WEBVTT - How 3D Audio Works 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:15.560 I Heeart three D Audio. This episode was brought to 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.680 you in I Heeart three D Audio. To experience more 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:22.040 podcasts like this, search for I Heart three D Audio 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.439 in the I Heart Radio app. This special three D 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.960 episode is sponsored by Audible, The Conjuring, The Devil Made 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.440 Me Do It, Radar R, and World of Warcraft. For 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:41.559 maximum effect, headphones are recommended. Welcome to Tech Stuff, a 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:49.360 production from I Heart Radio. Hey there, and welcome to 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.800 tech Stuff. I'm your host, jon Vin Strickland. I'm an 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.040 executive producer with I Heart Radio and I love all 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.280 things tech. And let me tell you a story about 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.920 my child hood. My family are all really big Disney 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.880 theme park fans, and growing up in Georgia meant we 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.560 were just a short eight to ten hour drive from 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.840 Walt Disney World in Florida. Both of my parents were teachers, 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:18.720 and they would save up money so that every two 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:21.560 or three years or so we'd make the trip down. 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.600 Disney World was always where my sister and I wanted 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.760 to go, even when my parents gently tried to suggest 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:34.679 other places like Washington, d C. Or New York City. Nope, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.319 we want a Disney World also. Quick aside, these days 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.039 we still will take family trips to Disney World, my 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.440 parents included, and now with my nieces we get to 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.240 experience seeing Disney through fresh eyes, which is pretty great. 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.559 But anyway, back to my story. Back in nineteen nine, 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.320 the Disney Hollywood Studios Park opened for the first time. 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.600 Back then it was the MGM Studios, and the studios 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.320 were a working studio with films and TV shows shot 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.800 on the premises. A lot of attractions related to film 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.239 and TV production. There was the Great Movie Ride, which 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.760 closed in. There was a behind the Scenes tour which 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:23.160 closed in, and there were various experiences that taught audiences 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:27.480 about stuff like special effects, all of which have closed. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.120 Almost leads you to the conclusion that the Hollywood Studios 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.160 aren't so much the Hollywood Studios anymore. But I'm off 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:38.760 track again. One of those experiences was all about sound 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.480 effects and it was called the Monster Sound Show. I 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.840 remember that the attraction featured a clip of a film 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.000 starring Martin Short and Chevy Chase, and I had a 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.119 lot of sound effects that played in that movie. Then 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.000 the attraction host would bring up some audience members to 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.680 try and create sound effects live on stage using various 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.640 pro ups while a silent version of the film plate 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:05.840 and then they would play the film back again with 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:10.880 the new audience supplied fully sound effects in place to 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:15.440 great comedic effect. After that presentation, however, you could wander 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.160 through the rest of the attraction and tucked off to 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.040 the side were a couple of rooms large enough to 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.160 hold a few people at a time, and they were 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:28.440 called sound stations. Inside those rooms were benches attached to 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.840 the walls, and there were hooks holding headphones every couple 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.800 of feet you would go in, you would sit down, 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.240 you would put on the headphones, making sure that the 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.400 headphone with the yellow pad went over your right ear. 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:47.080 And then something extraordinary happened. As the lights went down. 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.760 You were presented with a scenario. You're playing the part 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:57.440 of a new executive at the Walt Disney Studios named R. J. McBean. 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.200 You're told you're sitting behind into your executive desk waiting 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.400 for your assistant Hampton to come in and start off 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:10.080 your day, and the sound orbited you. You'd hear the 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.720 narrator set up the scenario, and her voice drifted from 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:19.000 one ear to the other as if she were actually 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:23.719 walking around you. While you sat at this fictional desk, 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.599 and then the scenario would really begin and things got 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.960 really wild. A little tinker bell jingling would represent the 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.880 true beginning, and you would hear Hampton come in. He 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:41.840 would walk through on a door to your right, and 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.520 then you'd hear him pontificate as he walks through your office. 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.680 You would pour a busy drink into a glass of ice, 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:54.360 and he introduced you to your secretary. Surely, Oh, and 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:59.839 also said you would get a haircut from a stylist 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.480 named Ken, because of course the big Cheese is on 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:09.040 his way to meet you. And the haircut sounds, in particular, 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:14.160 we're really compelling. You could almost feel the sensation of 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:16.800 someone cutting your hair, and I say this as a 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:21.840 bald man who hasn't had hair in more than twenty years. Meanwhile, 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.679 as the hair goes flying, a director called Flavio shows 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.440 up and pitches a new film to you, complete with 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.039 using a hair dryer to simulate desert winds. There are 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.359 a lot of other cute sound effects that follow, like 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:42.560 a paper being placed over your head to represent a 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.719 turban and you can actually find recordings of this piece online, 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.000 though I will warn you the effects aren't quite up 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.560 to the quality of the original attraction, which also incorporated 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:59.440 stuff like actual blowers to blow warm air on you. Oh, 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.840 and a big cheese who comes in at the end. 