![]() ![]() Meanwhile, BBC Radio 4 starts broadcasting binaural radio dramas, including a series centered on Sherlock Holmes and a 28-minute radio play that doesn’t contain a single word of dialogue - only binaurally recorded sounds - called The Revenge. (Read our roundup of The Best Albums Recorded in Binaural Audio.) Similar dummy heads developed by Sony, JVC, and Sennheiser soon follow, thereby providing creators with the tool they need to invent new ways of hearing. In 1978, Lou Reed employs a dummy head designed by German sound engineer Manfred Schunk to make Street Hassle - the first commercial pop album recorded in binaural audio, then follows that up with two more binaural albums, 1978’s Live: Take No Prisoners and 1979’s The Bells. German company Neumann unveils the KU-80 - the first commercial head-based binaural recording system - at the 1972 International Radio and Television Exhibition in Berlin. Stereo overtakes mono as the new standard, sidelining further experiments with binaural audio - at least for now. But, over the next three decades, stereo systems for both commercial and in-home use gradually become more affordable. Installation of the equipment proves costly, making a wide release impossible. "We wanted to reproduce such beautiful masterpieces.so that audiences would feel as though they were standing at the podium with Stokowski.” Fantasia gets shown at thirteen custom-renovated venues across the U.S. "We know.that music emerging from one speaker behind the screen sounds thin, tinkly and strainy," Walt Disney says. "Fantasound" requires a multi-speaker system for playback problem is, movie theaters aren't equipped for that yet. In 1940, Disney kicks off a sound revolution with Fantasia - the first commercial film released in stereo. Check back next week for Part 3: The 21st Century. Here, in the second of a our three-part series, we’re throwing a spotlight on the films, albums, radio dramas, audio walks, and amusement park rides that paved the way for the binaural audio creators of today. And creators in every sector (VR, music, podcasts, gaming…) are tapping the limitless potential of binaural. Now, every smartphone comes with a pair of earbuds. Fast forward to the present day, and binaural audio is poised to make a similarly seismic cultural impact. Stereo eventually dictated whole new ways of making art, vastly expanding the range of sounds that humans find pleasing to the ear. In The History of Binaural Audio, Part 1, we traced the story of binaural audio from the late-19th Century, when a telephone earpiece was still required for listening to electrical audio signals) through the 1930s, which marked the arrival of stereophonic sound and the first commercial loudspeakers. With headphones on, binaural audio produces the incredibly immersive sensation of being in the same exact place where the recording was made. So why are most people only now beginning to hear about this superior alternative to stereo sound? Mostly because in order to experience binaural audio, you need to be wearing headphones, which used to be a lot less common than they are today. A binaural audio recording captures sound as you actually hear it by employing two microphones spaced to approximate the distance between your ears. The technology behind binaural audio (also known as 3d Audio) is more than a century-old. ![]()
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