![]() ![]() It was a pretty messy job to drill and gouge through the head like that. The left-ear mic would pass in through the right side, and vice versa for the right ear mic. Uniquely detailed features (like a large nose or protruding cheekbones) might bias the frequency response too much in a particular way.įrom there, I needed to hollow out the mannequin head enough so that I could insert the microphone bodies through it. The facial contours were somewhat smoothed out - that is, there was not too much detail - it was more an abstraction of facial features which would better translate as an averaged-out frequency-response. This chosen one (dubbed "Henry" or "Hank") was cast in hard plastic and had near enough dimensions to an average adult head with about a 7-inch width along the axis between the ears. Most commercially available dummy-head mics don't have the shoulders included, but I believe that the effect of the shoulder reflections is significant enough to include them because of the way the sound is also modified by the upper body. It only had to be separated from its body below the shoulders. One of the brothers walked me through their mess of a workshop strewn with mannequin bodies of all sorts, looking a bit like the recalled "butcher baby" Beatles LP cover. Run by two brothers, it was located in the borough of Saint-Lambert just outside of Montreal. I chose to call upon a local shop that specialized in creating mannequins of various types for stores. ![]() You might know someone who works in a clothing store that has access to a reasonable one. a pair of life-like ear replicas (called "pinnae", or "pinna" for one)įor the head, I sought to find a mannequin, preferably a bald one (as one with hair can be creepy for some). The three main components of a dummy-head mic are: And, by investing in a matched pair of studio-quality microphones, I could have the extra advantage of using them as regular recording mics separately from the dummy-head. I'd heard about others making binaural-head mics, but they all used miniature lavalier type mics, which aren't as good as regular microphones as they typically suffer from erratic frequency responses and low signal-to-noise ratios. I set off trying to assemble my own from various parts and sources, not only to save a bunch of money, but to have the best quality mics as the transducers within the head. Binaural-head mics don't come cheap the most expensive of the available models can cost around $8,000. The initial reason I set out to explore binaural recording was for my own research on its possibilities for surround-sound. ![]() Tchad Blake is one notable user of binaural-head mics (see Tape Op #16). A lot of engineers dismiss the idea of using these microphones for music because they are aware of the problems in playing back binaural signals through loudspeakers (more on that later), but many are realizing the special dimension a dummy-head recording can add to a more traditionally recorded mix. Some binaural-head microphones were developed for purposes other than music recording, such as medical, psychological, space and aeronautical acoustics research. Sennheiser used to make a model, the MKE-2002, that had the microphones mounted on a type of doctor's stethoscope and Soundman makes the OKMI and II in- ear microphones. A variation on this idea would have the recordist place small microphones into their own ears to capture the sound from their own unique perspective. It's been called many names: artificial-head, binaural-head, dummy-head, head-and-torso-simulator (HATS), and (adopting the German term) kunstkopf microphone. Those reflection patterns cause different comb- filtering effects, giving a unique signature frequency response for each direction of sound.Ī dummy-head microphone is a two-channel system where the pair of recorded signals is meant to be reproduced independently to each ear, hence the term binaural. The directional cues result from the variations in reflection patterns occurring at the outer ear. The goal here is to imitate our natural hearing system, particularly the way our ears collect the spatial characteristics of any sound and its surrounding environment. This imitation should then mimic the physical properties and paths that a sound follows to our eardrums, with the left and right microphone diaphragms acting as eardrums. Construct a mannequin imitation of a human head with a microphone inserted into each of its ears. Dummy-head microphones - the idea behind them is as simple as their name implies.
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