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By Rishi
#9309
You are perhaps right. It sometimes also happens that the idea is too far ahead of its time and its worthis not recognised.

Coming to the technical side, All behind the ear hearing aids have the sound output behind the ear with a transparent (nearly invisible) silicone rubber tube delivering the sound to the earbud. we can easily configure a behind the ear receiving station where both the laft and right signals are delivered through individual speakers and conveyed to the ear through two tubes arriving at the ear at a single earbud.

rishi
By knight_tour
#9311
I didn't figure it would be difficult in any way to actually produce these. I just know it takes cash, and in my career level right now I don't yet have it! If I did, I would actually try to do this myself. I don't think producing the product will do much, though, without good, targeted advertising.
By bmoeskau
#9327
I am neither deaf nor an audio engineer. However, I just wanted to throw in my two cents about why I think simply converting to mono (or "fixing" said conversion process) would not be the same as truly delivering two separate channels, even to one ear. Hearing does not work quite the same as seeing -- yes, two eyes provide stereo vision, but that's all there is to it. With hearing, it's the combination not only the number of ears, but also the number and placement of audio sources, that affect the quality and "stereo-ness" of the sound. Even with one good ear, listening to the exact same audio data coming from two different speakers would sound different from (and better than) mono because the sound from each speaker takes slightly different amounts of time to reach the ear. If you turn your head, those distances change ever so slightly, and even with one good ear, your brain can distinguish that there is a stereo sound source and process it as such. One ear or two, stereo will sound better than mono, surround sound will sound better than stereo, etc.

Now, delivering two channels to a single ear via an ear bud, where both channels would arrive in such close proximity to each other would change the equation and the effect would undoubtedly be more subtle than with two true stereo speakers, but I have no doubt that there would still be a huge difference in quality. You'd be amazed at just how sensitive the human brain can be.
By creativecomponent
#9335
I don't want to be condescending, but I know audio recording very well. Sounds like you have phase problems.

Stereo spacialization exists because of the separation between two channels.

On an audio mixer, if you have a tone on the left and a tone on the right, and pan them both to hard left, you are making a mono mix. There are anomalies that exist in the form of phasing, that will effect the sound, but by putting both sounds on the left, you have removed the stereo separation between the two channels.

The way audio engineers measure this separation is my using a pair of monitors, with enough space between them to "matter" for the mix. These monitors are never moved, and the engineer learns the sweet spot in his studio. Not all studios are the same, but there are very common practices, where a standard near-field monitor rig is pretty much a standard. Mastering engineers know best how to deal with specialization. When the mix leaves the typical recording studio, a mastering engineer is the next typical step in radio-friendly commercial music. This engineer adjusts all aspects of the audio, including EQ and spacialization.

If you go back to the pair of monitors and stick them side-by-side, there is still separation, but only about 8" at this point. Very minimal, in other words. Now take these two speakers and shrink them down to the size of an earbud, and you have no separation between the speakers.

The human head has a TON to do with this concept. The mass of your head serves as a null spot between your ears. I won't go into it, but research binaural recording. VERY cool concpts there.

Now I go back to the point on PHASE CANCELLATION. I think THIS is where your problem lies. It's the doubling of two identical signals.

If you could look at a sine wave of a tone, you would see peaks and valleys, displaying the electrical current. When the identical waves overlap, they cancel each other out. [when one tone is at a peak +1, and the other is at a valley -1, then the sum = 0]

In the earlier example of slamming two tones to the left channel, if they are the same tone, they will likely cancel each other out, and sound muffled -- almost non-existent.

The same will happen with modern pop music. If you slam a stereo drum kit into mono, it will kill it. You're going to have phase problems all over the place, and it will sound weird ~ quieter.

There is software you can get to play with your own mix. I would STRONGLY suggest Sony Sound Forge. It's like $70 for the basic version. You can export to anything under the sun. SoundForge is for mastering and editing your two-track recordings. [podcasters should take note too]

Audacity is free, but the sonic quality & features of SF are worth it.

Play with flipping the phase and DC offset settings prior to converting to mono. Once you find your mono sweet spot, you can save all of your settings and create a batch command for your library.

I have found much better results by converting to mono using SF than any other consumer software.

By the way: a good audio engineer back at the studio when recording the band, will rely on the MONO switch on the recording console. I do it all the time. I actually have a single mono speaker for this very test. If things sound squashed, you tweak & go back and forth to stereo & tweak & tweak & tweak. But alas, the art of real [reel as well] recording is dying.

Wow, I Rambled-on.
By swayne20
#11919
How come when you convert mono to stereo using soundforge there is no phase cancellation ?

thanks,

mark
By builder1
#13708
I think this is a good idea. The problem you will have is that (1) earbud would only allow (1) signal, which would be mono. You are actually looking for the "stereo" delay which only happens when there are two earbuds. You can only listen to stereo music if you are "centered" in the middle of the music, to overcome this, try making the music play in the "center". The head has nasal passages throughout the center and sides used for balance and directional sound detection. Try developing a "mouthpiece" that acts as a stereo speaker with the two stereo channels. I think you can fool your brain enough to enjoy stereo music again. I kind of know how you feel, I was born blind in one eye and when I was little I went to see Jaws when it was 3-d. I put on the special glasses and because I was blind, I just saw a plain old regular movie.
By floodx
#14508
Single stereo earbuds already exist. See scansound.com Just rewired to send left and right channel to one ear.
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