Stereo sound was first explored in 1931 by Alan Blumlein, a british engineer, who came up with the idea to use two microphones to recreate the sense of spatial depth. Blumlein worked for film and is often established as the ‘Father of Stereo’.
It took sometime before anymore developments were made in the 1950s where stereo sound was being introduced into film and music. In 1958 the first stereo vinyl record was introduced which is a disc that contains two separate audio channels, one for the left speaker and one for the right. This allowed tracks to be more realistic as it replicated space and direction. By the 1970s, stereo became the norm for music, allowing for more immersive music.
This then led to the digital era and surround sound in the 1980s-2000s. During this time, there was the rise of CDs and digital recordings, allowing stereo sound quality to greatly improve. With audio companies such as Dolby and DTS further developing surround sound by taking it further and adding spatial dimensions like 5.1 and 7.1 systems.
This then took me into the development of binaural sound which was used in an episode of Doctor who by the BBC. Binaural sound technology allows the creation of immersive Spatial Audio experiences for headphone users. It captures spatial cues such as time and volume difference between the ears and how sound reflects off the head and shoulders.
In knowing all this, the use of surround sound and binaural sound could help me with my mixes as a way to creatively express myself. Binaural sound is still under-explored and whilst mainly used for realism I believe it can also be used for surrealism to test its creative potential.
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