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Beyond the stereo sound Part 2 - Never 2 speakers without the 3rd dimension...

It may be worth mentioning the whole concept of Binaural recording somewhere in this article. You can get some fairly small and inexpensive omnidirectional mics, clip them to your baseball hat near your ears (pointing straight out... though I don't know if that really matters) and make a three dimensional recording. Most likely this is what "Hugo" is, Blue Max is another microphone built around a human head.

Humans perceive three dimensions with only two ears. The multiple speakers etc are just a way to sell more speakers. It would be nice if there were a piece of software that placed audio in space based on binaural data.

Ambisonics is another interesting surround format of the late 70s early 80s i do believe. it's similar to quadraphonics, the four speakers 90 degrees from each other, but with much more sophisticated mathematical models involved, requiring 3 signals and a decoder. it's similar to some of the spacial modelers and such. it seems like some pretty cool stuff.

I remember there being a big hooha about binaural so called 'dummy head' recording. I think the mics were placed in the plastic generic ears of a decapitated shop window dummy, which(who?) was placed or suspended in an optimal listening position in an auditorium. An early album by one of Tangerine Dream's members had some music dummy head, FX like a fly going round and round ones head....splat! Also a TRIPLE album from 1976 (that year of either progressive rennaisance, jazz fusion, or new wave punky phlegm lobbing....depending your musical point of view) called 'Consequences' by Godley and Creme of 10cc fame featured it here and there.
A small digression concerning sound design:That triple album was actually released to promote the future sales of a slightly Heath Robinson inspired device or 'gizmo' they'd invented which one attached to a guitar. This had 6 little revolving toothed gear type rubber toothed wheels constantly revolving, so when the device was lowered onto the string produced a sustained sound (think electro mechanical 'ebo' crossed with a hurdy gurdy. On the album they coax some truly staggeringly impressive and evocative sounds from it (as they should; it took them over a year holed up at the manor studios to record it all!) Everything heard on the recording was produced on the 'Gizmotron'; from quasi orchestral strings/ brass, you name it. and loads of innovative soundeffects, incl an elephant stampede triggered by a fireworks display! and a person being buried alive, (from the point of view of the departed). They got the sound of the soil being dropped on the coffin by placing a dummy head at the foot of some stairs and literally chucking shovels full of gravel on top of it....quite creepy as the extraneous other sounds become progressively more muffled. PLUS... and what a plus!: an extended surreal narration/playlet by the inimitable eccentric comic genius Peter Cook. who is fabulously inventive at his srangest as he takes on ALL the character roles himself. Sadly a triple album boxed set *very*lavishly presented costs a lot of dosh, I think it cost me £9.99, which was a fortune in 1976. If you can find it and have an interest in creative experimental sound design, or just enjoy entertaining the idea of three creative people with a huge budget and unlimited studio time!
Anyway, back to binaural matters.....
A mic which would lend itself naturally to these would be the 'soundfield'. A friend of mine went to a demonstration of that quite a few years ago when the soundfield was first released, and he said it made him quite vertiginous,even travel sick, as it seemingly gave the listener the ability to 'zoom' around the Albert hall, or whatever space the recordings were created, with startling precision so he could hear individuals conversations by dropping in to just above them from where the actual mic was suspended way high up in the the roof!
He bought one for a while and captured some interesting field 'nature'recordings in a cave one night.....shut your eyes and you could be there!

BTW, I'd come to the conclusion after 25 years of blank stares that I had the only copy of Consequences ever sold in existance. However, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr Robert Moog (now that's name dropping with a vengeance!)a few years ago when I bought a theremin from him. Well he has it too, although I think the weird British sense of humour and surreal wit of Peter Cooke's contribution was rather lost on him!
Apparently he had been unsuccessfully courted by Lol Creme to take over the floundering Gizmotron project development at that time. He said the weakest spot was the rubbery material of the little toothed wheels, they wore out after a couple of days.Plus, like early guitar synths hammer and nails disregard for the beauty of an instrument as polished antique furniture to be polished and waxed by its loving owner; the way it attached to the guitar damaged it cosmetically quite badly ! I've friend who has a gizmo, one of very very few they ever commercialy produced, I'm guestimating well under a hundred were ever manufactured, possibly fewer. Extremely collectable I'd imagine in years to come as a rare electromechanical curiosity.
regards John