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[FoxSpirit]

Well, recently I stumbled upon an old sound-tech called holophonic sound. Basically it's a stereo singla in which the sound is shaped like a... 360 degree sphere. Compületely, precisely.

All developers had to do is to encode sound like this and then generate a output for any speaker setup your could dream off on the fly. One speaker on the ceiling sounding down? No problem at all when you start with holophonic!!

Here's a test, you HAVE TO USE headphones to truly experience what this is about. Otherwise it sounds like nice stereo.

http://www.holophonic.ch/archivio/testaudio/Cereni - Holophonic.mp3

Have fun.

 

[Lord Error]

Already posted few weeks ago, but yeah, it's stunning.

 

[Scotch]

I've been hoping for a while now some developer will implement this in a game. It sounds so freaking incredible. And I'm using headphones most of the time anyway.

 

[Reikon]

Holophonic? It's normally called binaural.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Holophonic? It's normally called binaural.

Actually, binaural is the hearing mode. Holophony is the recodring method.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holophonic

 

[gohepcat]

Well....
One of the reasons it sounds so incredible is the type of sound they are using. Any sound in the high end of the spectrum is very easy to shape and move in a 3d space. When you start adding in mid and low frequency, a lot of that effect falls apart.

Still. It's a very neat demo

 

[Alien Bob]

 

[Great King Bowser]

Yeah I remember someone sending me that sound test. Listening to it with a pair of isolating earphones still creeps me out no end. I swear I can hear the dude breathing...

 

[Alpha_eX]

This technology is amazing, at work we're using a similar technology for game design, it's really adds alot to games, hopefully other developers will use this, I know some FPS games are starting to use this.

 

[Scotch]

This technology is amazing, at work we're using a similar technology for game design, it's really adds alot to games, hopefully other developers will use this, I know some FPS games are starting to use this.

Really, which ones?

And where do you work?

 

[winalot]

That's brilliant, it kind of gave me chills, too. =/
Straight away I thought how awesome it would be in a survival horror.

 

[royale]

I remember about ten years ago when I bought a Dell computer with a Turtle Beach Montego sound card. The thing used A3D holophonic technology and it was amazing for its time. It's too bad Creative ****ed it up bad and EAX became the standard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A3D

 

[Suikoguy]

Does the tech have any limitations, perhaps it loses it's effect if there is more then once source of sound?

 

[mrklaw]

I wish more games had a stereo 'dolby headphone' option for surround sound while wearing headphones. They go to all that trouble to have surround sound, but most of the time I either use the TV or wear headphones so I can turn it up loud.

 

[S. L.]

I wish more games had a stereo 'dolby headphone' option for surround sound while wearing headphones. They go to all that trouble to have surround sound, but most of the time I either use the TV or wear headphones so I can turn it up loud.

pretty much every modern surround amp can downmix a 5/7.1 signal to a Dolby Headphone/Silent Cinema/whatever signal on the headphone output

 

[Adagio]

http://www.holophonic.ch/test.php

"Sensual voice" is freaky...

 

[mr jones]

Does the tech have any limitations, perhaps it loses it's effect if there is more then once source of sound?

I'm not an audio technician, so I can't say too much about the encoding involved. But I remember reading in the AVS forums about the process involved with setting up biaureal positional sound being sort of a pain.

But the most tangible issue with it is that you pretty much NEED headphones for the proper effect. There is a defined "sweet spot" that the listener's ears need to be for brain to be tricked into thinking that the sound is coming from a point in space. Using regular speakers kills the illusion.

 

[FoxSpirit]

http://www.holophonic.ch/test.php

"Sensual voice" is freaky...

I find the barber scissors even better... reminds me so much of a hair cut. :lol

 

[Ranger X]

And example of the true power of stereo. When well done it's still the superior tech.

If there was enough decication, it would also be possible to set 2 speaker in a room and reproduce this for movies and games, etc.

The only reason why you don't have such thing in your loving room is that it's easier to go with more speaker like in 5.1. Still, 5.1 is in fact some kind of a crutch.

 

[FoxSpirit]

I'm not an audio technician, so I can't say too much about the encoding involved. But I remember reading in the AVS forums about the process involved with setting up biaureal positional sound being sort of a pain.

But the most tangible issue with it is that you pretty much NEED headphones for the proper effect. There is a defined "sweet spot" that the listener's ears need to be for brain to be tricked into thinking that the sound is coming from a point in space. Using regular speakers kills the illusion.

