Playback by others, even with optimal equipment may not hear the same things the original wearer of the mics hears.

One result of this is recordings made wearing binaural mics IN the ears are OPTIMALLY played back via headphones or earbuds by the same person who wore the microphones. In Psychoacoustics this is known as the Head Related Transfer function (HRTF), the difference in arrival and location cues in each microphone separated by ones own head or a dummy head. Different from placing typical omni capsules on glasses or near your ears in that each individual's pinnae are unique including that of a dummy head. True Binaural technique uses capsules which are pressure 'omnis' # which are aimed upward into the ear canal, typically using a dummy head, but can be used on your own head. I wish Len had gone a bit more in detail (about the mic design itself) as he knows more about this than my psychoacoustic former hydrophone designer self. Rob, there is such a thing as a 'proper binaural' set of microphones. I'm chiming in although I need to come back and edit more. Using 'open rig' recording techniques we can make recordings that can sound better and be more enjoyable than it actually sounded during the performance from that spot.

In general binaural recordings give you a 'you are there' type listening experience, be that good or bad. It is interesting that binaural techniques can provide a form of truly accurate perceptual reproduction, but for music tapers and location recordists the goal is believably and listening enjoyment. I believe some of this can be useful to tapers- primarily the corrections applied on the reproduction end for headphone listening more so than the recording techniques. David Greisinger uses and writes about this approach extensively. This requires carefully applied methods to remove binaural response data specific to the individual who's head and ears were used to make the recording, and apply corrections specific to the listener's own binaural response through the specific headphones being used. True binaural recording sampling at the ear-drum (using tiny flexible tubes) is useful in hall acoustics research because it is the only way to reproduce the sound as it was experienced by a listener seated in a specific location in a particular hall. Most are 'generic heads' with simplified ears. Some tapers occasionally use dummy heads instead of their own head, but its not especially common. That makes it a generally more universal recording method which works well for playback over both speakers and headphones and isn't overly specific to any one particular 'set of ears'. Its not strictly binaural because it does not include the filtering imposed by the outer ear that happens with microphones placed at or inside the ear canals, but it is similar. That method is generally referred to as HRTF around, which stands for Head Related Transfer Function with one's the head acting as a baffle. Most concert tapers using omnidirectional mics mounted on their person place them on either side of the head somewhere on the temple between the ear and corner of the eye.

Binaural audio clips