Hooke: Those who haven't heard good 3D content say that binaural is a solution in search of a problem. Yet, everyone vividly remembers being absorbed in hearing their first well-made binaural track - the chills!
Without quality content, binaural 3D sound is just another cool idea - a party trick; akin to watching a bad magician. Oftentimes, people will not see the potential in a tool until they see it used in a new way. But when that happens, the industry will change.
4 comments:
It is so cool that VR is being created not simply for the visual but for the sound as well. In the past, whenever I tried VR, no matter it was for an art piece or a game, it actually felt detached from reality due to the lack of the sound component. With both visual and sounds, however, I can imagine the VR experience to be much more immersing and real. 3D audio is already being used in amusement parks or by artists and game designers, and it can be applied for so many other things in entertainment, engineering, education, and beyond. But I think it is also important to note that we should be careful not to let the progress of technology exceeds the progress of ideas. 3D audio is bringing an extra layer of authenticity to story-telling, but I look forward to see what else it can do to help create newer ways of story-telling.
--Joyce
I somewhat agree with the author or this article: binaural audio is on the cusp of exploding into VR experiences, but it has some limitations that decrease its appeal. I think we will also see an increased use in immersive theatre. Especially for one-person experiences, binaural audio can be an effective way to create an aural environment without many loudspeakers. There are, however, two very limiting factors that a sound designer must consider when choosing a binaural setup. First, the content must be recorded binaurally; it is very difficult to master a binaural recording using stereo sources. This presents a challenge for the sound designer if s/he wishes to use extant content in their design.
Second, a headset playing binaural content will never be able to generate as full a soundscape as well-positioned and balanced loudspeakers. Binaural audio gives the listener a good sense of a 3D environment within a small radius of the ears. It does a great job with the left vs. right, but audio placed directly in front or behind the person doesn't sound convincing enough. Furthermore, binaural audio really isn't true 3D, since it only exists in one plane. You can't place sounds at someone's feet or 20 feet above their heads with this technique. This is because there’s only one driver per ear in a pair of headphones, and that driver can’t rotate to change that angle from which the sound comes. To create a true 3D soundscape, you need loudspeakers that are physically placed around the listener.
That being said, binaural audio is a fantastic tool if used well. It produces great results considering the less complex setup and equipment requirements (presuming a very small show). I look forward to seeing its use and development within the next few years.
With the development of binaural recording and production technologies being more aimed at consumer experiences, I have been interested in seeing how these technologies could be implemented. I had not thought as much about how they could be used in relatively newer settings.
In existing settings, I think binaural audio definitely has potential for more realistic TV sound design work. Shows that are moving towards creating a more realistic aural environment, such as Dare Devil (about which there was an article last week) could take advantage of binaural technology to take the realism much farther. I think this is possible because the way we watch TV has evolved into a single-viewer experience—such as watching on your laptop alone, instead of on the TV with other people.
I definitely think that binaural audio is a perfect pairing, if not essential pairing for new Virtual Reality technologies. Again, this is an instance where headphones are already part of the set-up. I think where binaural audio does not appeal as much are situations where the user is not wearing headphones, so I’d be interested to see if binaural tech moves in a similar direction as the 4D Soundsystem project, or if it will focus on headphones-only experiences. As Sam describes in his comment, maybe this isn’t the arena for binaural tech, and it’s destined to stay between our ears.
This reminds me of a piece I worked on during playground last year, Labyrinth, a binaural theatre piece. It used binaural sound to immerse the audience into an aural version of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. It’s amazing to listen to other binaural pieces and think about the possibilities binaural sound can bring to the entertainment world. I feel like the listening experience in each of the videos in the article enhanced my experience overall. I especially enjoyed the binaural piece accompanied by a visual- they together brought me into the story. With Bohemian Rhapsody, I thought that it was really enhanced the song, but it also seemed like whoever made it was showing off the technology. I would be interested to look further into songs that were written for a binaural experience and see how that differentiates. There are definitely some incredible opportunities that binaural sound creates for all over the entertainment industry.
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