WEBVTT - Rerun: How 3D Audio Works 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:15.760 iHeart three D Audio. This episode was brought to you 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.800 in iHeart three D Audio. To experience more podcasts like this, 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.680 search for iHeart three D Audio in the iHeartRadio app. 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.200 This special three D episode is sponsored by Audible, The Conjuring, 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.280 The Devil Made Me Do It, Rated R, and World 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:40.720 of Warcraft. For maximum effect, headphones are recommended. Welcome to 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:48.640 Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, and Welcome 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.320 to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.640 executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the tech are you? 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:55.080 So? 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.680 I am currently on a short little out of town vacation. 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.520 I'll be back on Friday, but I wanted to have 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.759 an episode for y'all while I was gone. This one 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.880 originally aired on May tenth, twenty twenty one. It is 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.440 called how three D Audio Works. So at the time, 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:16.640 we at the company were kind of playing around with 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.280 three D audio sound and three D audio technology and 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.319 just kind of experimenting with it, and it was a 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.399 lot of fun to do that. I only got to 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:27.680 play with it a little bit. I didn't trust it 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.520 in my hands, but it did inspire me to do 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.480 an episode to really talk about three D audio and 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.640 binaral audio and that sort of thing. So I hope 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.560 you enjoy and I'll talk to you again when the 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:46.320 episode is concluded. Let me tell you a story about 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:51.200 my childhood. My family are all really big Disney theme 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.040 park fans, and growing up in Georgia meant we were 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.760 just a short eight to ten hour drive from Walt 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.800 Disney World in Florida. Both of my parents were teachers, 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.720 and they would save up money so that every two 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.760 or three years or so we'd make the trip down. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:12.600 Disney World was always where my sister and I wanted 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.760 to go, even when my parents gently tried to suggest 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:21.639 other places like Washington, DC or New York City. Nope, 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:27.119 we wanted Disney World also quick aside, these days, we 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.919 still will take family trips to Disney World, my parents included, 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.280 and now with my nieces we get to experience seeing 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:38.240 Disney through fresh eyes, which is pretty great. But anyway, 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:42.080 back to my story. Back in nineteen eighty nine, the 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.799 Disney Hollywood Studios park opened for the first time. Back 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.880 then it was Disney MGM Studios, and the studios were 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.520 a working studio with films and TV shows shot on 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.840 the premises. A lot of attractions related to film and 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.880 TV production. There was the Great Movie Ride, which closed 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.800 in twenty seventeen. There was a Behind the Scenes Tour 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.840 which closed in twenty fourteen, and there were various experiences 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.600 that taught audiences about stuff like special effects, all of 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:16.600 which have closed. Almost leads you to the conclusion that 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.960 the Hollywood Studios aren't so much the Hollywood Studios anymore, 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:24.480 but I'm off track again. One of those experiences was 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.000 all about sound effects, and it was called the Monster 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.200 Sound Show. I remember that the attraction featured a clip 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.600 of a film starring Martin Short and Chevy Chase, and 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:37.880 it had a lot of sound effects that played in 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.880 that movie. Then the attraction host would bring up some 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.960 audience members to try and create sound effects live on 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.960 stage using various props while a silent version of the 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.920 film played, and then they would play the film back 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:57.040 again with the new audience supplied folly sound effects in 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:02.080 place to great comedic effect that presentation. However, you could 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:05.000 wander through the rest of the attraction and tucked off 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.960 to the side were a couple of rooms large enough 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:09.960 to hold a few people at a time, and they 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:15.320 were called Sound stations. Inside those rooms were benches attached 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.479 to the walls, and there were hooks holding headphones every 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.800 couple of feet you would go in, you would sit down, 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.200 you would put on the headphones, making sure that the 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.359 headphone with the yellow pad went over your right ear. 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:34.080 And then something extraordinary happened. As the lights went down, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.400 you were presented with a scenario. You were playing the 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.159 part of a new executive at the Walt Disney Studios 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:43.400 named R. J. 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:44.440 McBean. 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:49.440 You're told you're sitting behind your executive desk waiting for 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:52.800 your assistant Hampton to come in and start off your day, 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.880 and the sound orbited you. You'd hear the narrator set 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.320 up the scenario and her voice drift from one ear 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:07.359 to the other as if she were actually walking around 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.800 you while you sat at this fictional desk. And then 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.679 the scenario would really begin and things got really wild. