Has anyone tried binaural dummy-head recording?

[FLEB]

... where you take a styrofoam dummy-head and embed microphones into it. Appearantly you can get very realistic spatials when listening to it on headphones. You'd just end up picking up a lot of "What's with the styrofoam head?" from passers-by.

Info: http://www.binaural.com/binfaq.html

[Craig]

I've heard the results...they can be very realistic. These are the same idea but a lot less conspicuous:

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-TFB-2

I ordered a set yesterday to try out with my iRiver iFP-795 for sound-seeing tours and general environmental recording. I should have them on 2/1...I'll post a sample or you can check the recording samples at the site above. (The grade school band ones are particularly good examples since the band wasn't amplified and you can catch some audience noise at the beginning of the first sample and the end of the third.)

Also, check my Behind the Scenes Web site for a link on how to make your own for under $10 (disguised as a pair of headphones)!

http://www.godcast.org/categories/behindTheScenes

Craig

[radioclash]

if you want to do serious binaural recording check out this guy - he does a lot of recording and makes them into tracks - great guy, he sent me some of his CDs years ago, and it does sound totally immersive:

http://www.quietamerican.org/links_diy-mics.html

Basically he uses what looks like headphones but are actually microphones - not cheap but not thousands I think:

http://www.sonicstudios.com/

[Craig]

There's a sample of my first test with the SP-TFP-2 mics in the 2/7 edition of Behind the Scenes (http://bts.godcast.org). It's marred slightly by wind noise but it give you a good idea of what they're capable of.

Sound Professionals (http://www.soundprofessionals.com) also sells a budget version of the headphone mics.

(I'm don't make a dime if you buy something from Sound Professionals...I'm just a satisfied customer.)

Craig

[F7sound]

I've also got some SoundProfessionals mics that are built into a pair of Sony headphones. I wear them like headphones and make recordings to minidisc. They give a decent stereo image and run about $100 or so. Not the greatest fidelity, but stealthy, light, and easily set up.

For my real high-end recordings, I use a matched pair of Earthworks QTC-1s. They're omnis which I set up on a stereo bar with the elements about 12" apart.


Michael Oster
F7 Sound and Vision
http://www.F7sound.com
My Podcasts - http://www.F7sound.com/podcasts.htm