image: Jason Sims

Plug in some headphones and listen to the following recording. You’ll hear a match being lit, then a matchbox shaken and moved around you — behind and in front, then above and below. I’ve heard clever effects like this before, but nothing so realistic, and nothing that captured vertical space with just left and right channels. You can almost see the sound moving about — but only with headphones — speakers will simulate planar movement but not the full 360 degrees.

Developed in the 1980s by Hugo Zuccarelli, Holophonic Sound uses the same “multiple exposure” premise as that used to create holographic images (“holograms”). Holophonic Sound is produced by recording the interference pattern generated when the original recorded signal is combined with an inaudible digital reference signal. The recorded sound produced is so realistic, some people claim they can smell sulphur when they listen to a holophonic recording of someone striking a match!

Sound Ideas - “What is Holophonic Sound?”

Music, Physics, Sound, Technology 4 Jan 06 [trackback]

    Response:

  1. Hey! The link is broken :)

    thunderbolt
    7 Jan / 6:31 am
  2. fixed

    Justin
    7 Jan / 2:07 pm
  3. Wow.

    Volkher Hofmann
    10 Jan / 10:54 am
  4. you have to be kidding.

    That is unbelievable.

    mr.proxxxy
    13 Jan / 3:04 pm
  5. Awesome.

    I would love to be able to do this with guitars and drums and stuff.

    Awesome.

    bruce
    13 Jan / 7:15 pm
  6. wow! dis thin is awesome! how can u do dat? :)

    pam
    15 Jun / 8:55 pm
  7. Wow i really did smell the sulpher when they struck the first match (not the second one on the left side though). What will be awesome is when they implement this into theater movies and make movies all 3d O_o that will be the ultimate movie experience.

    Tyler
    30 Jun / 8:43 am


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