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Binaural Field Recording editing on iOS
I've played a little bit with some binaural recordings using the headphones that have mics built-in.
My first attempts sounded fine, but didn't really really have that "wow" 3D effect I was after. Just a little better than regular stereo.
Then, I did some other recordings, getting more creative with how I turned my head to emphasis a sound on one side or the other and started to get better results, ie. walking through the grocery store, old grandma chatting with little girl in produce section. If I stood facing the general direction of the conversation, I'd get more of a regular stereo result, but if I moved a bit closer and turned my head away some so that one earbud/mic was closer to the dialogue... I was getting much more dramatic spatial illusion.
I'm wondering if there are iOS audio editing apps that are perfect for tweaking and sweetening the spatial effects of this kind of recording? Or, techniques to use within the apps I already have?
Sidenote: I could swear that I already made this exact posting. Having a major deja vu. Seems I was typing this same question in a dream state a couple days ago. Weird. Need to get more sleep I reckon. lol 
Comments
I dabbled around with this a while back. Well something similar to this.
https://developer3.oculus.com/blog/digital-audio-workstations-and-vr-audio/
My buddy got an Oculus Rift and really thinks this is an untapped market.
I played around with the Oculus Spatializer Plugins with ableton live lite. It was fun. Don't really have head tracking headphones but could be an interesting way to do an audiobook or some ambient stuff.
here is the test I came up with.
Oh, you're giving me all sorts of good ideas with that one "audiobook" comment. thx!
So, "spatializing" is more or less the term I should be using I guess. Did you play with the spatial sweetening with binaurally recorded source?
I'm more interested in the binaural stuff at the moment because I want to experiment with 360 VR video and stills. Figured pairing those visual elements with aurally spatial field recordings, soundscapes, effects, etc. would be a natural pairing.
I'm guessing the "stereo-centric" app filters are what I should be looking into, but not that sure since I have no experience other than a few test recordings so far.
There's an article on SoundOnSound that talks about remixing binaural recordings to 5.1... but they're using all desktop applications. I wonder if there's anything like that for iOS, or a feature set already built-in to a DAW like AuriaPro?
The samples were already recorded in a game library somewhere. So i didn't fool with the source. I just basically applied the Spatialize plugin to the sounds to give them movement in space and sound as if things are moving in a 360 environment.
I don't know. I am not aware of an iOS app. I think an iOS app would be a really good platform for a spatial mapping app. I like the idea of mixing to 5.1 but it intrigues me so much that we don't need 5.1 to hear 360 in real life. We only have 2 ears and we hear in 360.
Hm iOS Supports 7.1 (Dolby digital +) and 48 kHz with the digital av lightning adapter,
but I haven't seen any music/audio stuff that supports this yet,
maybe to niche
That's because sound is coming from all sides and hits your head
because u have two ears and they are at distance to each other your brain makes out of the latency between signal left ear and right ear a direction
And it's not really full circle either
right behind you is kind of a dead spot, it's just behind you in that spot where you can't tell anymore if it's left or right behind you ...
I think it's because your ears are physically kind of pointing to what's infront of you, you get what I mean I guess.
Doesn't work for all frequencies either
Bass is hard to tell direction wise, that's why the surround stuff just has 1 sub.
Sorry for the lesson, I just can't go on if I see that the facts are not right.
well, that's a very simple example - in cinema tone it's been years since you can change impact and spectral content of an audio part according to distance and movement.
It's a very CPU intense process, hard to imagine on mobile devices currently, but these things often evolve quicker than expected.
I remember a thread where someone posted an example recorded with a special mic while walking through a trade fair. That sound was extremely convincing.
That cinema stuff is amazing
It includes Doppler effect with the panning and everything
I was researching how to embed/deliver 360VR stuff online so that it's the least complicated for the end-user and was reading the Google developer stuff fro VR View that they recently launched.
Some good info on "Spatial Audio" and how to implement too.
Potentially pretty interesting stuff... even beyond the VR gaming realm, but I'm thinking in terms of Spatial Audio Music delivery:
https://developers.google.com/vr/concepts/spatial-audio
@skiphunt , My entire experience with making/editing binaural recordings adds up to zero, however I have achieved some surprisingly interesting spatial results with mono recordings by simply playing with the pan knob and progressing it from one side of the stereo to the other and back again.
