Eric thank you for such a wonderful explanation of all of this.
Sound delays, timing and all sorts of audio voodoo is how this is done.
Wonderful.
Stewart
At 08:25 AM 1/17/2009, you wrote:
No. 2D vs 3D is immaterial. The issue is discrete point sources.
All sound fields can be idealized as point sources (I will not deal
with reflection or absorbtion since we are speaking of headphones
as the transducer, those elements are present in the recording but
are not inherent to the transducer--they are to a limited extent but
let's not get lost in the bushes here).
The idea of stereo is to present a soundstage that roughly replicates
what you would hear if you were fortunate enough to be facing a
performance live or else a studio simulation of it. The soundstage
can be manipulated (engineered) to move or place instruments on
the recording canvas as desired.
So we are not actually listening to say Eva Cassidy at Blues Alley
live (which you should listen to if you value good music) but
rather an engineered reproduction.
OK for the downers. Is there an upside? Yes. The cool part is
that we can do anything we choose to do with the sound. It is
within the technology to put an alien space destroyer in our faces,
but only with enough sound channels.
That is basically the idea of multichannel sound, if two channels
was good more has to be better, follow me?
Never mind the details, alien space destroyers don't actually make
sounds where there's no air to conduct sound, whatever, it's
cool. It's about the illusion.
So if you're a gamer and you have multichannel headphones you
actually CAN hear the bad guys sneaking up on you FROM
THE BACK. The illusion is complete. As long as you have multiple
drivers fed from multiple sources.
I studied psychology in a universe a long time ago. Psychoacoustics
was one of the topics. You can fool the brain into anything with
the appropriate technology.
You aren't REALLY listening to Eva Cassidy. She's dead, OK?
But you can get damn close with good equipment.
Rev. Stewart A. Marshall
mailto:popoz...@earthlink.net
Prince of Peace www.princeofpeaceozark.org
Ozark, AL SL 82
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