Poor Mans Binaural Recording

Survo-

Okay, I am in love with binaural recordings! Are there any methods one can use two mics to atleast get a simulated binaural, or near binaural recording?

And when PJ recorded their Binaural songs, were they done live, or tracked?

Pearl Jam and toast

I'm not sure about either of those questions (remember also, that not all of Binaural was actually binaural).

There might be a way to do a cheap rip-off.. maybe..

you know what a binaural mic is right? It's that head in the binaural booklet. I'm sure you knew that because you're asking how to imitate it, but just ask if you'd like further explanation. I'm no expert but I know a lil' about it

Survo-

Yea I know about the head :-)

Ive read about it on wikipedia, but havn't found much on how they actualy recorded it, or if it can be simulated, for atleast a sound that is almost as warm and crisp as binaural.

Pearl Jam and toast

Survo- wrote:

Yea I know about the head :-)

Ive read about it on wikipedia, but havn't found much on how they actualy recorded it, or if it can be simulated, for atleast a sound that is almost as warm and crisp as binaural.

I'd guess you need a binaural mic to accurately reproduce it. It's so unique, i can't imagine a way to imitate it.

maybe you could cover the mic's in homemade "ears" (god know how you'd make these.. some kind of cover), point them in the right direction, space them apart the right distance, put them at the right height you want, and seperate stereo hard left and right..

it's not too farfetched.. it wouldn't be the same though.

harrisonmerwin

good question,

a way i have heard of doing it (although i have never tried it but it makes complete sense) is to take two microphones and place them with the backs of them facing eachother (::>>>> <<<<::) like that lol. Keep them generally the distance of your ears apart (anywhere between 6-10 inches works) you may need to stager them if they are larger mic's, and you will definately need two stands. As far as the "coning" effect that the ear does, it is not really that nessecary. You could probably get creating with a coffee or deep fry grease filter and rig it up around the mic head. Remember your going to need a bigger room, and your goign to want your mic's a few feet away from your sound source. Optimally it woudl be good to have two sources located two different distances from the mic's, btu if you cant do it then it shouldnt matter. Record some samples and see how it sounds, don't crank the gain if your getting low signals as it may really damage your overall product in the end. Get good levels by correctly placing yoru mic's and instrument levels. I woudl try this out and see what happens. If you could i would use two shotgun mic's with some sort of coning efect, but i woudl imagine two SM57's would do a great job. regular condensers will probably loose that "Seperation" effect of binaurality as most of them pick up 360 degrees, so i would use a directional. If you can set the pattern on yoru condenseres, face them both straight up, with the 6-10 inch gap, with the direction facing away from eachother. Just play around with all these variables untill you get somethign you like.