MetaFilter posts tagged with binaural

Return of the Beat Generation

tkolar — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 10:43:05 -0800

Binaural Beats have been mentioned before, but that was when they were innocent, before someone thought of the children.

The Man Who Invented Stereo

rongorongo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:10:27 -0800

In a single 1931 document, electrical engineer Alan Blumlein patented stereo records, stereo movie sountracks and surround sound. His equipment was used to make some of the first stereo recordings at EMI's Abbey Road studios - several decades before the technology came into popular use. Blumlein went on to pioneer 405 line TV (the first wholly electronic format which won out over John Logie Baird's rival system) and to produce the equipment that made the first outside TV broadcast possible. At the outbreak of World War 2 he was a key architect of the secret H2S radar project. Unfortunately he was killed in a plane crash while testing the technology and the whole incident was kept secret. Hence he remains an obscure figure despite his achievements. A recent BBC Radio 4 program contains a lot of the archive stereo footage and tells his story.

Music to (both) your ears.

artifarce — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:12:24 -0800

What do you call capturing sound the way the human head hears it, that is, three-dimensionally? Nope, not stereo. Binaural recording. Holophonics. Dummy head (no, not you) recording. Binaural recording was known of as far back as 1881, requiring a telephone and a "fancy" headset. Now you can record your own using a stealth mic or a dummy head and can (and must) listen using a pair of headphones. Get your headphones on. Good, ready for more? (Note: all links are either to an MP3, a video, or contain links to such, as if I had to even say it.)

You are getting sleepy

Jimbob — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 05:53:38 -0800

SBaGen is software (Windows, Mac and Linux) that generates binaural beats - interactions between sound waves that mess with your brain, to induce sleep, relaxation, activity, and allegedly even hallucinogenic states. SBaGen relies on text-file presets (although it comes with dozens of files to experiment with) but if you want a "quick start", there's also the Windows-based Brain Wave Generator.