Gadgetory

now there is plenty of audiophile grade sound equipment out there that promises a super-realistic experience but let's face it it is pretty darn hard to fool your ears into thinking that you're listening to something live as opposed to a recording or a stream even if you did blow your life savings on some amazing headphones or speakers but believe it or not there's actually a relatively old and fairly straightforward technology that can surpass even the most ridiculous surround sound speaker setups in terms of spatial realism I'm talking of course about Bernardo recording but what is that and how does it fool our brains into thinking we are right in the middle of the scene well it helps to keep in mind exactly how your ears work when you hear any kind of sound let's say it's your pet doing its best you and cat impression from down the hall the sound waves are going to arrive at your ears at slightly different times and they'll also be slightly louder in one ear than the other your brain takes these my mute differences and processes them to figure out exactly where the noise is coming from Bernardo audio takes advantage of this fact by recording an audio track in the first place in a way that mimics our natural hearing the idea itself is actually very simple to create a Bernardo recording to high fidelity microphones are placed about roughly the same distance apart as your ears from each other some recording studios even embed the mics inside of a dummy human head complete with realistic ears to get an even more accurate sound imaging and bippity Boppity the result is an amazingly accurate reproduction of ambient sound that fools your brain into thinking the noises are really happening around you and since the concept behind binaural recording is so simple it was thought of long before the advent of modern digital audio in fact it was first introduced for telephones all the way back in the 1880s but didn't become more common until fairly recently thanks to the falling prices of both recording equipment and headphones yes headphones only you cannot use this on your freestanding speakers because of the way the recordings are made remember the microphones are placed right where your ears would be the effect is nearly impossible to duplicate on regular speakers but the good news is that you at least don't need super high-end headphones powered by some exotic tube amplifier to enjoy the effect a cheap pair of earbuds will actually do the trick just nicely let's all find well Linus then but so where can I hear this banal stuff I mean I don't really see a whole lot of it on Spotify although it is still pretty hard to find in music and movies various producers and musicians have been experimenting with it and a large community has popped up on YouTube around banal recordings featuring everything from music to walking tours of New York City to virtual barbershops that are actually kind of creepy it's a very weird experience but if you're not into random novelty YouTube videos I totally get that and if you're waiting for Bernardo audio being part of your everyday listening experience if you're a gamer you'll be pleased to know that the future looks very bright because virtual reality game developers are seriously pursuing the use of Bernardo sound in headsets such as the oculus rift and Sony's project Morpheus except instead of just using two microphones VR developers are experimenting with rings of microphones on dummy heads to create a true 360 degree Bernardo sound experience that is preserved no matter which way you turn wearing your head mounted display and as virtual reality technology continues to mature game publishers will seek more and more interesting ways to achieve full immersion in 3d sound and our ears may be in for just as much of a treat as our eyes you know what's a word for things you can hear all this talking about listening audible so head over to audible.com slash tech quick and you guys can check out their vast selection of audiobooks it is all about joining the club so you get one audiobook per month that you can listen to on your phone or your mp3 player if you still have one of those in your car or wherever it is that you've got a little bit of time to sit and listen to a book but not necessarily the time to sit and stare at one and it entitles you to all kinds of other cool stuff like discounts on further audiobooks you can check out all kinds of cool stuff I usually pick something from the bestsellers like the Martian by Andy weir and narrated by RC ray it's a sory of lekha astronaut a man who assumes he'll be the first die on Mars after he is stranded by a dust storm that forces crew to evacuate very cool stuff anyway guys that's audible.com slash tech quickie to join the club now those of you who have are still watching this show and have managed to not sign up for audible yet oh yeah and did I mention the first month and therefore your first audiobook is absolutely free yes it is free so I think that's pretty much it guys thanks for watching like the video if you liked it dislike if you thought it sucked leave a comment if you have suggestions for future videos and as always don't forget to subscribe and follow in all of that noise and I know I've been teasing this one for a while actually no I'll tease something else we have a new channel super fun that is not dildo racing we paint my car which seemed like a good idea to someone I guess check that out at the link up there