WEBVTT - Rerun: How 3D Audio Works 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:15.520 I Heart three D Audio. This episode was brought to 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.640 you in I Heeart three D Audio. To experience more 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.000 podcasts like this, search for I Heeart three D Audio 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:25.400 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 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.440 Me Do It, raded R, and World of Warcraft. For 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:41.600 maximum effect, headphones are recommended. Welcome to Tech Stuff a 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:49.640 production from I Heart Radio. Hey there, and welcome to 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.040 tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.280 producer with I Heeart Radio and how the tech are you? 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.840 So it is President's Day here in the United States 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.000 as a holiday for us here at my Heart and 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:07.880 as such, instead of working, I am vacating or holidaying 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.440 or something. So we're bringing to you an episode that 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:16.640 originally published on May twenty one. It is titled how 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.240 three D Audio Works. And there is some three D 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.440 audio shenanigans in this, So if you get creeped out 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.280 by that kind of stuff, it's good to know going 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.120 into this. Best listen with headphones on if you're not 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.920 creeped up by that kind of stuff, and you can 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.400 enjoy a little bit of the effects as well as 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:41.520 learn about the technology I hope you enjoy. Let me 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:46.000 tell you a story about my childhood. My family are 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:50.240 all really big Disney theme park fans, and growing up 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.640 in Georgia meant we were just a short eight to 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:58.240 ten hour drive from Walt Disney World in Florida. Both 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.080 of my parents were teachers, and they would save up 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.680 money so that every two or three years or so 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:08.360 we'd make the trip down. Disney World was always where 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.800 my sister and I wanted to go, even when my 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:15.400 parents gently tried to suggest other places like Washington, d C. 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.440 Or New York City. Nope, we want a Disney World 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.360 also quick aside, these days, we still will take family 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.800 trips to Disney World, my parents included, and now with 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.560 my nieces we get to experience seeing Disney through fresh eyes, 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.240 which is pretty great. But anyway, back to my story. 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:41.520 Back in nine, the Disney Hollywood Studios Park opened for 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.360 the first time. Back then it was Disney MGM Studios, 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.000 and the studios were a working studio with films and 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.600 TV shows shot on the premises. A lot of attractions 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.880 related to film and TV production. There was the Great 0:02:55.960 --> 0:03:00.079 Movie Ride, which closed in There was a behind the 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:05.680 scenes tour which close in and there were various experiences 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:09.480 that taught audiences about stuff like special effects, all of 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.520 which have closed. Almost leads you to the conclusion that 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:16.880 the Hollywood Studios aren't so much the Hollywood Studios anymore. 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:21.360 But I'm off track again. One of those experiences was 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.880 all about sound effects, and it was called the Monster 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:29.040 Sound Show. I remember that the attraction featured a clip 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.480 of a film starring Martin Short and Chevy Chase, and 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:34.720 I had a lot of sound effects that played in 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:38.840 that movie. Then the attraction host would bring up some 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.880 audience members to try and create sound effects live on 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.840 stage using various props while a silent version of the 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.800 film played, and then they would play the film back 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:53.920 again with the new audience supplied fully sound effects in 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:58.680 place to great comedic effect. After that presentation, however, you 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.680 could wander through the rest of the attraction and tucked 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.560 off to the side were a couple of rooms large 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:06.680 enough to hold a few people at a time, and 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:11.520 they were called sound stations. Inside those rooms were benches 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.080 attached to the walls and there were hooks holding headphones. 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.120 Every couple of feet you would go in, you would 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:20.839 sit down, you would put on the headphones, making sure 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.440 that the headphone with the yellow pad went over your 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:30.360 right ear. And then something extraordinary happened. As the lights 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:35.200 went down, you were presented with a scenario. You're playing 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.479 the part of a new executive at the Walt Disney 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:43.960 Studios named r. J. McBean. You're told you're sitting behind 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:48.080 your executive desk waiting for your assistant Hampton to come 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:53.400 in and start off your day, and the sound orbited you. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.960 You'd hear the narrator set up the scenario, and her 0:04:56.040 --> 0:05:02.200 voice drifted from one ear to the other, as if 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:06.560 she were actually walking around you while you sat at 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.560 this fictional desk. And then the scenario would really begin 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:14.839 and things got really wild. A little tinker bell jingling 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.600 would represent the true beginning, and you would hear Hampton 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.800 come in. He would walk through on a door to 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:28.159 your right, and then you'd hear him pontificate as he 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.360 walks through your office. You would pour a busy drink 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.680 into a glass of ice, and he introduced you to 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.839 your secretary. Surely, Oh, and also said you would get 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:46.640 a haircut from a stylist named Ken because of course, 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.240 the big cheese is on his way to meet you, 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:54.560 and the haircut sounds in particular were really compelling. You 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:59.159 could almost feel the sensation of someone cutting your hair. 