Recording Technique
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With a simple recording method, two microphones are placed 18 cm (7") apart facing away from each other. This method will not create a real binaural recording. The distance and placement roughly approximates the position of an average human's ear canals, but that is not all that is needed. More elaborate techniques exist in pre-packaged forms. A typical binaural recording unit has two high-fidelity microphones mounted in a dummy head, inset in ear-shaped molds to fully capture all of the audio frequency adjustments (known as head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) in the psychoacoustic research community) that happen naturally as sound wraps around the human head and is "shaped" by the form of the outer and inner ear. The Neumann KU-81, and KU-100 are the most commonly used binaural packages, especially by musicians. The KEMAR system is another alternative. It was presented already in 1972 as a research mannequin for in-situ testing of hearing aids. The HEAD acoustics aachenhead unit (HMS IV) provides different equalization interfaces, either to make signals compatible with loudspeaker reproduction or to allow for comparison of signals with standard microphone recordings. Other alternatives are the Brüel & Kjær and the 01dB-Metravib mannequins. A simplified version of binaural recordings can be achieved using microphones with a separating element, like the Jecklin Disk. It used a 30 cm (11.81") acoustically-absorptive disk between the mics, spaced 18 centimeters. Now the new Disk is 35 cm in diameter and has a spacing of the microphones of 36 cm (double head). Nevertheless, not all cues required for exact localization of the sound sources can be preserved this way, but it works also well for loudspeaker reproduction.
In the late 1960s, Aiwa and Sony offered headphones with a pair of microphones mounted on the headband. around two-inches above the ears. These allowed pseudo-binaural recordings to be made.
Miniature binaural "in-ear" or "near-ear" microphones can be linked to a portable Digital Audio Tape (DAT) or MiniDisc recorder, bypassing the need for a dummy head by using the recordist's own head. The first clip-on binaural microphones using the recordist's own head were offered by Core Sound LLC in 1989. The first completely "in-ear" binaural microphones using the recordist's own head were offered by Sound Professionals in 1999.
Read more about this topic: Binaural Recording
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