The simulation of a real-world experience is the golden chalice for many digital designers these days. After all, who wouldn’t want to create their experiences at the touch of a button?
Binaural sound is a key part of fooling the brain into believing an experience is real, using audio processing techniques to recreate sounds in a 3D environment and this technology is being used more and more. The recent creation of a standard file format (.sofa) which describes information on specific binaural filters used is a key ingredient.
The BBC especially have committed funding to researching the possibilities of binaural sound (even experimenting with virtual reality) and this has been driven largely by the prevalence of smartphones and headphones.
Recently Playstation asked Wimbledon Sound, a London sound production company, to create a sound experience video to promote their computer game Until Dawn which you can view here (if you dare, given that it depicts a psychopathic killer chasing you!)
The binaural effect is designed to make you feel like you are actually playing the part of the lead protagonist of the game and can be seen as another step towards the gaming future.
According to Wimbledon Sound they used: “a set of closely matched, high-end binaural microphones placed in the ears of the sound recordist to capture this ultra-realistic experience of being hunted in the woods by a masked stranger.
“Recorded on location in Wimbledon and London, these are some of the scariest binaural sound recordings you’ll hear.”