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.040 And I say this as a bald man who hasn't 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.320 had hair in more than twenty years. Meanwhile, as the 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.840 hair goes flying, a director called Flavio shows up and 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:12.800 pitches a new film to you, complete with using a 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.120 hair dryer to simulate desert winds. There are a lot 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.919 of other cute sound effects that follow, like a paper 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:28.400 being placed over your head to represent a turban and 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.800 you can actually find recordings of this piece online, though 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.960 I will warn you the effects aren't quite up to 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.719 the quality of the original attraction, which also incorporated stuff 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:43.320 like actual blowers to blow warm air on you. Oh 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.720 and uh, that big cheese who comes in at the end, 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:50.040 Well that's Mickey Mouse, of course, he comes into place 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.320 a pair of mouse ears on top of your head. 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.400 The whole thing lasted about five minutes and I loved it. 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.200 And at the end you were instructed to remove your headphones, 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.000 hang them back on the wall, and exit the room, 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:09.159 whereupon you'd head outside to the blazing Florida sun and 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.880 the wild audio of the real outdoors. That was how 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:18.480 I first experienced three D audio. At that time, it 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.760 was based off a technology that had a brand name 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:26.200 of Holophonics. These days, we'd more likely call it binaural 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:30.320 audio or maybe just three D audio. And there are 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.440 a lot of different ways to create the experience, some 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.800 of which requires special equipment, others that require special software. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.920 You can find examples of three D audio in music recordings, 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:46.320 amusement park attractions, and stuff like a s MR videos. 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.720 It can be a really compelling experience and I remember 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.640 getting goose bumps the first time I encountered it, and 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:57.120 depending on who's doing the recording and the effects that 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:01.000 they're creating, I can still get goose bumps from it today. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.400 Long time listeners might remember that a few years back, 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.960 I interviewed an a s m R artist named Heather Feather, 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.280 who was one of a handful of creators who were 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:16.840 really making a SMR a phenomenon. Now we have thousands 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.160 of creators. If you do a search on YouTube for 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.160 a s m R you will see countless videos in 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:27.400 the category. But the technology and psychology behind this experience 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.720 goes back quite a ways. So I want to explore 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:36.439 the evolution and technology behind making three D audio. Now, 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:41.600 in the beginning, there was mono, that is monaural or 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:46.840 monophonic sound. This sound can come from a single loud speaker, 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.960 or it could be channeled to multiple loud speakers, but 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.480 the signal going to each loudspeaker is exactly the same 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:58.559 as every other loud speaker. It's effectively a single channel 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.600 of sound. It's how we do podcasts typically, where you 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.400 usually will hear the same level of volume in each year. 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.840 For shows with the multiple hosts, it means that you 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:13.960 hear all the hosts in both ears equally. Most listeners 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.120 tend to prefer that, but very early on people started 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.240 to experiment with ways to provide more than one channel 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:24.439 of sounds simultaneously to a listener to create a different 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:29.480 kind of experience. Way back in eight one, when the 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.600 loud speaker itself was just a few years old, Alexander 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.160 Graham Bell had patented it in eight seventy six as 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.199 part of this telephone invention. Well, that's when a man 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.160 named Clement Adder came up with a clever idea. One 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.760 of the downsides of live theater is that it is 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.520 a scarce resource. Only so many people can fit into 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.360 a theater for a performance, and once that performance is over, 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.600 it's all done. So there is an element of exclusivity 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.560 when it comes to live theater, something that remains true 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.280 because I mean, it's just the limitations of the art. 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.440 But Adder thought of a way that would help people 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.480 listen in to say, a performance of an opera, without 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:17.040 having to actually go to the opera house. His demonstration 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.000 involved installing telephone receivers in a few rooms at the 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:25.120 Palais de l Industry. The microphones he installed near the 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.240 footlights at the Grand Opera in Paris, so they were 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:32.520 across town. People could come into these rooms at the 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:36.359 Palais in small groups and they would hold two receivers, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:41.520 one to each ear. Each receiver connected to a different microphone, 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.920 which meant the sound they were hearing was actually coming 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:49.160 from two different locations. In an article and Scientific American 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:54.559 Monsieur Hospitalier is quoted as saying, quote, everyone who has 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.480 been fortunate enough to hear the telephones at the Palais 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.000 de l Industry has remarked that in listening with both 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:04.480 ears at the two telephones, the sound takes a special 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:09.080 character of relief and localization which a single receiver cannot 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:14.719 produce end quote. This was a very early and primitive 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.600 version of stereophonic sound. For those of us who have 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.079 hearing in both of our ears, we experience the world 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:27.640 in stereo. Sound travels at a certain speed. It's three 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.920 per second if you have an air temperature of around 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.560 twenty degrees celsius or sixty eight degrees fahrenheit. And yes, 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.880 the temperature affects how quickly sound will move through the air. 