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.760 A little tinker bell jingling would represent the true beginning, 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.479 and you would hear Hampton come in. He would walk 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:29.599 through on a door to your right, and then you'd 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.839 hear him pontificate as he walks through your office. He 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.679 would pour a fuzzy drink into a glass of ice 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:41.279 and he introduced you to your secretary surely, Oh and 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:46.840 also said you would get a haircut from a stylist 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.359 named Ken, because of course the big Cheese is on 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:55.400 his way to meet you. And the haircut sounds in 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.960 particular were really compelling. You could almost feel the since 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.680 of someone cutting your hair. And I say this as 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.080 a bald man who hasn't had hair in more than 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:11.200 twenty years. Meanwhile, as the hair goes flying, a director 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:14.680 called Flavio shows up and pitches a new film to you, 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:18.919 complete with using a hairdryer to simulate desert winds. There 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.159 are a lot of other cute sound effects that follow, 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:29.400 like a paper being placed over your head to represent 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.800 a turbin and you can actually find recordings of this 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.359 piece online, though I will warn you the effects aren't 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.640 quite up to the quality of the original attraction, which 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.880 also incorporated stuff like actual blowers to blow warm air 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.320 on you. Oh and that big cheese who comes in 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.039 at the end, well that's Mickey Mouse. Of course. He 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.839 comes into place a pair of mouse ears on top 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.120 of your head. The whole thing lasted about five minutes 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.560 and I loved it. And at the end you were 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:06.119 instructed to remove your headphones, hang them back on the wall, 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.120 and exit the room, whereupon you'd head outside to the 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:15.080 blazing Florida sun and the wild audio of the real outdoors. 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:20.880 That was how I first experienced three D audio. At 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.080 that time, it was based off a technology that had 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:28.280 a brand name of Holophonics. These days, we'd more likely 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.520 call it binarl audio or maybe just three D audio. 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.240 And there are a lot of different ways to create 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:39.280 the experience, some of which requires special equipment, others that 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.080 require special software. You can find examples of three D 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:48.080 audio in music recordings, amusement park attractions, and stuff like 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:53.200 ASMR videos. It can be a really compelling experience, and 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.480 I remember getting goosebumps the first time I encountered it, 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.960 and depending on who's doing the recording and the effect 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.600 that they're creating, I can still get goosebumps from it today. 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.800 Longtime listeners might remember that. A few years back, I 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:12.320 interviewed an ASMR artist named Heather Feather, who was one 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.160 of a handful of creators who are really making ASMR 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:21.040 a phenomenon. Now we have thousands of creators. If you 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.920 do a search on YouTube for ASMR, you will see 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:28.280 countless videos in the category, but the technology and psychology 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.920 behind this experience goes back quite a ways. So I 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:37.760 want to explore the evolution and technology behind making three 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:43.240 D audio. Now, in the beginning, there was mono, that 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:48.200 is monaural or monophonic sound. This sound can come from 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:51.760 a single loud speaker, or it could be channeled to 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.400 multiple loudspeakers, but the signal going to each loudspeaker is 0:08:55.480 --> 0:09:00.480 exactly the same as every other loudspeaker. It's effective a 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.800 single channel of sound. It's how we do podcasts typically, 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.360 where you usually will hear the same level of volume 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.360 in each ear. For shows with multiple hosts, it means 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.600 that you hear all the hosts in both ears equally. 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:19.319 Most listeners tend to prefer that, but very early on 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.679 people started to experiment with ways to provide more than 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.560 one channel of sound simultaneously to a listener to create 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:31.880 a different kind of experience. Way back in eighteen eighty one, 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.840 when the loud speaker itself was just a few years old, 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.120 Alexander Graham Bell had patent it in eighteen seventy six 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.160 as part of his telephone invention. Well that's when a 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.600 man named Clement Adder came up with a clever idea. 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.600 One of the downsides of live theater is that it 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.280 is a scarce resource. Only so many people can fit 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.080 into a theater for a performance, and once that performance 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.480 is over, it's all done. So there is an element 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.920 of exclusivity when it comes to live theater, something that 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.840 remains true because I mean, it's just the limitations of 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.760 the art. But Adder thought of a way that would 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.800 help people listen in to say, a performance of an opera, 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:19.400 without having to actually go to the opera house. His 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.800 demonstration involved installing telephone receivers in a few rooms at 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:28.240 the Palais de Lindistri. The microphones he installed near the 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:32.120 footlights at the Grand Opera in Paris, so they were 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.640 across town. People could come into these rooms at the 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:39.520 Palais in small groups and they would hold two receivers, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:44.640 one to each ear. Each receiver connected to a different microphone, 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.040 which meant the sound they were hearing was actually coming 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:52.280 from two different locations. In an article in Scientific American, 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:57.480 a Monsieur Hospitalier is quoted as saying, quote, everyone who 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.200 has been fortunate enough to hear the telephones at the 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.040 Palais de Lindiestri has remarked that in listening with both 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.600 ears at the two telephones, the sound takes a special 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:12.880 character of relief and localization which a single receiver cannot produce. 