Binaural plugins and mixing techniques

Strutter · 2023-10-02T20:23:17.235Z

I’m interested in learning to position non-acoustic sounds more creatively in the stereo field and would like to hear about your experiences and approach with binaural plugins etc.

It would also be interesting to hear your opinions on how that kind of “3D” stuff translates without using headphones, if at all.

What would be a good starting point with this stuff?

Bryan_T · 2023-10-02T20:26:00.499Z

What DAW are you using? Logic Pro has some tools built in that I’ve played around with.

Strutter · 2023-10-02T20:26:32.226Z

I use Logic too.
Which tools do you mean?

Bryan_T · 2023-10-02T20:28:26.538Z

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/binaural-panning-logic-pro?amp

Bryan_T · 2023-10-02T20:32:19.308Z

And now I wish I was playing with my Digitone and binaural sounds.

Strutter · 2023-10-02T20:34:30.950Z

Thank you! I will read that article and try this when I think I have a clue of how that works.

What kind of results have you gotten by using this technique?
I mean has it made a big difference on how you approach mixing?

Bryan_T · 2023-10-03T00:31:18.127Z

I did some exploratory stuff when I first got Logic, but haven’t touched it since. I’ve listened to some “headphone only” binaural electronic music and found it fascinating. I’ll definitely dive back in at some point.

Bryan_T · 2023-10-05T19:52:31.608Z

I fired up a logic session with my Digitone and was quickly able to make immersive binaural mixes. Fun!

Strutter · 2023-10-05T19:59:34.675Z

Awesome! Any tips you’d like to share?

I’ve been too busy to look into this as of yet.
4 days of not working ahead of me so I will definitely try it then.

Bryan_T · 2023-10-05T20:24:56.048Z

A lot of it is going to come down to aesthetics. Technically, it is pretty straightforward in Logic.

I wasn’t as drawn to height changes (subtle) and sounds behind me feel gimmicky. But a huge reverb behind me was interesting. Being able to put something in the middle of my head and then put it in front of me was fascinating.

Malmal · 2023-10-06T11:23:50.867Z

have had some success with dearReality dear VR for binaural stuff

gu-y-1 · 2023-10-07T11:46:55.898Z

We could just focus on science to find a good starting point, at least thats what I do.

Regarding localisation of things, there is interaural time difference ITD, interaural level difference ILD, there is Blauerts bands to suggest up down/front behind.
Level differences can of course be frequency dependent, lets call that interaural spectral difference ISD.
Then there is Cremers law of the first wavefront…

You can utilize all that, you can create phantom sources, you can freely move them around in stereo field by altering certain parameters.
Starting point would be: Two identical channels of content x. Hard pan one left, one right. Equal levels. Start altering levels, delay (<2 ms) to each other, filter cutoff. (ILD, ITD, ISD). Use a lowcut to suggest distance, try blauerts bands, combine all that in one way or another.

That is pretty much what there is to do with two ears/two sound sources. Stereo is stereo, thats about it, two ears. You can start playing with phase and stereo separation of course…there is lots of things you can do, but getting the basics down might be a good thing.
Headphones are different anyway because of in head localisation.
BUT if you do things knowing what youre doing, you can maybe achieve the effect you like.
I played around with stuff like that in this track:

Of course there is stereo delay itself, but there are several channels with the same content being delayed and altered in frequency spectrum via eq and cutoff to broaden stereo image and depth of things, even stereodelay is doubled and altered in its delay from channel x to y and their respective frequency spectrum.
I tried to achieve depth and some huuuuge comfy space to get lost in if you will.
IIRC I might even have had valhalla reverb moving around as a phantom source…

tl;dr: To begin with, create your own phantom sources and play around with them, do not use the real source alone, combine them maybe.

It’s not just about where to place in the stereo field, its also about the room you create itselft…

aloud · 2023-10-09T08:42:29.845Z

Logic Pro also added Dolby Atmos tools a year or two ago that you might want to look at. I’ve never used it.

Apple Support

Overview of the Dolby Atmos plug-in in Logic Pro for Mac

In Logic Pro for Mac, use the Dolby Atmos plug-in on the surround master channel strip to control your spatial audio mix.

Edit: I see you specifically asked about stereo, so you can ignore my comment

avlantis · 2023-10-09T09:16:39.304Z

Just wanted to say thanks for explaining some things. I have recently been experimenting with such things and trying to find out where the field is at in general; and it’s so much more useful to get some proper terminology to start googling , etc.

gu-y-1 · 2023-10-09T09:43:23.492Z

Youre welcome

I should have gotten most of them right, I’m german, I had to look up a few technical terms…if I made something unclear or you got questions…tell me

AH · 2023-10-09T18:55:53.961Z

Ollo Audio has their binaural mixing headphones— S5X.

I tried them against their regular stereo mixing set, and the difference was more than noticeable.

Just FYI. Worth looking into.

Great customer service too!

gu-y-1 · 2023-10-09T19:23:59.434Z

Binaural mixing headphones sounds like 150 % audiophile style marketing. But i dont know the context, I might have to google stuff, Im so not into headphones…dont believe me a word!

Strutter · 2023-10-11T13:33:34.471Z

I have been sick for over a week now and haven’t been looking into this bcs of that.

I did however come across this plugin called Eigen from Lese.
It seems very easy to use and has a great intuitive GUI.

Not too expensive so I might give it a go at the end of the month.

loopdude · 2023-10-11T20:19:56.851Z

Do you guys use binaural mixing plugins for normal tracks (say techno or house for instance)? I purchased deervr on sale as I wanted to play with it because I found it really interesting. But I don’t know if this could be an everyday tool

Bryan_T · 2023-10-12T00:53:35.580Z

I’ve definitely listened to electronic albums that have headphone/binaural releases. I think it is a fun niche and can see myself putting out something like that.