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.679 And our ears are located upon opposite sides of our noggins. 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.880 That means that sound hits our two ear drums at 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:51.040 slightly different times, depending upon where it's coming from, and 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.640 we will perceive sound coming from one side of us 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:59.000 as being louder in that year than in our opposite ear, 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:02.600 and so on. So mono sound shoves all of those 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.840 sound waves through one channel. Everything is coming out equally 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:10.559 through each loudspeaker. Stereo sound, however, changes this up, varying 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.640 the amplitude or volume of sound in each channel and 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:20.280 creating a different effect. While adders demonstration indicated that there 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.400 was something interesting with producing sound using different channels directed 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.400 at different loud speakers, that was just the tip of 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.880 the Iceberg, Alan Dower Bloomline would advance the art considerably 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:36.720 in the nineteen thirties. Bloomline was born in three He 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.440 became an electronics engineer and he worked for the famous 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:45.720 Abbey Road Studios, where he pioneered advancements in stereophonic recording. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.960 According to an anecdote told by Alan Blumline's son, Simon, 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.000 Bloomline was at the movies with his wife watching a 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.360 film and he remarked that were a blind person to 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.280 go to the movies, they might struggle to follow what 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:03.240 was going on because the sound was all coming from loudspeakers. 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.400 In mono. There was no way to detect through hearing 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.240 where people were within a scene. Everyone would sound like 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:12.240 they were in the same spot. You would only be 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.720 able to hear if someone was further or closer to 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.880 a microphone, but otherwise spatially you would have no idea 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.280 what was going on. And that got him into thinking 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.320 about developing a system that would allow sound engineers to 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:29.079 record and reproduce sound so that had a more localized effect. 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.280 Action happening on the left side of the screen would 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.000 be represented by sounds emanating from loudspeakers on the left 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.160 side of the theater. Likewise, action on the right side 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.920 would be paired with an appropriate amount of sound coming 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:46.160 from the right. Each speaker might produce some of the sound, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.040 but at different amplitudes, so that while you might get 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.319 a little bit of the right hand sound from left 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:56.000 hand speakers, the levels would be lower, and the overall 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.080 feeling would be that you're in the middle of that sound, 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.640 and it would enhance it's the experience of seeing a 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:03.840 movie and as well as help out those who are 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.079 visually impaired follow what was going on. According to that anecdote, 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:12.200 Blumline called it binaural sound, which of course will come 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.520 back to a bit later in this episode. I just 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.480 find it interesting that the original term for stereo is 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.240 one we now associate with a more specific approach to 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.080 audio recording and production. He would receive more than seventy 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:31.040 patents for his various inventions related to stereo sound. He 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:35.720 created technology to record, process, and reproduce audio and stereo. 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.720 In n four, he oversaw a stereo recording of the 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:44.760 London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Abbey Road Studios. Blumline also 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:49.880 pioneered the Blomline method, which would use two microphones mounted 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.560 at a nine d degree angle with regard to one 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:56.560 another to pick up directional sounds in a recording environment. So, 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:58.440 in other words, if you think of a room as 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.880 a square, one might is picking up sounds primarily along 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.920 the X axis, and the other is picking up sound 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:09.480 along the y axis. Bloomline also figured out how to 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.720 create a stereo groove and a record album. Back in 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.360 those days, these were made from shell act but they 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:18.360 would later be made from vinyl. And when I think 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:22.240 about that, I'm astonished. I mean, the way a record 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.360 player works is that a stylists or needle fits into 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:30.040 the groove of a record. That groove causes the stylus 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:34.480 to vibrate, and those vibrations transmit to a transducer, which 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.760 turns the vibrations into an electrical signal thanks to a 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.560 little electro magnet magic, and that signal then goes to 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:45.320 an amplifier, which boosts the signal strength, which then goes 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.400 on to loudspeakers and powers them so that they can 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.920 reproduce the original recorded sound that created the groove in 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.640 the first place. It's the edges of these grooves that 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.840 caused the vibration or the wiggle of the stylus. So 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.800 how does one record stereo sound to a physical disc 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.680 with a groove. Well, imagine a groove that slalom's back 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.240 and forth in a nice even path. So the waves 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.440 along either side of the groove are a physical representation 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:19.480 of the original sound waves that were recorded. Now, usually 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.480 in a mono record, you would just see that these 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.600 waves are evenly distributed on the left and right side. 