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:18.440 End quote. This was a very early and primitive version 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:22.240 of stereophonic sound. For those of us who have hearing 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.080 in both of our ears, we experience the world in stereo. 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.240 Sound travels at a certain speed. It's three hundred and 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.040 forty three meters per second if you have an air 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:37.000 temperature of around twenty degrees celsius or sixty eight degrees fahrenheit. 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:41.200 And yes, the temperature affects how quickly sound will move 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:45.439 through the air. And our ears are located upon opposite 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.760 sides of our noggins. That means that sound hits our 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.440 two ear drums at slightly different times, depending upon where 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:56.480 it's coming from, and we will perceive sound coming from 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.200 one side of us as being louder in that ear 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.679 than in our opposite ear, and so on. So mono 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.360 sound shoves all of those sound waves through one channel. 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:11.880 Everything is coming out equally through each loud speaker. Stereo sound, however, 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:16.280 changes this up, varying the amplitude or volume of sound 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:21.000 in each channel and creating a different effect. While adders 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:25.680 demonstration indicated that there was something interesting with producing sound 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:30.000 using different channels directed at different loudspeakers, that was just 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.760 the tip of the iceberg. Alan Dower Blumline would advance 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:38.280 the art considerably in the nineteen thirties. Blumline was born 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:42.160 in nineteen oh three. He became an electronics engineer and 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:46.040 he worked for the famous Abbey Road Studios where he 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:50.960 pioneered advancements in stereophonic recording. According to an anecdote told 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.920 by Alan Blumline's son, Simon, Blumline was at the movies 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.560 with his wife watching a film and he remarked that 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.880 we're a blind person to go to the movie, they 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.800 might struggle to follow what was going on because the 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.480 sound was all coming from loud speakers in mono. There 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:11.160 was no way to detect through hearing where people were 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.760 within a scene. Everyone would sound like they were in 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:15.760 the same spot. You would only be able to hear 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:19.160 if someone was further or closer to a microphone, but 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.720 otherwise spatially you would have no idea what was going on. 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.720 And that got him into thinking about developing a system 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.199 that would allow sound engineers to record and reproduce sound 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.720 so that had a more localized effect. Action happening on 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.520 the left side of the screen would be represented by 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.880 sounds emanating from loudspeakers on the left side of the theater. Likewise, 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.240 action on the right side would be paired with an 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.000 appropriate amount of sound coming from the right. Each speaker 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.840 might produce some of the sound, but at different amplitudes, 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:52.880 so that while you might get a little bit of 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:57.319 the right hand sound from left hand speakers, the levels 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.240 would be lower, and the overall feeling would be that 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.680 you're in the middle of that sound, and it would 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.800 enhance the experience of seeing a movie and as well 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.200 as help out those who are visually impaired follow what 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:12.280 was going on. According to that anecdote, Blumline called it 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:16.080 binaral sound, which of course we'll come back to a 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.760 bit later in this episode. I just find it interesting 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.240 that the original term for stereo is one we now 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.160 associate with a more specific approach to audio recording and production. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.600 He would receive more than seventy patents for his various 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:36.880 inventions related to stereo sound. He created technology to record, process, 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.960 and reproduce audio in stereo. In nineteen thirty four, he 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.000 oversaw a stereo recording of the London Philharmonic Orchestra at 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:49.800 the Abbey Road Studios. Blomline also pioneered the Blumline method, 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:54.320 which would use two microphones mounted at a ninety degree 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.359 angle with regard to one another, to pick up directional 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.960 sounds in a recording environment. So words, if you think 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:03.600 of a room as a square, one mic is picking 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.080 up sounds primarily along the X axis, and the other 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:11.640 is picking up sound along the y axis. Blumline also 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.400 figured out how to create a stereo groove in a 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.080 record album. Back in those days, these were made from shellac, 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.200 but they would later be made from vinyl. And when 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.720 I think about that, I'm astonished. I mean, the way 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.720 a record player works is that a stylus or needle 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.520 fits into the groove of a record. That groove causes 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:37.040 the stylus to vibrate, and those vibrations transmit to a transducer, 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.640 which turns the vibrations into an electrical signal thanks to 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.560 a little electro magnet magic, and that signal then goes 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.200 to an amplifier, which boosts the signal strength, which then 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.080 goes on to loud speakers and powers them so that 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.680 they can reproduce the original recorded sound that created the 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:58.120 groove in the first place. It's the edges of these 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:02.120 grooves that cause the vibration or the wiggle of the stilus. 