But a "spatializer" sounds like millions more fun.
That reminds me. I need to experiment more with mono field recordings more. There was a great case made for mostly sticking with mono field recordings and only in very specific ambient situations usin steamroll... on a HowSound podcast several months ago.
I'm guessing you get a bit more overall control to shape things the way you want without potentially mushing it all up with too much spatial disorientation? Seems like mono sources might be easier to place in more specific quadrants in your virtual field.
I have no idea if stereo = less shaping control + more potential spatial mush, because I have very little experience with stereo. Stereo recording requires double the amount of mics, cables, unpacking, plugging in, unplugging, putting away, carrying, and tangles which altogether offends my laziness, which I prefer to indulge at every opportunity.
I learnt most of my recording skills and habits at a time when one mic, stand & cable alone was about 400% heavier & some amount bigger than my entire kit today, so doubling it meant a significantly back breaking increase. Nowadays I do actually include a stereo-matched second mic in my kit which happily means a weight increase of only a few hundred grams or so, but my ingrained habits mean I always forget to use it.
Sporadically I work on an unobtrusive mounting method on my eyeglasses to make binaural recordings, but the mono results I get now satisfy me greatly, so my motivation is too minimal to get it finished and in the field.
Also from an editing perspective, every powerful waveform editor I've ever used displays mono waveforms at double the size of stereo ones, and I find the bigness so much easier to work with that I generally split the few stereo files I get to work on the channels separately.
Wait, what was the question again?
By the way I found that podcast episode you referenced and will listen to it later, so thanks for that.
Edited to add:
In case anybody else in interested in that podcast episode:
http://transom.org/2016/should-i-or-shouldnt-i-recording-in-stereo/
it's a common mixing experience that you can put a mono source much better into a proper context.
One of today's most sought errors: the (onboard) stereo piano sound into the FOH Mixer.
(or generally most synth sounds into any mix just because the thing is 'stereo')
"the headphones that have mics built-in"
Do you have a link, please?
Mono is much easier to handle in a mix - less phase issues.
And it has real panning and not the balance crap.
Or, mid-side encoded!
I never tried m/s.
I always use mono drums & mono bass.
That doesn't create so much problems in the first place.
Much less ado I think.
Making aux delay mono is also not a bad idea.
The m/s stuff is fixing stuff afterwards.
Better do it right the fist time.
I used to be one of those everything stereo idiots too.
I'm new to the idea of using mid/side to post-process things and couldn't see the point of it. I'm more used to using it at the microphone end to record a mid signal on a main mic pointing forward, and the side difference signal on a mic pointing sideways, and that set of signals allows alteration of stereo field width from basically mono (ie, the side signal is not used) to quite wide, often wider than a Blumlein; ORTF or X-Y pair.
I have absolutely no idea about micing positions,
I mean I know what they look like but I never really used them.
Im a Synth guy, so everything is artificial and created the stereostage the room the sound it's all plastic so I can do whatever pleases me.
I also do fake oceans, wind and birds and that kind of stuff
I made these fake birds and I had the window open and the birds outside tried to talk to the synthesized birdsong that was really fun
I just do a few fieldrecordings as source material to mangle up in interesting ways sometimes so it doesn't really matter if the recording isn't that great. For me it's just source material.
This is all synthesis
I use binaural recordings as a starting point - going on to process them using some multiple effect techniques I've developed / stumbled across. I pretty much do all this on the desktop, I'm not aware of much 'spatial stuff' on iOS.
I recently released two albums which incorporate binaural recordings. If anyone's interested, here's a track from one of them:
I've also been looking at converting b-format impulse responses to binaural IR's, which can then be further processed, which is an interesting area regarding enhanced spatial reverbs.
These are what I got. They're now more pricey that what they're listed as now. I bought these because they were having a flash sale for about $13 at the time. The white ones are cheaper. I didn't expect much from them, and figured I'd dabble and see how much I was still interested after messing around a bit. Thought if I liked it, I'd get some nicer ones. But the sound quality with these is actually very good and will suit me fine for a good while. The only problem is there they're very sensitive to wind noise. I haven't tried any wind screens yet, but I will soon.