Yes. But you could still "deocde" any positional speaker with the right algorithms. Instead of having to record differently for different setups (ideally). And an FPS with that. It would be awesome to know that the steps you hear are behind you, downwards left. Come on devs

 

[FoxSpirit]

And example of the true power of stereo. When well done it's still the superior tech.

If there was enough decication, it would also be possible to set 2 speaker in a room and reproduce this for movies and games, etc.

The only reason why you don't have such thing in your loving room is that it's easier to go with more speaker like in 5.1. Still, 5.1 is in fact some kind of a crutch.

No, it's like mr jones said: this tech only works with headphones. Otherwise you need a maximum amount of speakers setup for positional audio.

 

[Mr Furious]

Oh that sounds good.

 

[Ceb]

Very cool. Tokyo Joypolis had a horror attraction that used something similar: http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyofeaturestoriesarchive349/334/tokyofeaturestoriesinc.htm

 

[antipode]

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

There should be a bigger push for headphone-encoded sound. Like have movie theaters send out a wireless audio stream you could listen to with headphones. Or have operating system sound effects be positional depending on where the app was located on your screen. Headphones > speakers IMO.

 

[oreelios]

Headphones > speakers IMO.

I think that's pretty obvious. You'll never get the clarity out of speakers sitting 5 feet away as you will with a pair of headphones an inch away from your ear drum.

Edit: Of course, it depends on the kind of headphones your using

 

[Ceb]

Headphones is great for those who an insane sound system just isn't viable for - be it due to small apartment space or because the house has really thin walls, keeping you from blasting the thing at the volume it deserves. I definitely wish companies would invest more in cool headphone tech.

 

[Sapiens]

That was nothing short of the best sound experience Ive ever had on two speakers.


yes - use this technique -

 

[jett]

That was pretty impressive. I've tried Dolby Headphone technology with DVDs(using PowerDVD), and it sort of blew though. I didn't notice any surround. Using headphones also works semi-nicely with games that use Dolby Pro Logic II, although it doesn't sound as cool as this file.

 

[Ranger X]

No, it's like mr jones said: this tech only works with headphones. Otherwise you need a maximum amount of speakers setup for positional audio.

Nah, you could also have some similar effect with speakers in front of you. It all depends on how the sound is recorded, the wave of sound it produce vs where your ears are. It would NOT be the same recording as the whole that'd play in your headphone obviously.
And if your room would be another shape and size than the one they tested in, it wouldn't work well. If you would position the speaker bad or move them it wouldn't work either.

That's why 5 speaker is ALOT easier for recreating something similar to that stereo effect there.

EDIT: for big mistake. See italic word

 

[FoxSpirit]

Nah, you could also have some similar effect with speakers in front of you. It all depends on how the sound is recorded, the wave of sound it produce vs where your ears are. It would be the same recording as the whole that'd play in your headphone obviously.
And if your room would be another shape and size than the one they tested in, it wouldn't work well. If you would position the speaker bad or move them it wouldn't work either.

That's why 5 speaker is ALOT easier for recreating something similar to that stereo effect there.

Hmmm, maybe we would need a PRECISE setup program for this. I mean, you have to sit in mostly exactly one spot in the room but in theory you COULD recreate it without headphones.

 

[MickeyKnox]

The headphone vs Speaker argument has only one clear answer:
You need a proper 5.1 setup and good headphones.
Headphones for online, positional sound helps get you accused of wallhacking.
And a kickass 5.1 for the sheer scale of the experience.

 

[Ranger X]

Hmmm, maybe we would need a PRECISE setup program for this. I mean, you have to sit in mostly exactly one spot in the room but in theory you COULD recreate it without headphones.

Exactly. That's why it's too complicated and that nobody does it.
Using 5.1 is the simplier and more efficient way to get those effects.

What's sad is that games could have a sound option for when you play with headphones it's all surround stereo (or whatever they call it) like in the sound file you posted.

 

[Grayman]

I've played with EAX before but this is amazing. The guy shaking the ticktacks behind me up and down gave me chills. I'd love to experiance this in all my games if it is possible.

Spoiler

the voice one needs to be used by porn companies.

 

[Burger]

Yeah it's one thing actually recording these sounds in a studio using special microphone setups, and another thing entirely encoding this type of sound from mono/stereo resources.