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.640 So how does one record stereo sound to a physical 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.520 disc with a groove. Well, imagine a groove that slaloms 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.920 back and forth in a nice even path, So the 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.800 waves along either side of the groove are a physical 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:21.000 representation of the original sound waves that were recorded. Now, 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.080 usually in a mono record, you would just see that 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.720 these waves are evenly distributed on the left and right side. 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:31.920 It's like they're in sync with one another. It's just 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:37.480 a nice smooth curve. But what if you wanted to 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.480 record stereo, Well, you could have it where the left 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:42.440 side of the groove and the right side of the 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.600 groove are actually different. The wall on one side would 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.440 represent the audio recorded in one channel, and the wall 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:51.920 on the other side of the groove was for the 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.320 second channel. So, with the proper equipment, you could play 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.640 this record back and the stylus would vibrate in a 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.760 very specific way. It would be detected by two sensors 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:06.920 connected to the stylus, So essentially two transducers, and these 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.560 two channels of sound could again go to specific loudspeakers 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.840 a left and a right, and then you get stereo playback. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.480 It's pretty incredible. Listening back to properly recorded and processed 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:21.520 audio would give the listener the sensation that they were 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:25.720 actually in an acoustic space. It would feel as though 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.640 you were standing at the spot where the microphone had 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:32.159 been mounted, and that the sound you encounter is just 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.480 as if you were present at the recording session. That 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.639 was the intent, anyway, but the actual process of getting 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.600 there is a lot more complicated than setting up just 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.000 a pair of microphones. When we come back, we'll learn 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.920 a bit more about stereo recording and editing, and we'll 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:53.240 also learn why the Beatles, who also made famous recordings 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:57.920 at Abbey Road Studios, concentrated on creating mono records for 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.160 a long time, even though stereo had been around for decades. 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:12.760 But first, let's take a quick break. Now. I've done 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.639 episodes about sound to film in the past, and also 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.000 sound on television, so I'm going to skip over all 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:24.400 of that, Otherwise this episode would be for five hours long. Instead, 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.760 I want to talk a bit more about stereo recordings 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.120 and why bands like the Beatles were slow to adopt them. 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.879 To listen to a stereo recording properly, you need a 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.760 stereo system. That is, you need a sound system that 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.720 has at least two loud speakers and a way to 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:44.080 send the different channels of sound to both the left 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.800 and the right speakers or independently to the left and 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.600 right speakers. Otherwise, the playback would be in mono even 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.280 if the recording were in stereo, and what you would 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:55.840 get is a weird case where some elements of the 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:58.679 recording would be really quiet, as those would be the 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.280 sounds recorded to a channel that wasn't getting picked up 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.200 by the mono playback system. Now, if you've ever listened 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.520 to a recording where some of the voices or instruments 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.520 sound unusually quiet, and that it doesn't sound like this 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.600 was done on purpose, it's likely because either someone mixed 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.080 the audio improperly, or it's a stereo recording that at 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.720 some point got converted over into mono and you're losing 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.320 some of the audio as a result. Stereo systems were 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.320 really expensive when they first came out. I'm talking about 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.080 like stereo systems that you would purchase for your home, 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:37.240 and a lot of people, particularly young people, had really 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.119 purchased record players that had a single speaker incorporated into 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:45.359 the player itself, so these were mono playback devices as 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.280 there was only one speaker for sound to go. The Beatles, 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:53.240 being a band whose music was disproportionately favored by the young, 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.280 had their audience in mind as they mixed their albums. 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:01.520 It said that for many the albums from the early 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.840 to mid period of the Beatles as a band, the 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.960 group would spend hours in the mixing studio to get 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.120 the mono mix just right, but when it came time 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.200 to do the stereo mixes, they left that to the 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.560 audio engineers at Abbey Road and were never around. So 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:21.280 why is that, Well, because to them, the mono recordings 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.520 were more important. That was what their fan base could enjoy. 