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.159 Well that's Mickey Mouse, of course. He comes into place 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.480 a pair of mouse ears on top of your head. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.520 The whole thing lasted about five minutes and I loved it. 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.360 And at the end you were instructed to remove your headphones, 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.120 hang them back on the wall, and exit the room, 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.279 whereupon you'd head outside to the blazing Florida sun and 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:30.000 the wild audio of the real outdoors. That was how 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.680 I first experienced three D audio. At that time, it 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.880 was based off a technology that had a brand name 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:42.360 of Holophonics. These days, we'd more likely call it binaural 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.440 audio or maybe just three D audio. And there are 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.560 a lot of different ways to create the experience, some 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.960 of which requires special equipment, others that require special software. 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:58.039 You can find examples of three D audio in music recordings, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:02.480 amusement park attractions, and stuff like a s MR videos. 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.839 It can be a really compelling experience and I remember 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.880 getting goose bumps the first time I encountered it. And 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.280 depending on who's doing the recording and the effects that 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.080 they're creating. I can still get goose bumps from it today. 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.560 Long time listeners might remember that a few years back, 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.080 I interviewed an a s m R artist named Heather Feather, 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:27.400 who was one of a handful of creators who were 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.560 really making a s m R a phenomenon. Now we 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.800 have thousands of creators. If you do a search on 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.720 YouTube for a s m R you will see countless 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.760 videos in the category. But the technology and psychology behind 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:46.120 this experience goes back quite a ways. So I want 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:52.560 to explore the evolution and technology behind making three D audio. Now, 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:57.720 in the beginning, there was mono, that is monaural or 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:03.000 monophonic sound. This sound can come from a single loud speaker, 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.120 or it could be channeled to multiple loud speakers, but 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.640 the signal going to each loudspeaker is exactly the same 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:14.679 as every other loud speaker. It's effectively a single channel 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.760 of sound. It's how we do podcasts typically, where you 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.560 usually will hear the same level of volume in each ear. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.240 For shows with multiple hosts, it means that you hear 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.320 all the hosts in both ears equally. Most listeners tend 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.360 to prefer that, but very early on, people started to 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.440 experiment with ways to provide more than one channel of 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:41.079 sounds simultaneously to a listener to create a different kind 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:45.600 of experience. Way back in eighteen eighty one, when the 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.720 loud speaker itself was just a few years old, Alexander 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.320 Graham Bell had patented it in eighteen seventy six. As 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.360 part of this telephone invention. Well, that's when a man 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:00.280 named Clement Adder came up with a clever idea. One 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.840 of the downsides of live theater is that it is 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.720 a scarce resource. Only so many people can fit into 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.520 a theater for a performance, and once that performance is over, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:15.760 it's all done. So there is an element of exclusivity 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.720 when it comes to live theater, something that remains true 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.440 because I mean, it's just the limitations of the art. 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.560 But Adder thought of a way that would help people 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:28.600 listen in to say, a performance of an opera, without 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:33.200 having to actually go to the opera house. His demonstration 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.160 involved installing telephone receivers in a few rooms at the 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.280 Palais de l Industry. The microphones he installed near the 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:45.400 footlights at the Grand Opera in Paris, so they were 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.640 across town. People could come into these rooms at the 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.480 Palais in small groups, and they would hold two receivers, 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:57.640 one to each ear. Each receiver connected to a different microphone, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.040 which meant the sound they were hearing was actually coming 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:05.320 from two different locations. In an article and Scientific American 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:10.719 Monsieur Hospitalier is quoted as saying, quote, everyone who has 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.680 been fortunate enough to hear the telephones at the Palais 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.600 de Industry has remarked that in listening with both ears 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:21.120 at the two telephones, the sound takes a special character 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.920 of relief and localization which a single receiver cannot produce. 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:31.480 End quote. This was a very early and primitive version 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:35.280 of stereophonic sound. For those of us who have hearing 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.520 in both of our ears, we experience the world in stereo. 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:44.400 Sound travels at a certain speed. It's three ms per 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.440 second if you have an air temperature of around twenty 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:51.400 degrees celsius or sixty eight degrees fahrenheit. And yes, the 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:55.040 temperature affects how quickly sound will move through the air. 