Mailbag Review

A Q and A plus a link from recent emails:

Name of sender: Evil Joe

I was wondering if the binaural effect would be the same if I had a surround
sound speaker system. Like two front speakers, two rear speakers, and a
subwoofer/center speaker. Thanks.

Hi EJ:

Most modern binaural recordings sound excellent in plain stereo, and will probably sound very good on a surround system, just as good stereo does.

But it will not be surround sound, neither will it sound the same as Binaural played back with headphones, or with just two "crosstalk-cancelled" stereo loudspeakers.

Binaural recordings played back through good headphones can also reproduce the up and down dimension: above and below as well as around you in a horizontal circle, and reproduce the effects of closeness or distance much better than a 5.1 surround speaker setup can.

Steve
The Binaural Source

and to illuminate, enjoy this binaural multimedia art from Jeff Anderson:

http://digdagga.com/2009/01/ghost.html