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.960 For that reason, a lot of Beatles fans or purists 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.919 favor the mono recordings of early Beatles work. They eschew 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.479 the stereo recordings as failing to represent what it was 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.520 the Beatles were trying to achieve. And if you listen 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.560 to the mono versus stereo recordings of some of those 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:47.479 early songs like Paperback writer or eleanor Rigby, you really 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.320 can tell there is a major difference, and this leads 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.480 into one way to create a stereo or three D 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.920 audio sound. You can take a recording and you can 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.840 change how much of the signal gets sent to a 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:04.959 particular channel. That determines which loud speaker or set of 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.480 loud speakers will play back the audio, or more likely, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:12.400 how much volume that particular sound will have in each 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.480 loud speaker. This is both a science and an art. 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:18.880 A lot of the work in this field was centered 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:23.119 around music, and music can contain a wide range of 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:28.080 frequencies and tones. Imagine an orchestra. You have instruments that 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:33.200 primarily create lower frequencies, like lower pitches. You've got tubas 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:37.240 and basses and cellos. Each of those instruments, while creating 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:40.199 notes that might be in the same general range, have 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:44.480 distinct sounds. A tuba and an upright bass do not 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:48.959 sound the same. In other words, then you've got instruments 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.400 that center on some of the higher frequencies, like flutes 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:57.560 and piccolos and violins. These also sound different from one another, 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:00.080 and so it became important to figure out how to 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.080 not just capture a recording and divide it into channels 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:08.680 to create spatial landscapes, but also how to balance out 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.160 the tones so that you don't lose anything in the process. 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:16.040 With the wrong mix, one instrument or group of instruments 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.400 might totally overpower another, and it's almost as if those 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.760 other instruments were never even present at the original recording, 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.000 and so processing recordings and getting the mix just right 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:30.760 became critical. One part of this is called panning, and 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:34.520 it relies on a pan control. In the old days, 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:37.560 you would use a mixing board with physical controls on 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.960 it to control the pan. The pan determines how much 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:46.040 signal from each input is sent to each channel. These days, 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.600 many audio producers work with digital audio workstations or DAWs, 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:55.200 and with a DAW you also control panning. You can 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:59.520 pan either mono or stereo tracks. Most DAWs will let 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:02.800 you convert one type of track into another, splitting a 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:07.359 mono into stereo or a combining stereo into mono. For 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:11.560 certain types of audio, like mini podcasts, the default is 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:14.480 to go to mono. It can be a little disconcerting 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:18.200 if you record and publish a podcast in stereo. Many 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:21.960 years ago, when I first started recording large nerdron collider 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:26.200 with my friend Ariel. I accidentally recorded and published several 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:30.520 episodes in stereo, which meant all of my audio was 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:33.399 in one channel, like the left channel, and all of 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:36.159 Ariel's audio was in the other channel, the right channel. 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:38.720 So it's like I was talking into your left ear 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:41.520 and Ariel was talking into your right ear, which was 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.480 very unsettling. I eventually figured out what I was doing, 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:48.760 and I began mixing our recordings into a mono track 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:53.800 to avoid that problem. And with some early stereo recordings 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:59.240 you can hear examples of problems like this. It's frequently disconcerting. 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.800 There are records of songs in which all the instrumentation 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:06.080 is on one side and all the vocals are on 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:09.520 the other side. Now, that might have been done purposefully, 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:13.120 but it was often a sort of heavy handed approach 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:16.640 to stereo. There are times an artist might desire that 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:19.480 specific effect, but other times the desire was to be 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:22.119 a bit more creative with stereo, and you might have 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:24.920 a track in which the vocalist is on the extreme 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:27.920 right of part of the recording than on the extreme left. 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:31.040 Later on, the Beatles A Day in the Life actually 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:33.800 falls into that category. Or you might want to create 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:36.159 a rich soundscape in which there is a sense of 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:40.200 location for all the sound maybe not something that is 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:44.600 explicitly communicated to the listener, but is an important representation 0:24:44.640 --> 0:24:48.879 of the performance. So how about we play around with 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:53.399 some post processing panning to create a three dimensional experience. 0:24:54.280 --> 0:24:58.480 My producer, Tari, who is a superstar here at iHeart, 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:02.560 is always to the success of this show. But in 0:25:02.600 --> 0:25:05.520 a moment, she's going to take over the experience of 0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:08.760 what this show sounds like to you, the audience. And 0:25:08.840 --> 0:25:11.560 I'm going to do something I've always wanted to do 0:25:11.720 --> 0:25:14.720 in three D audio. I'm going to give you a 0:25:14.720 --> 0:25:19.200 little Shakespeare. This piece is the prologue to Henry the Fifth, 0:25:19.640 --> 0:25:24.040 one of Shakespeare's company Designated the chorus implores the audience 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:27.359 to use their imaginations to augment the production of the 0:25:27.359 --> 0:25:31.080 play itself. And so as you listen to this piece, 0:25:31.520 --> 0:25:35.600