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:59.600 And our ears are located upon opposite sides of our noggins, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.040 that means that sound hits our two ear drums at 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:07.160 slightly different times, depending upon where it's coming from, and 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:10.760 we will perceive sound coming from one side of us 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:15.120 as being louder in that year than in our opposite ear, 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.760 and so on. So mono sound shoves all of those 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.959 sound waves through one channel. Everything is coming out equally 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.680 through each loudspeaker. Stereo sound, however, changes this up, varying 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.760 the amplitude or volume of sound in each channel and 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:36.400 creating a different effect. While adders demonstration indicated that there 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:40.560 was something interesting with producing sound using different channels directed 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.199 at different loudspeakers, that was just the tip of the iceberg. 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.400 Alan Dower bloom Line would advance the art considerably in 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:53.280 the nineteen thirties. Bloomline was born in three He became 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.160 an electronics engineer and he worked for the famous Abbey 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.840 Road Studios where he pioneered advance spens in stereophonic recording. 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:06.080 According to an anecdote told by Alan Blumline's son, Simon, 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.120 Bloomline was at the movies with his wife watching a 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.480 film and he remarked that were a blind person to 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.440 go to the movies, they might struggle to follow what 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.359 was going on because the sound was all coming from loudspeakers. 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.520 In mono there was no way to detect through hearing 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.360 where people were within a scene. Everyone would sound like 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:28.360 they were in the same spot. You would only be 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.880 able to hear if someone was further or closer to 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:35.000 a microphone, but otherwise spatially you would have no idea 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.440 what was going on, and that got him into thinking 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.480 about developing a system that would allow sound engineers to 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:45.160 record and reproduce sound so that had a more localized effect. 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.480 Action happening on the left side of the screen would 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.160 be represented by sounds emanating from loudspeakers on the left 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.280 side of the theater. Likewise, action on the right side 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.079 would be paired with an appropriate amount of sound coming 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:02.319 from the right. Each speaker might produce some of the sound, 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.160 but at different amplitudes, so that while you might get 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.480 a little bit of the right hand sound from left 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:12.120 hand speakers, the levels would be lower, and the overall 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.240 feeling would be that you're in the middle of that sound, 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.160 and it would enhance the experience of seeing a movie 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.319 and as well as help out those who are visually 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:24.199 impaired follow what was going on. According to that anecdote, 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:28.320 Blumline called it binaural sound, which of course will come 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.679 back to a bit later in this episode. I just 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.640 find it interesting that the original term for stereo is 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.400 one we now associate with a more specific approach to 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.240 audio recording and production. He would receive more than seventy 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.199 patents for his various inventions related to stereo sound. He 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:51.880 created technology to record, process, and reproduce audio and stereo. 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.880 In nine four, he oversaw a stereo recording of the 0:13:55.960 --> 0:14:00.880 London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Abbey Road Studios. Bloomline also 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:06.000 pioneered the Bloomline method, which would use two microphones mounted 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:09.040 at a nine d degree angle with regard to one another, 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.680 to pick up directional sounds in a recording environment. So, 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:14.600 in other words, if you think of a room as 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.040 a square, one mic is picking up sounds primarily along 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.080 the X axis, and the other is picking up sound 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:25.640 along the y axis. Bloomline also figured out how to 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.880 create a stereo groove in a record album. Back in 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.480 those days, these were made from shell act but they 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.520 would later be made from vinyl. And when I think 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:38.320 about that, I'm astonished. I mean, the way a record 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:42.560 player works is that a stylists or needle fits into 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.160 the groove of a record. That groove causes the stylist 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:50.640 to vibrate, and those vibrations transmit to a transducer, which 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.920 turns the vibrations into an electrical signal thanks to a 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.720 little electro magnet magic, and that signal then goes to 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:01.480 an amplifier which boosts the signal strength, which then goes 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.520 on to loudspeakers and powers them so that they can 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.040 reproduce the original recorded sound that created the groove in 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.800 the first place. It's the edges of these grooves that 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:16.080 cause the vibration or the wiggle of the silas. So 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.960 how does one record stereo sound to a physical disc 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.840 with a groove, Well, imagine a groove that slaloms back 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.400 and forth in a nice even path, So the waves 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.560 along either side of the groove are a physical representation 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:35.600 of the original sound waves that were recorded. Now, usually 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.640 in a mono record, you would just see that these 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:42.760 waves are evenly distributed on the left and right side. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:44.920 It's like they're in sync with one another. It's just 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:50.440 a nice smooth curve. But what if you wanted to 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.520 record stereo, Well, you could have it where the left 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:55.440 side of the groove and the right side of the 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.640 groove are actually different. The wall on one side would 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.600 represent the audio recorded in one channel, and the wall 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:04.960 on the other side of the groove was for the 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.360 second channel. So with the proper equipment, you could play 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:10.680 this record back and the stylists would vibrate in a 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:14.840 very specific way. It would be detected by two sensors 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:19.960 connected to the stylus, so essentially to transducers, and these 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.160 two channels of sound could again go to specific loud 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.760 speakers a left and a right, and then you get 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:30.760 stereo playback. It's pretty incredible. Listening back to properly recorded 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.200 and processed audio would give the listener the sensation that 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:38.280 they were actually in an acoustic space. It would feel 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:40.760 as though you were standing at the spot where the 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.800 microphone had been mounted, and that the sound you encounter 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.800 is just as if you were present at the recording session. 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.320 That was the intent, anyway, but the actual process of 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:54.480 getting there is a lot more complicated than setting up 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.760 just a pair of microphones. When we come back, we'll 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.720 learn a bit more about stereo recording and editing, and 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.560 we'll also learn why the Beatles, who also made famous 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:10.720 recordings at Abbey Road Studios, concentrated on creating mono records 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.480 for a long time, even though stereo had been around 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:25.280 for decades. But first, let's take a quick break. Now. 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.639 I've done episodes about sound to film in the past, 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.200 and also sound on television, so I'm going to skip 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.600 over all of that. Otherwise this episode would be for 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.000 five hours long. Instead, I want to talk a bit 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.360 more about stereo recordings and why bands like the Beatles 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.040 were slow to adopt them. To listen to a stereo 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.600 recording properly, you need a stereo system. That is, you 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.240 need a sound system that has at least two loud 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.320 speakers and a way to send the different channels of 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.360 sound to both the left and the right speakers or 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.200 independently to the left and right speakers. Otherwise the playback 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.480 would be in mono even if the recording were in stereo, 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.959 and what you would get is a weird case where 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.040 some elements of the recording would be really quiet, as 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.159 those would be the sounds recorded to a channel that 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.439 wasn't getting picked up by the mono playback system. Now, 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:18.760 if you've ever listened to a recording where some of 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:23.520 the voices or instruments sound unusually quiet, and that it 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.639 doesn't sound like this was done on purpose. It's likely 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.679 because either someone mixed the audio improperly, or it's a 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.960 stereo recording that at some point got converted over into 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.440 mono and you're losing some of the audio as a result. 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.600 Stereo systems were really expensive when they first came out. 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.479 I'm talking about like stereo systems that you would purchase 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.000 for your home, and a lot of people, particularly young people, 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.960 had really purchased record players that had a single speaker 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:57.440 incorporated into the player itself. So these were mono playback 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.959 devices as there was only one speaker for sound to go. 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.560 The Beatles, being a band whose music was disproportionately favored 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:09.160 by the young, had their audience in mind as they 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:13.199 mixed their albums. It said that for many of the 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.520 albums from the early two mid period of the Beatles 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.879 as a band, the group would spend hours in the 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.199 mixing studio to get the mono mix just right, but 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:26.640 when it came time to do the stereo mixes, they 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.040 left that to the audio engineers at Abbey Road and 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:33.119 were never around. So why is that, Well, because to them, 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.160 the mono recordings were more important. That was what their 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.240 fan base could enjoy. For that reason, a lot of 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:43.520 Beatles fans or purists favor the mono recordings of early 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:48.159 Beatles work. They essue the stereo recordings as failing to 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.360 represent what it was the Beatles were trying to achieve. 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.879 And if you listen to the mono versus stereo recordings 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.360 of some of those early songs like Paperback Writer or 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:03.000 eleanor Rigby, you really can tell there is a major difference. 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.840 And this leads into one way to create a stereo 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.159 or three D audio sound. You can take a recording 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.320 and you can change how much of the signal gets 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.359 sent to a particular channel. That determines which loudspeaker or 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:21.480 set of loudspeakers will play back the audio, or more likely, 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:26.240 how much volume that particular sound will have in each loudspeaker. 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.160 This is both a science and an art. A lot 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.800 of the work in this field was centered around music, 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:37.720 and music can contain a wide range of frequencies and tones. 