Since I discovered binaural audio… I dont want to listen to anything else.

I got really nice headphones, maybe the best “budget” ones for spacial hearing, and I want to record my own stuff.

Idea

  • Silocone ears from Ebay (Acupuncture, Acoustics, Jewelry) left+right!
  • a head that is heavy, hair simulated with carpet, hollow inside for cables and all, mount at the bottom
  • lavalier mics, Røde or something good but cheap? (high dynamic range, omnidirectional, low inherent noise, neutral sound capturing)
  • some recording solution

Now there are many questions:

  • what lavalier mics are best but dont cost a ton?
  • what material to use for the head, how to do the cast/crafting?
  • what recording device?

Microphones

(Placeholder once I decided)

Material of head

Version 1

Baloon, paper mâché, smaller baloon, concrete

Somehow keep the vertical cylinder for the ears and cables

Pro

  • natural head dampening
  • keeps tech secure

Con

  • heavy
  • kinda hard to do
  • needs soft outer shell

Version 2

Light, styrofoam with some harder shell

Pro

  • light
  • easy to do
  • easy to cut holes and all

Con

  • doesnt dampen sound as much
  • may get damaged

Version 3

Wood, carved from 2 pieces

Pro

  • looks nice
  • I like woodwork
  • dampens okay
  • good intermediate weight

Con

  • hard to do
  • needs soft outer shell

Recording

I dont really want to use an expensive recording device and use it with external mics only. It should do:

  • stereo mic input, best analog
  • lossless codec
  • high samplerate and bitrate, customizable
  • maybe some light adaption like volume regulation
  • no distortion
  • under 50€?

Idea 1: Phone

Using this Audio recorder from F-Droid sounds good.

Problem: no stereo audio input as far as I know. Two phones are kind of annoying, even though totally possible.

I would either need some intense modding to:

  • turn around the AUX port and have stereo input (likely impossible)
  • hack the phone to have two seperate inputs, dongle and AUX input
  • make the recording app work with that

When using a dongle, what AUX-USBC dongle supports stereo input?? And unsure if that works with my Pixel 4a.

To be continued…

Meanwhile, here is a nice collection of binaural / surround / hifi music.