Some who use these put small dead cats on them, but having something furry hanging out of my ears doesn't sound very inconspicuous to me. LOL I'm going to try some very small foam windscreens meant for lav mics and see if those do the trick.
Here's the link, but watch the price... maybe they'll have another blowout sale after the holidays?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GAW69M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
@lala That is very convincing and impressive work. Sounds very close to the real thing. If I didn't know it was synthesized, I'd be easily fooled.
@Igneous1 That is very cool. Just followed you on SC. I could hear the spatial stuff at work here even without headphones.
Is the microphone port on these Andrea Electronics ear buds facing forwards? If so blocking sound coming at the side of the head would negatively affect a binaural recording, also binaural recordings require headphone playback. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording
More or less... but when they're in your ears, they sort of face more sideways than how it appears in the product photos. The earbud portion of these isn't very good, but it's good enough to check/verify your recording.
I'm very new to it at this point. I like that I can get inconspicuous recordings with these in public spaces, and it just looks like I'm listening to music. I've tried doing recordings in Mexican, Bolivian, Peruvian markets with a little hand recorder only... but positioning the on-board mics draw too much attention.
I'm going to Ecuador soon, so they'll be fun to experiment with in crowded markets there if I can rig them somehow to be less sensitive to even light breezes.
@skiphunt
Cheers !
Yeah, wind / movement noise is problematic with binaural recordings. I made some wind shields from some hairy material from ebay and a pair of 'ear-bags' (made to keep the cold out), they work very well, but they look really daft
Hm, I just read this.
It's a little messy, he is talking about dual mono and NOT about mono.
_What’s the difference between mono and stereo?
In short, a mono recording is one where the sound in the left and right channels is the same. A stereo recording has different sounds in each channel._
To elaborate: A mono file captures the audio in such a way that all the sound you record is the same in both channels. Even if you’re using built-in or external stereo mics, the sound will be mono — the same in both channels.
Real mono is just 1 channel
Strange for an engineer to explain it like that.
Let's have a look at the history of stereo
That explains the mono/stereo/more than stereo thing much better
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasound
(video is just here for optical reverence)
@lala few soundtrack recordings have more profoundly effected me as much as the work done for Fantasia. Always gives me the sensation or intuition that there's much more to all this on a hidden mystic level that most can't possibly even begin to comprehend.
Ave Maria in this soundtrack takes me to an ethereal place that's truly transcendent.
Will pay attention to the recording technique more closely during my next listen. Thanks for reminding me it's time to immerse myself back into that world once again.
@skiphunt
http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/article.aspx?p=337317
https://www.amazon.de/Fantasia-Special-Walt-Disney/dp/B003ZD9N6G
This special edition is 5.1
So it will be much closer to the original experience from those early bombastic shows, they really had an 8 channel system,
I can hardly imagine what an effort all of this must have been
It's from around the 2nd world war
They didn't have the ampex tape recoding,
That magnetofon tec was stolen from Germany after the war ...
Disney was really rolling stones up the hill.
That's interesting.
What is b-format? That Bosch video thing?
Ah I See, it's ambisonics.
Are you creating a stereo ir and then push it through whatever?
What are you trying to archive?
Moving the room around the head? (Lol, I get already dizzy thinking about this )
(I love IRs)
Concerning the need for headphones when it comes to binaural playback: I made good experiences with Logics inbuilt binaural processing (speaker crosstalk cancellation), but, of course I don't record binaurally, much more "play" my ios sounds in realtime, and have kmix control the spatiality of my speakers... . I used to work in quadrophonic setups, but since you hardly find a place that has 4 seperately controllable speakers, I turned to experimenting with binaural output. My personal favourite this far is sitting in the middle between L and R speakers, and crosstalk cancellation set to 90 degrees, beautiful 3d-scenarios, and also translates quite well into recordings for online-use (of course, then the listener either has their speakers set up the same way, or must use headphones, to have the full experience...). Try it out, if you can, it is quite possible (imho, of course).
Cheers, t