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These recordings are made with the dummy head microphone Neumann KU 100, so-called bin­aur­al re­cording. Binaural re­cord­ings are opti­mised for listening over head­phones. The follow­ing re­cord­ings are from the Afon­tibus and Fabra labels, recorded by Geir Inge Lotsberg.

More and more people are listening to music thr­ough headphones. How can music in a three-dimensional sound field be reproduced in these listen­ing conditions? For me, the answer has been making recordings using the dummy head micro­phone Neumann KU 100, so-called binaural re­pro­duction.

The word “binaural” literally means “using both ears”, “bi” meaning two, and “aural” referring to your ears. We can estimate the direction and dis­tance of a sound source and its spatial acoustic properties on the basis of the time delay and volume difference in the sound that reaches the left and right ears.

Because binaural recording is optimised for headphones, it can create a 3D land­scape of sou­nd sur­rounding the listener, who can hear the surrounding sounds and can pinpoint their lo­cation. Each ear is isolated from the other, so there is no mixing of channels between the speaker and the ear. This method can give the listener an intense sense of presence in the room, but it does not function as well when being played through speakers.

E-mail: gi.lotsberg (at) afontibus.no