Virtual surround?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Elton Bear
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Elton Bear

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Does anyone know how to make sounds appear to be placed around a room using only stereo speakers?
 
no, not really
if you're talking about getting surround sound with only two speakers, there's really no way of doing that. You can give a fake sense of a wider stereo spectrum, but you can't really make it seem like a door is opening behind you or something.

The closest thing I think you will find is the Dolby Headphone system:
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/headphone.html

Or Holophonic sound (do a search here)
 
You'd need a pair of speaker cabs with an array of cones pointed in diff directions to use reflection etc like Bose.
 
I think this depends more on headphones than a pair of speakers, but it's a starting point. Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_audio_effect

Listen to the two samples at the bottom of the page under "External links." I think you'll be amazed at the second one (Virtual Barbershop). I was...
 
I think what he's looking for is something like Panorama (http://www.wavearts.com/Panorama5.html). Just don't expect it to work all that hot on speakers unless you have your room set up just so, and even then the results can be quite less than perfect. It works better in headphones.

G.
 
There are binaural recordings that sound very 3D. They paint a very nice 3D picture in your head while listening, even on speakers, but moreso on headphones. You won't get the "above, behind, below" effect on speakers, but it can still sound like you're really there.

If you search for some binaural recordings here http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/ of like beaches, waves, etc., you will hear what I'm talking about. Binaural recordings can have depth that can't be faked or reproduced digitally with effects.

Holophonic recording is the best way, but through my research I was unable to find out how to do it. In-ear binaural microphones are pretty cheap from www.microphonemadness.com. I own a pair and they are good for recording sound effects and whatnot for music.
 
I apologise, I was a bit drunk when I posted, I just read that post and my meaning is NOT explained in the slightest.
I was at the time listening to Mice Parade on speakers, sat side on so the sound was technically being projected to my right. Everything sounded to my ears like it was coming from either the left or right speaker, other than a single sound effect, which appeared to be coming from the other side of the room...
 
There are some cool things you can do with phase cancellations that can make a source sound like it's coming from behind you. I wouldn't know how to go about physically doing that, but it is pretty cool if you stumble across it (play a stereo mix in mono on your DAW, then flip the polarity of one of the channels :p)

There are some binaural recordings that you can do that physically model what a source sounds like behind you, but it only works on headphones.

btw, what song was it?
 
I can't remember now, I just know it was Mice Parade and the effect is in the intro, first beat of every 2 bars or something like that. It was cool...
 
Genaudio has something called 4d sound which is supposed to be able to do full on 3d surround from 2 speakers. I haven't heard it or anything, but I'm assuming its entirely dependent on room acoustics for the most part.
 
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