote]

I guess I shoudl have just said, what is the purpose of binarual mics?

adam
 
[quote author="adamasd"][quote author="PRR"]> Or am I missing something?

No.

It is a specialized technique.[/quote]

I guess I shoudl have just said, what is the purpose of binarual mics?

adam[/quote]
Read about some of stuff that Tchad Blake has recorded for an idea of the difference...
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/dec97/tchadblake.html

The dummy head is a studio way of doing it
I am planning to use binaural mics attached to sunglasses or in the ears for a piece I am working on similar to what Tony Schwartz did in his soundscape location recordings in New York in the 1960s - there is a great Radio 4 program I listened to about this)
Problem with Binuarals in the ears is monitoring levels (think about the feedback that is going to happen!!)
 
What capsules are you using?

I got a lot of info on binaureal recording from the internet. Seems everyone is using panasonic capsules with Linkwiz mod. I was wondering if this is the best way to do this. Usually i don't really like the sound of electret mics. Are there other/better capsules you can use for this?
 
I wanna get some of these mics, but you could try and convert the omni caps into the head with some form of preamplifier.....maybe David Royers small diaphragm mod?

Hebden Sound

Omni cap is 195 pounds.....quality should be awesome. These are like the old Calrec mics.

Hey UK, what feedback issues? If you use in-ear omnis then you can't have headphones on as well (unless you got 4 ears right?). I think you just have to listen to what you record during a test, leave enuff headroom on the recorder. You will hear the environment through your ears if you mount the mics of sunglasses but then they will not be in the right position for the HRTFs.

I like the idea of mounting a fake head on a pole and carrying that around, monitoring on closed-back phones.

-Tom
 
We have several of the Neumann heads here. They are pretty darned good! The ears are indeed moulded using a medium-density rubbery material that feels like an ear... :shock: It's actually pretty "eerie" (pun intended!)

Anyhow, yes, on headphones the effect is utterly staggering. On speakers it frequently sounds like distant blurry nonsense. You have to consider that when you think about how the sound's going to be delivered to people. If they're listening on an iPod or somesuch device with headphones, the result may very well be simply stunning.

(from the cobweb-laden caves of my memory) I seem to recall some old dodgy British band doing a binaural head recording of a suicide jump... starting from something like a New York street scene. There must have been some RF link from the head to the recording device, but the whole long scene started at street level, walking through the city.

I remember being able to hear when you approached an intersection, the reflections on the right of the roadwork pneaumatic drill across the street on the left, coming off the storefront windows on the right dropped away and 'you' could hear the sound of idling motors as 'you' crossed the road. Then walking through a revolving door or something like that, into a lobby with echoing floors... (I could almost see the shine on the polished marble!) then into an elevator, then turning around... then after a while the doors opening again, walking down a corridor, trying door handles...

Then going into a room, opening the window, hearing the street sounds down below... same roadwork noise, but more distant, mingling with the sound of car horns many storeys below... the change in the 'air' from inside, dead numb Air Con, to open, noisy outdoors atmos.... then the head was dropped from the window... tumbling, noise, chaos...then...

They chopped the tape at the impact point.

Pretty nuts though... it stayed with me...

Keith
 
the panasonics do come to mind for capsules. but at the moment I am focused on the body/head well you know what I mean. I am focusing on construction of it.
Quad yeah downtown LA did come to mind. Taking a hunting trip there this weekend, a head hunting trip :wink:
My buddy has a friend who works in a prop department and suggested that we could see about me getting a mold of me and then making a rubber head but that would just creep me out to much. although I may take him up on the offer.
Definately going to cut it in half and then join it together once capsules are in place.

As for capsules, for all intensive purposes I could hack up a bringer eseem8000 and mount it in the head for my needs. or better yet some earthyworky mics but that ew's would be a shame as they are nice mics. bboys are cheap at about 35 a mic and would be o.k. for a first outting and definatelyup gradeable. I figure not including build time and if I were to go with the 8000 cost would be between 100-120 US I don't think a mannaquin head could cost more then 50 US?
 
I wanna say that it might have been Barclay James Harvest... Certainly there's a tune called 'Suicide' or something like that; on the album "Octoberon" IIRC...

Might have been them... might be something similar... might have been a dream... or even a nightmare!

:wink:

Keef
 
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