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Holophonic Sound Effect

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DerekH16

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Aug 2, 2001
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Maybe not the best place for this, but it's odd...

I found this on another MB. It's a really weird sound effect - you can hear it almost all round (best with headphones :) )

Holophonic sound effect
 
Listened to it without headphones, wasn't too impressed.

Put some headphones on, it becomes really cool.

Well done for finding this.
 
Psychic TV recorded their 2nd studio album, Dreams Less Sweet, entirely in holophonic... some parts sound really amazing on headphones, seem to remember a bit where you hear a circle of petrol being poured around you then set on fire... a lot of it just isn't quite right without headphones though...

The wiki entry for holophony is a bit sparce, and seems to say it's recorded in quite a complex way... must admit to being under the impression it was essentially done with two microphones and a dummy head, so that the sound's recorded as it would otherwise arrive at the ears?
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
The wiki entry for holophony is a bit sparce, and seems to say it's recorded in quite a complex way... must admit to being under the impression it was essentially done with two microphones and a dummy head, so that the sound's recorded as it would otherwise arrive at the ears?
Click to expand...

That's a technique called binaural stereo. Holophonic may be a variation on that.

Gordon
 
The website explains it as follows:

Holophonia

Holphony is an innovative sound perception system based on the synthesis, obtained trough most advanced cross-disciplinary technologies, of the sound process processed along three stages in the human ear.

This was obtained by balancing an accurate reproduction with respect to materials and dimensional ratios with an electronic supervision via microcomputers that intelligibly superimposes spatial vectors and the environmental effect whereby it is meant controlled superimposition over time being autonomously modulated as to its harmonic contents.

The machine that integrates the holophonic® function, called holophone®, becomes part of the existing recording-reproduction ring with which it is fully compatible, replacing the stereophonic microphones pairs system currently used.

The sound product, in the final stage of listening, will be decoded and interpretated as coming directly and exclusively from primary original sources.
Click to expand...

Obvious, really... ;)
 
It's a great little sound-file. You can save it too.

Like owning a wanking moth. :)
 
How do you save it James?

And where can I find myself a wanking moth?
 
I think I just used Command-S on my eMac and it duly appeared as an MP3 on the desktop.

The search for wanking moths online can be a tad frustrating. Some Search Engines will suggest you really need Wanking Mothers. I do not recommend this search.

The nearest I could find is one Ray Moth, who posted on a photographers' forum - well I guess they are attracted by the flash!

"It is my belief that "Only a fool abuses his tool".

So! they think the darkness hides them, but their emissions can clearly be caught. :)
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
Psychic TV recorded their 2nd studio album, Dreams Less Sweet, entirely in holophonic... some parts sound really amazing on headphones, seem to remember a bit where you hear a circle of petrol being poured around you then set on fire... a lot of it just isn't quite right without headphones though...

The wiki entry for holophony is a bit sparce, and seems to say it's recorded in quite a complex way... must admit to being under the impression it was essentially done with two microphones and a dummy head, so that the sound's recorded as it would otherwise arrive at the ears?
Click to expand...

Years ago, I read an article about how Psychic TV recorded that album.
They made up a dummy head with the same density characteristics as a human head, and inserted small microphones inside the ears. I can't recall accurately, but they may have used a real human skull inside it.
Also, I seem to recall they even put a wig on it, as a lack of hair can change the directional nature of sound.
This is how they managed to create '3D' sound with directional characteristics.
 
Yes, dummy-head or Binaural recording had a brief vogue in the seventies. It was much discussed in the Hi-Fi press and the BBC broadcast a few dramas and concerts especially for headphone-listeners.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

Mainstream interest in it seemed to wane about the same time quadraphonics gave way to digital but it has continued to have a devoted home-brew following. There were people who claimed that some plain quadraphonic recordings could be decoded by the wearing of ordinary headphones but some of us may recall the bizarre Stax quadraphonic headset, which looked like four mini-loudspeakers on a head-band!

I suspect that, like the delights of Imax and 3D, it is destined to remain a novelty. But a good one. :)
 
I remember when we bought a new computer, the speakers came with some program that claimed to be able to simulate surround sound with just the two speakers. It had some demos of a bee flying around and similar things. Sounded okay.
 
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