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I'm thinking of building (not buying) a binaurel head


Bookumdano2

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I mean binaural. Anyone ever tackled a project like this ? A Neumann head is way out of my budget and I see some diy projects around.

 

I've tried every which way to get a just-below the chin and behind the head effect on projects and it's looking like this is the only way to go.

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Far from ideal (due to mass and other considerations), one of my old schools had a home-made binaural head made with a styrofoam wig holder dummy head. (You used to be able to buy them for like a buck or two and the five and ten in the 60s when lots of pre-hippie era gals wore various wigs and falls.)

 

Seems to me that used inexpensive electret condenser mics inserted into holes in the stryo ears.

 

The placement wasn't bad, even if the mass and other issues were.

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There was an article in an issue of Tape Op on how to build a binaural head, so you might want to track that down, since it was on the cheap. Maybe it'll be on the forum or posted somewhere else on a website. Some of the article dealt with odd resonances with certain kinds of heads. Have fun, and if you do build it, make sure you post back here with some photos and MP3s!

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Far
from ideal (due to mass and other considerations), one of my old schools had a home-made binaural head made with a styrofoam wig holder dummy head. (You used to be able to buy them for like a buck or two and the five and ten in the 60s when lots of pre-hippie era gals wore various wigs and falls.)


Seems to me that used inexpensive electret condenser mics inserted into holes in the stryo ears.


The placement wasn't bad, even if the mass and other issues were.

 

Girls wearing 'Falls'?:facepalm:

Damn,

you are Really a Dinosaur!:thu:

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Well, think about it, a true binaural recording will only sound just like it was recorded, as far as spacial location & etc., is by listening to the recording on headphones. Any other way of listening will be affected by extraneous noises, cross talk, room effects and other things that would, essentially, alter the sound scape.

 

For a close recording experience though not as binaurally sterile would be using a Jecklin Disk set up.

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Have you considered using your own head? There have been some pretty good field recordings made with by attaching a couple of miniature omni mics to the headband of headphones that the engineer was wearing. He just moved to where it sounded good in the headphones and pressed the Record button.

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I have also looked at the in-ear type mics as a possible way to explore.

 

I work all day on the computers (mostly with headphones) in this great space in front of a large, open window that looks out sorta south-east towards San Diego etc. No obstructions since I'm about three flights up. Very quiet here too. Just a nice, straight line view to mountains etc with houses out there below.

 

Because of the height and nothing out in the distance, I'm actually in the flight path of lots of different types of birds that fly straight towards where I work all day and I've really been noticing tones of the birds when they're at different distances and angles from where I am.

 

For about the last year, I've been closing my eyes to listen to their overall yelping and chirping from different distances and heights to see if I can equate that to some eq, delay, and omni mic-type experiments later. With eyes closed, I can really place those sounds all over the map in my brain with cool distance, separation, height, depth etc. That got me into the idea of experimenting a bit with placing sounds like that here in the studio.

 

The only hitch seems to be height. I never get height impressions with omni-stereo recording, but some of the binaural experiments I've heard are very effective with height to me. The jecklin disk and in-ear mics don't seem to be as effective, but I might try them too at some point.

 

One binaural recording I heard last week using a dummy head was very very effective at just-below-the-chin and behind the head effects. That really jazzed me.

 

While this doesn't directly translate to music, it is something I want to try out further. I'd probably just use it on my own experimental mixes for headphones, but man, I really want to get that height thing experimented with more.

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Have you considered using your own head? There have been some pretty good field recordings made with by attaching a couple of miniature omni mics to the headband of headphones that the engineer was wearing. He just moved to where it sounded good in the headphones and pressed the Record button.

 

 

Very good point. If you do a search on this, there are a number of mics that are small and have clip-ons so you can attach it to a hat, lapel, glasses, or something else and have an instant binaural mic setup.

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And from watching all those CSI type shows I have heard of "ballistic jelly" which is intended to simulate the human body for testing bullets for comparison. here's a website on how to make your own:

 

 

 

If I am remembering correctly from watching Myth Busters. The ballistic gel breaks down fairly quickly at room temperature. He'd have to make a new one for each recording.

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