A couple of times recently when I’ve written about object audio and binaural systems, people have expressed disbelief that you can get a surround sound effect through ordinary headphones.
But that’s exactly what binaural sound does. If you’re a sceptic, dig out a pair of headphones and head along to the BBC RD trial page.
This is the 2003 production of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, which added new actors to the original recording of Richard Burton. Under Milk Wood is, in my view, an amazing thing to listen too. Just set aside 90 minutes and let the sound wash over you.
And, in this trial, you can choose to listen to it remixed in surround sound, either to pass through your PC if you have it set up with the right number of speakers, or in a binaural mix specially designed for headphones.
You’ll need to be using Chrome to listen to it.
I haven’t listened to a binaural recording in decades. I seem to remember that it was easy to locate sounds from behind and to the side, but I struggled to hear an image from in front of the plane of my ears.
Unfortunately, I can’t get that track to listen to now., to see if that has improved.