LO1 – Binaural Sound Experience

April 5, 2017Charles MacRae No Comments

Initial Ideas For Binaural Recordings (LO1)

The original way that I had planned to do the binaural recordings was to go to each of the areas that I had written a story on and record the ambient sound of the areas, however when I got around to doing the recordings (around 3 am on a Sunday, with no one around), there was little to no sound present, the only thing that was picked up was the occasional gust of wind.

So what I have decided to do instead is focus on the binaural recordings in the context of the narration and try and find different and interesting ways to record each story. As well as this, I plan on recording some of the sound effects in each of the areas or areas with a similar environment (to try and get a good recreation of what it could sound like in the areas).

The first story was recorded fairly simply, it involved jerry-rigging a head sized object and placing the microphones on either side to simulate the spacing of the head. I tried recording the story from each side of the fake head, but in the end, I decided to add some padding around one side of the microphone to simulate an ear shape, and then record from behind. I found that recording from behind gave the best impression of being in third-person, whereas all the other recording sounded like I was reading a story to the listener.

When recording the story for the area around The Lawn I again used the fake head set-up but recorded from multiple sides as I wanted to give the impression of it being a handheld recorder, so I also added some background noises and hand movements to make it seem more like a basic handheld microphone. By using the fake head it gave me the opportunity to move away from the microphones and that then influenced the way I could write the stories – meaning that I could add distance to the recordings.

March 14, 2017Charles MacRae No Comments

The Difficulties of Recording Binaurally (LO1)

During the first few weeks of having my Roland, binaural microphones I have had a chance to experiment with them and experience what they are good at and also experience the problems that can come with recording binaurally.

One of the immediate problems that I encountered is wind noise is very noticeable even with the pop-shields placed over the headphones. I think this is mainly due to the fact that the microphones have to be placed in the ears so they are always quite high in the air (around 6ft).

The microphones are surprisingly sensitive which is both good and bad, on one hand it allows you to get the most from a recording as it can give you a real experience of that place, however it will pick up sounds that are quite far away or the sound of birds, which I don’t really want when trying to create a gloomy atmosphere.

As I am using in ear microphones as opposed to a static, fake head with mounted microphones, recording narration/voice-over can prove difficult/awkward as I either have to jerry-rig a fake head to simulate the spacing of a head or I have to ask a friend to wear the microphones whilst I do the speaking to them. I attempted to record voice-over with the microphones in my ears but the result was not good and you could hear every movement of my head and mouth.

I think the main goal to try and get the best binaural recording is to wait for the weather to be fairly mild and the wind to be low and also try and find the quietest times of the day to do the recording. And when it comes to recording the voice-over, I will likely stick to recording in either mono or stereo.

February 13, 2017Charles MacRae No Comments

Initial Research – Recording Equipment (LO1)

I did some research on what other people are using to create binaural audio recordings and came upon a lot of different forums with people discussing their various different setups and equipment. There were three types of recording equipment that I could choose from:

Number 1:

A static head shape with omnidirectional microphones placed in each ear on either side. This product is used to simulate the space between our ears as well as the shape of our ears to give the most accurate replication of sound. This option would have been good if I were perhaps recording a static character in a room and just wanted the microphones to stay in one place, however, I am creating a moving piece so this was not something I could use.

Number 2:

DIY Binaural Microphones. These are surprisingly cheap to make and work very well when placed in the ear, and this is the main way that people record binaurally from what I can see on the forums, I also recently looked into Dallas Simpson and he also creates his own binaural microphones. I was originally going to use this type of microphone, however, I don’t have the equipment to make them and they don’t allow you to monitor your recording as you are doing it.

Number 3:

Roland cs-10em. These were recommended to me on many forums to start out recording binaurally. They are a combination of headphone and omnidirectional condenser microphone so that they can be used to monitor whilst recording. I made sure to find some tech demos prior to purchasing and was happy with how they sound, so these are the microphones that I will be using to record my project with.

References:

https://www.roland.com/us/products/cs-10em/specifications/

http://openfile.org.uk/archive/dallas-simpson-binaural-recording/ – “My simple binaural recording technique is to insert high quality custom modified sub miniature microphones into my ears and thus sample my own hearing.”

http://www.head-fi.org/t/544390/roland-cs-10em-binaural-field-recording

February 13, 2017Charles MacRae No Comments

Initial Research – Discovering Binaural Recording (LO1/3)

I first had the idea to create a binaural sound recording whilst I was searching through YouTube to find what I called “3D/360” sound and I found quite a few videos this way which interested me and made me want to pursue something similar.

The first few videos I found weren’t based in the horror genre but instead just showed off what you could do with binaural recording:

I then continued searching and found one that was more interesting and was more horror themed:

This was the main video that I used to kick start my idea. Originally I wanted to emulate this sort of recording of a static person in the middle of a room and have all of the action going on around the listener but after talks with Emily, we decided that it would be more interesting to have a moving piece of audio that the listener would emulate in a certain area, which made us think that the top of Lincoln, towards the cathedral, would be an interesting scene to experience the audio recording I make.