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:28.800 It's like they're in sync with one another. It's just 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:34.480 a nice smooth curve. But what if you wanted to 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.360 record stereo, Well, you could have it where the left 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.320 side of the groove and the right side of the 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.520 groove are actually different. The wall on one side would 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.440 represent the audio recorded in one channel and the wall 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.800 on the other side of the groove was for the 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.240 second channel. So, with the proper equipment, you could play 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.520 this record back and the stylist would vibrate in a 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.680 very specific way. It would be detected by two sensors 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:03.320 connected to the style of us so essentially to transducers, 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.080 and these two channels of sound could again go to 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.160 specific loud speakers and left and a right, and then 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:13.199 you get stereo playback. It's pretty incredible. Listening back to 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.320 properly recorded and processed audio would give the listener the 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:21.520 sensation that they were actually in an acoustic space. It 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:24.080 would feel as though you were standing at the spot 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:28.080 where the microphone had been mounted, and that the sound 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.520 you encounter is just as if you were present at 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.159 the recording session. That was the intent anyway, but the 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.480 actual process of getting there is a lot more complicated 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.560 than setting up just a pair of microphones. When we 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:44.119 come back, we'll learn a bit more about stereo recording 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:48.080 and editing, and we'll also learn why the Beatles, who 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:53.080 also made famous recordings at Abbey Road Studios, concentrated on 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.800 creating mono records for a long time, even though stereo 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:09.120 had been around for decades. But first, let's a quick break. Now. 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.520 I've done episodes about sound to film in the past, 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.080 and also sound on television, so I'm going to skip 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.240 over all of that, Otherwise this episode would be for 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.880 five hours long. Instead, I want to talk a bit 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.200 more about stereo recordings and why bands like the Beatles 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.920 were slow to adopt them. To listen to a stereo 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.480 recording properly, you need a stereo system. That is, you 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.119 need a sound system that has at least two loud 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.199 speakers and a way to send the different channels of 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.200 sound to both the left and the right speakers or 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.080 independently to the left and right speakers. Otherwise, the playback 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.000 would be in mono even if the recording were in stereo, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:51.720 and what you would get is a weird case where 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.880 some elements of the recording would be really quiet, as 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.040 those would be the sounds recorded to a channel that 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.280 wasn't getting picked up by the mono playback system. Now, 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.600 if you've ever listened to a recording where some of 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:07.359 the voices or instruments sound unusually quiet, and that it 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.520 doesn't sound like this was done on purpose, it's likely 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:14.560 because either someone mixed the audio improperly, or it's a 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.800 stereo recording that at some point got converted over into 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:21.320 mono and you're losing some of the audio as a result. 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:26.480 Stereo systems were really expensive when they first came out. 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.320 I'm talking about like stereo systems that you would purchase 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.879 for your home, and a lot of people, particularly young people, 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.800 had really purchased record players that had a single speaker 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:41.920 incorporated into the player itself. So these were mono playback devices, 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.840 as there was only one speaker for sound to go. 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:49.400 The Beatles, being a band whose music was disproportionately favored 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.000 by the young, had their audience in mind as they 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:57.080 mixed their albums. It said that for many of the 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.840 albums from the early to mid period of the b 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.760 as a band, the group would spend hours in the 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.040 mixing studio to get the mono mix just right, but 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.480 when it came time to do the stereo mixes, they 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:12.919 left that to the audio engineers at Abbey Road and 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.640 we're never around. So why is that? Well, because to them, 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.040 the mono recordings were more important. That was what their 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.119 fan base could enjoy. For that reason, a lot of 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.359 Beatles fans or purists favor the mono recordings of early 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:32.000 Beatles work. They issue the stereo recordings as failing to 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.240 represent what it was the Beatles were trying to achieve. 