I recently obtained binaural microphones for use with a Sony field recorder. “Binaural” looks like it would be defined as a urinal with two receptacles but it actually refers to sound recorded using two microphones usually transmitted separately to the two ears. Binaural recording differs from stereo in that the microphones are typically placed in your ears, looking to the casual observer more like earbuds than microphones. This placement allows for recordings that capture spatial localization and the so-called “3D audio” effect as heard by humans, and by most estimates it does this more accurately and immersively than stereo.
The recording below, made inside the chapel at Calvary Cemetery, does not make especial use of the 3D effect, but others I am working on have, such as this recording I made at a casino a few weeks ago. The recording below should be part of a longer set in which I walk around the grounds of the cemetery remarking on things I’ve learned and discovered out there over the years. I have to become more comfortable with the recording gear and tame the noise made by the wind by procuring windscreen pads that will securely fit my headphones.
Just checking in here. I’ve been working on a lot of things without a lot to show for it. I am outlining a book which is taking shape, and which entails some time at the library. It does not take much time at a research center to make you realize what enormous swaths of information are not to be found on the public Internet. Listen in on my first attempts at what I guess would be called podcasting:
