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Gear / Technical Help => Microphones & Setup => Topic started by: BlindGuyEars on December 03, 2019, 12:05:06 PM
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First, the new product!
https://www.dpamicrophones.com/immersive/4560-core-binaural-headset-microphone
I know the binaural effect only works on headphones, but how well do such recordings produce regular stereo imaging on speakers? How would this compare to, say, a 4060 on each of my shoulders, facing forward? Which would you choose, and why?
I need to buy a pair of 4060's anyway. I no longer have any microphones, but I do own a DPA D:vice. So I'll be going D:vice > iPhone.
I'm very tempted by this. something to just wear unobtrusively in stealth situations. I'm blind, so if asked, I could claim it's a navigational aid of some kind. 😉
The only down side I can see is having to sit absolutely still for the duration of the concert...
Thoughts?
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Without going too deep into stealth techniques, I'll say that I try to avoid wearing mics on my head at all costs. I just find it too uncomfortable. Obviously that's just me though...there are plenty of people who have made tons of recordings with head-mounted mics.
I think I read somewhere that when played back on speakers, binaural recordings can give an unnaturally wide stereo image. I could be wrong about that...hopefully people who know more will chime in.
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I used to stealth with a pair of spaced 4060's and gave it up for mono. It's one thing if you can really be stationary, but if you're moving and turning your head in a crowd it gets really annoying to listen to. At least for me.
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Stereo information is generated by either having a different microphone placement for each channel, a different microphone directionality for each channel, or some combination of the two.
Baffles make omnis behave directionally.. in a way determined by the size, shape, and orientation of the baffle. Reorient the baffle and you reorient the directionality imparted by it. Leverage this aspect to your advantage.
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The general effect of head baffling is "universal" for all listeners and playback schemes and loosely analogous to a Jecklin disk, dummy head without ears, or a head-sized spherical baffle. This is more or less synonymous with wearing mics in front or above the ears.
To make a quasi-binaural recording one needs to include the effect of the outer ears (pinna) requiring the microphones to be placed close to or inside the opening of the ear-canals (a true binaural recording samples at the location of the eardrum and thus includes the ear-canal resonance specific to the listener!). In addition to the baffling effect imparted by the head which produces a generalized directional response that varies with frequency, the outer ear pinna imparts a far more complex directional response which varies by frequency above the midrange.
It is that complex directional/frequency response imparted by the pinna which is both the blessing and curse of binaural recording. Place the microphones in front or above the pina rather than inside it if the goal is to make a head-baffled (non-binaural) recording which is more universal, less personalized to a specific pina shape and less dependant on achieving an accurate binaural playback mode.
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It will be helpful to know if the 4560 headset is able to place the mics in front of or above the pina rather than inside it. If so, the topic question boils down to the more general practical/subjective taper preference for head versus shoulder mounting.