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.719 And if you listen to the mono versus stereo recordings 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.240 of some of those early songs like Paperback Writer or 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.840 eleanor Rigby, you really can tell there is a major difference. 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.680 And this leads into one way to create a stereo 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.040 or three D audio sound. You can take a recording, 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.200 and you can change how much of the signal gets 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:01.240 sent to a particular channel. That determines which loudspeaker or 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.359 set of loudspeakers will play back the audio, or more likely, 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:10.080 how much volume that particular sound will have in each loudspeaker. 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.040 This is both a science and an art. A lot 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.679 of the work in this field was centered around music, 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:21.560 and music can contain a wide range of frequencies and tones. 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:27.320 Imagine an orchestra. You have instruments that primarily create lower frequencies, 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:32.240 like lower pitches. You've got tubas and basses and cellos. 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.119 Each of those instruments, while creating notes that might be 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:39.480 in the same general range, have distinct sounds. A tuba 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:42.760 and an upright bass do not sound the same. In 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.960 other words, then you've got instruments that center on some 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:51.520 of the higher frequencies, like flutes and piccolos and violins. 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:55.280 These also sound different from one another, and so it 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:58.000 became important to figure out how to not just capture 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:02.920 a recording and divided into channels to create spatial landscapes, 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:07.120 but also how to balance out the tones so that 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.560 you don't lose anything in the process with the wrong mix. 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:14.720 One instrument or group of instruments might totally overpower another, 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:17.600 and it's almost as if those other instruments were never 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:21.480 even present at the original recording, and so processing recordings 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:25.600 and getting the mix just right became critical. One part 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:28.840 of this is called panning, and it relies on a 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:32.199 pan control. In the old days, you would use a 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.560 mixing board with physical controls on it to control the pan. 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:40.119 The pan determines how much signal from each input is 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:44.680 sent to each channel. These days, many audio producers work 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:49.120 with digital audio workstations or DAWs, and with a DAW 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:53.639 you also control panning. You can pan either mono or 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:57.639 stereo tracks. Most DAWs will let you convert one type 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.520 of track into another, splitting a mono into stereo or 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:05.880 combining stereo into mono. For certain types of audio, like 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.720 MANI podcasts, the default is to go to mono. It 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:12.960 can be a little disconcerting if you record and publish 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:16.520 a podcast in stereo. Many years ago, when I first 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:20.760 started recording large Nerdroun Collider with my friend Ariel, I 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:25.480 accidentally recorded and published several episodes in stereo, which meant 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:28.720 all of my audio was in one channel, like the 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:31.639 left channel and all of Ariel's audio was in the 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:34.280 other channel, the right channel. So it's like I was 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:37.000 talking into your left ear and Ariel was talking into 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:41.480 your right ear, which was very unsettling. I eventually figured 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:43.639 out what I was doing, and I began mixing our 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:47.800 recordings into a mono track to avoid that problem. And 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:52.640 with some early stereo recordings you can hear examples of 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:57.240 problems like this. It's frequently disconcerting. There are recordings of 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:01.439 songs in which all the instrumentation is on one side 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:04.480 and all the vocals are on the other side. Now 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.920 that might have been done purposefully, but it was often 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:11.520 a sort of heavy handed approach to stereo. There are 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:15.080 times an artist might desire that specific effect, but other 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:17.639 times the desire was to be a bit more creative 0:24:17.640 --> 0:24:19.760 with stereo, and you might have a track in which 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:22.560 the vocalist is on the extreme right of part of 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:26.159 the recording, then on the extreme left later on. The 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:29.200 beatles A Day in the Life actually falls into that category. 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:32.040 Or you might want to create a rich soundscape in 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:34.679 which there is a sense of location for all the sound, 0:24:35.280 --> 0:24:39.840 maybe not something that's explicitly communicated to the listener, but 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:44.280 is an important representation of the performance. So how about 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:48.320 we play around with some post processing panning to create 0:24:48.600 --> 0:24:53.560 a three dimensional experience. My producer, Tari, who is a 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:58.080 superstar here at iHeart, is always critical to the success 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:01.199 of this show. But in a moment, she's going to 0:25:01.240 --> 0:25:03.639 take over the experience of what this show sounds like 0:25:03.760 --> 0:25:06.800 to you, the audience. And I'm going to do something 0:25:06.880 --> 0:25:10.280 I've always wanted to do in three D audio. I'm 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:14.159 going to give you a little Shakespeare. This piece is 0:25:14.200 --> 0:25:17.920 the prologue to Henry the Five, one of Shakespeare's company 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:22.520 designated the chorus implores the audience to use their imaginations 0:25:22.560 --> 0:25:25.880 to augment the production of the play itself. And so 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:29.960 as you listen to this piece, imagine you are seated 0:25:30.119 --> 0:25:34.520 on a stage with the chorus walking around you, explaining 0:25:34.600 --> 0:25:39.520 your role in creating the theatrical experience. Now, I admit 0:25:40.000 --> 0:25:43.200 I'm cheating a little bit here, because the whole point 0:25:43.280 --> 0:25:47.040