About My Recordings
Listening Via Headphones
Disable Spatial Audio Processing

About My Recordings

My 3D recordings are made with a special state-of-the-art "quasi-binaural" microphone setup that roughly imitates the human head, with two microphones placed about seven inches apart (= the ears) and separated by a baffle (= the head). As such, the two microphones pick up the same spatial cues that our ears would receive if we stood in the same spot as the microphone, and that our brains would subsequently decode to determine the exact locations of sound-producing sources in the environment.

These important "binaural cues" include time arrival differences of incoming sounds between the two ears, as well as loudness and waveform differences. Thus, a two-channel binaural recording is saturated with 3D spatial information that can easily be decoded by a listener's brain, but only if delivered properly to the human ears.

Go here for more information about our recording equipment.

Listening via Headphones (for optimal immersion)

To accurately experience the full spaciousness of my 3D recordings, it is important for the right ear to only hear the right channel and the left ear to only hear the left channel. Obviously, this is best achieved by using headphones or earbuds (eg. AirPods), where there is a clear separation between the two channels.

Using headphones, the listening experience that results is often shocking to someone first encountering it ... it is as if you are actually there, in the three-dimensional environment in which the recording was made, literally surrounded by a spacious and immersive soundscape that expands outward as far as the ear can hear.

In general, over-the-ear headphones work much better than earbuds, the latter often having weak bass and over-emphasis of treble. To help with this problem, I have included a special equalization setting that is specifically tailored to improve the sound of stock Apple AirPods. Please try this setting if you are using Apple earbuds ... it might really make a big difference, especially with regard to bass response!

Audiophiles who listen in quiet spaces shielded from outside noise usually prefer using high quality "open-back headphones" for comfort and highly spacious sound. But for satisfying immersion in noisy places, we highly recommend the new breed of noise cancelling headphones that greatly lower ambient sounds.

Such headphones allow the user to hear recordings with astounding clarity, even while working in an office or coffee shop, or while traveling on a bus, airplane, or the subway (for obvious reasons, we do not recommended using such headphones while driving or in other potentially dangerous situations). Imagine instantly escaping into pristine nature no matter where you happen to be.

Disable Spatial Audio Processing!

Current generation Apple Airpods, along with certain other new earbuds appearing in the marketplace, include "Spatial Audio Processing" settings designed to transform conventional stereo recordings into spacious "binaural-ish" recordings. Unfortunately, such processing will cause prominent audio artifacts when applied to native binaural field recordings such as those featured in my app (sometimes this sounds like bees buzzing). So it is critically important to DISABLE SPATIAL AUDIO PROCESSING.

For Apple devices, Go here for detailed instructions about how to accomplish this. NOTE THAT IT IS IMPORTANT TO CHANGE THIS SETTING WHILE PLAYING A TRACK FROM OUR APP because this will ensure that spatial audio will not be applied again to recordings in our specific app (or so Apple says). For non-Apple earbuds or headphones, please follow instructions provided by the manufacturer.