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:43.480 Imagine an orchestra. You have instruments that primarily create lower frequencies, 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:48.399 like lower pitches. You've got tubas and basses and cellos. 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.280 Each of those instruments while creating notes that might be 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.640 in the same general range have distinct sounds. A tuba 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.879 and an upright bass do not sound the same. In 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:03.119 other words, then you've got instruments that center on some 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:07.680 of the higher frequencies, like flutes and piccolos and violins. 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:11.439 These also sound different from one another, and so it 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:14.160 became important to figure out how to not just capture 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:19.080 a recording and divide it into channels to create spatial landscapes, 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:23.280 but also how to balance out the tones so that 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.720 you don't lose anything in the process. With the wrong mix, 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:30.840 one instrument or group of instruments might totally overpower another, 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.760 and it's almost as if those other instruments were never 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.600 even present at the original recording, and so processing recordings 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.720 and getting the mix just right became critical. One part 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.000 of this is called panning, and it relies on a 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.320 pan control. In the old days, you would use a 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.720 mixing board with physical controls on it to control the pan. 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:56.240 The pan determines how much signal from each input is 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.800 sent to each channel. These days, many audio producers work 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:05.280 with digital audio workstations or DAWs, and with a DAW 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:09.800 you also control panning. You can pan either mono or 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:13.760 stereo tracks. Most DAWs will let you convert one type 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.639 of track into another, splitting a mono into stereo, or 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:22.000 combining stereo into mono. For certain types of audio, like 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.840 mini podcasts, the default is to go to mono. It 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.080 can be a little disconcerting if you record and publish 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:32.680 a podcast in stereo. Many years ago, when I first 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:36.879 started recording large Nerdron Collider with my friend Ariel, I 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.639 accidentally recorded and published several episodes in stereo, which meant 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:44.840 all of my audio was in one channel, like the 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:47.760 left channel, and all of Ariel's audio was in the 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:50.439 other channel, the right channel. So it's like I was 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:53.160 talking into your left ear and Ariel was talking into 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:57.639 your right ear, which was very unsettling. I eventually figured 0:22:57.640 --> 0:22:59.720 out what I was doing, and I began mixing our 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:03.800 re wardings into a mono track to avoid that problem. 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:08.400 And with some early stereo recordings you can hear examples 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:13.320 of problems like this. It's frequently disconcerting. There are recordings 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:17.160 of songs in which all the instrumentation is on one 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.080 side and all the vocals are on the other side. 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:23.679 Now that might have been done purposefully, but it was 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:27.520 often a sort of heavy handed approach to stereo. There 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:30.960 are times an artist might desire that specific effect, but 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:33.159 other times the desire was to be a bit more 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:35.639 creative with stereo, and you might have a track in 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.640 which the vocalist is on the extreme right of part 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:41.600 of the recording than on the extreme left later on. 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:44.560 The Beatles A Day in the Life actually falls into 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:47.280 that category. Or you might want to create a rich 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:50.000 soundscape in which there is a sense of location for 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:55.240 all the sound. Maybe not something that's explicitly communicated to 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:58.520 the listener, but is an important representation of the performance. 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:03.360 So how about we play around with some post processing 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:08.359 panning to create a three dimensional experience. My producer, Torri, 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:13.200 who is a superstar here at iHeart, is always critical 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:16.119 to the success of this show. But in a moment, 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:18.879 she's going to take over the experience of what this 0:24:18.920 --> 0:24:22.200 show sounds like to you, the audience, And I'm going 0:24:22.240 --> 0:24:25.120 to do something I've always wanted to do in three 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:28.720 D audio. I'm going to give you a little Shakespeare. 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:32.840 This piece is the prologue to Henry the Five, one 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:37.240 of Shakespeare's company designated the chorus implores the audience to 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:41.120 use their imaginations to augment the production of the play itself. 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:45.359 And so as you listen to this piece, imagine you 0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:49.959 are seated on a stage with the chorus walking around you, 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:55.280 explaining your role in creating the theatrical experience. Now, I 0:24:55.320 --> 0:24:59.000 admit I'm cheating a little bit here, because the whole 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:02.000 point of this path message is to say that theater 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:05.800 is incapable of creating an exact copy of the story 0:25:05.800 --> 0:25:09.520 of Henry the Fifth and England's battles with France. But 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:13.040 you also have to remember, I'm a former English literature 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:17.440 major and I never get to do Shakespeare. So here 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:22.600 we go, headphones on, Oh, for a muse of fire 0:25:22.760 --> 0:25:28.119 that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention, a kingdom, 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:32.680 for a stage, princes to act, and monarchs to behold 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:37.320 the swelling scenes. Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:41.000 assume the ports of Mars, and at his heels, leashed 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:46.440 in like hounds, should famine sword and fire crouch for employment. 0:25:47.480 --> 0:25:53.600 But pardon, gentles, all the flat, unraised spirits that have 0:25:53.840 --> 0:25:58.919