Binaural Objects (2024)

Audio Engineer

Indicative of other mediums within immersive audio, binaural audio (especially when captured in binaural, as opposed to rendered) has as many drawbacks as it does utilities. Of these, perhaps the largest is limited playback options, as binaural audio is often restricted to headphones and nearphones.

Given this, what options exist for creating binaural content from the ground up? Of these options, do they prioritize binaural capture, or binaural rendering? Is there a large install-base/user-base for these options, or are they relegated to fringe use-cases with the occasional update?

To properly assess the state of the art in binaural-centric content creation, a flute performance of Arthur Honegger’s Danse de la Chèvre by Jessica Luo was captured with a Neumann KU-100 in a reverberant hall. Following this, a virtual soundscape was created with accompanying instruments in the box as a means to trial the capabilities of binaural-first software options.