Questions for "stereo"-hearing people

[DMGnome]

I've never really thought about binaural hearing, but when I do I realize precisely how much it bothers me when only one headphone works. On school computers, one of the first things I do if I plug in headphones is make sure that the outputs are balanced.

There are a few songs I like that use panning--Sublime's "What I Got" has an interesting back and forth thing with the voice, and I'm sure there are other examples I'm not remembering now. My absolute favorite use of panning is in the opening of Homestuck's Swing of the Clock (http://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/swing-of-the-clock, although it's a little hard to tell in the low-quality version).

[Totz the Plaid]

Do you find it strange, uncomfortable, or unnatural listening to monaural audio through stereo equipment?

As long as it's mixed well: no.

Does music with a lot of panning (moving of instruments and sounds between the left and right sides) bother you? What if the volume shifts between the left and right sides or is unbalanced?

Depends on how it's done. Some tracks like Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Mr. Self Destruct" by Nine Inch Nails really make it work fantastically. Then again, I've heard some shitty mixes that just sound imbalanced. Especially on headphones having a light sound in one ear and a heavy one in the other for any real length of time makes it feel wrong. If it shifts for intended effect like in those songs, then it can really work.

How accurately are you able to judge direction and distance to a sound source?

Use of speakers can make this difficult, but if it's not artificially amplified, it's pretty easy.

Given that trilateration requires three "receivers" to pinpoint a location in a 2D plane, and having two ears allows for two points of intersection in front of and behind you, do you ever have trouble determining the direction of a sound (front or back) if you don't turn your head?

Depends, but not usually. Echoes and amplification can cause problems, but it's generally quite easy.

Are you able to determine the height that a sound came from as well? Is height also potentially ambiguous?

I've not had enough experience with this to judge.

Whenever you cover one ear, does it feel like you've lost your sense of depth comparable to closing one eye?

This has never been a problem for me. Then again, I've got surprisingly decent depth perception with only one eye open so I might just be weird that way.

[Totz the Plaid]

there are times when I've gone nuts trying to locate something thats beeping SOMEWHERE in the room, but I have no idea where because the sound is just the right frequency to confuse me.

This too.

Stereo isn't necessarily all that amazing though. A lot of older mixes sound better in mono.

Agreed. I listen to quite a wide variety of music, and while I can't imagine listening to stuff done by people like Nine Inch Nails or Radiohead in mono, I've heard some early Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, etc. stuff mixed into stereo and a lot of it sounds 'thin' or empty while it sounds nice and full in its original mono.

There's also a track that I remembered after typing my other post, it was recorded by a now defunct local band that I'm friends with 2/3 of and toward the end it briefly drops out of a full stereo mix into a mono section recorded at a distance from a seperate microphone and then comes back into stereo creating a really neat "isolating" effect. I'm not sure if that would work so well if the whole thing were downmixed into mono or if the one section had been done in full stereo. The two are really best for different things. I know you guys don't know what I'm talking about with this song, but I'll see if I can get permission to upload it and share it for the purpose of discussion.

[Roy-Kr]

Do you find it strange, uncomfortable, or unnatural listening to monaural audio through stereo equipment?

I dunno about mono files that have been mixed to sound good on stereo equipment, but i know that simply changing the setting on a audio player to mono makes it sound very flat.

Does music with a lot of panning (moving of instruments and sounds between the left and right sides) bother you? What if the volume shifts between the left and right sides or is unbalanced?

It's bad if it's overdone, but most songs (that i listen to) don't use noticeable panning.

How accurately are you able to judge direction and distance to a sound source?

Much better than if i cover one ear, that's for sure.
Best explanation i can give is that it's the same as with sight; Once i've heard it, i know where and what it is.

Given that trilateration requires three "receivers" to pinpoint a location in a 2D plane, and having two ears allows for two points of intersection in front of and behind you, do you ever have trouble determining the direction of a sound (front or back) if you don't turn your head? (I'll prepare a diagram if this point is too confusing)

Only specific frequencies are hard to determine the direction of. If i really can't find the source of some annoying sound then i tend to walk around and turn my head a lot.

Are you able to determine the height that a sound came from as well?

in general, yes.

Whenever you cover one ear, does it feel like you've lost your sense of depth comparable to closing one eye?

I'd say i lose more depth from covering one ear compared to closing an eye.

[Dollywitch]

Generally low frequencies are very difficult to trace, that's why you generally get 2-4 speakers and a subwoofer, rather than each speaker being a tweeter/woofer combo(though some are like this too).

[OtakuMegane]

Do you find it strange, uncomfortable, or unnatural listening to monaural audio through stereo equipment?

Not really unless it's something complex that purposely makes use of the different channels. Most stuff I encounter is pretty balanced so it's mostly the same thing coming out each side anyway.

Does music with a lot of panning (moving of instruments and sounds between the left and right sides) bother you? What if the volume shifts between the left and right sides or is unbalanced?

Panning is a bit odd sometimes. Unbalanced or volume shifts can drive me nuts though.

How accurately are you able to judge direction and distance to a sound source?

It depends on frequency, volume and even just which way I'm facing. Some things I can track almost perfectly. Others I never succeed. Very low frequencies and very high ones can be nearly impossible to track for most people.

Given that trilateration requires three "receivers" to pinpoint a location in a 2D plane, and having two ears allows for two points of intersection in front of and behind you, do you ever have trouble determining the direction of a sound (front or back) if you don't turn your head? (I'll prepare a diagram if this point is too confusing)

Are you able to determine the height that a sound came from as well? Is height also potentially ambiguous?

Same as above, it just depends. Height is more difficult to judge, but sometimes.

Whenever you cover one ear, does it feel like you've lost your sense of depth comparable to closing one eye?

Not unless I'm actually paying attention to the fact. Some sound goes through your hand anyway and the other ear seems to compensate fairly well.

[Dollywitch]

Do people with hearing in one ear feel discomfort with headphones, or with loud sounds in general? I know I can't stand having sound in only one ear. My old flatmate was like that, but I never enquired much. I don't think his hearing was totally gone though, but more or less.

[Caesius]

Do people with hearing in one ear feel discomfort with headphones, or with loud sounds in general?

I'm comfortable with headphones, it just annoys me when I'm not downmixing to mono and I'm listening to music that has some parts "missing"/fading in and out because of panning. It's also annoying when I'm playing a game that doesn't have a very realistic "depth" of sound -- the first Half Life comes to mind, as well as CS 1.6. There is no reason that I should not be able to hear loud explosions or gunfire in an otherwise silent environment just because it's coming from my deaf side.

I also don't think I'm any more uncomfortable with loudness than the average person. I mean obviously I'm going to feel discomfort if I put on my headphones and they're at some ridiculous volume level. However, strangely enough, my left ear can still feel pain from excessive loudness. I think I've mentioned before that my headphones are shitty and broken so the volume oscillates randomly and drastically between the two headphones as I adjust the volume, and sometimes I'd inadvertently adjust it so that it'd blasting into my left ear and I wouldn't notice for a few minutes, then I'd start to feel pain in my left ear and I'd be like "uh crap."

[Dollywitch]

Do people with hearing in one ear feel discomfort with headphones, or with loud sounds in general?

I'm comfortable with headphones, it just annoys me when I'm not downmixing to mono and I'm listening to music that has some parts "missing"/fading in and out because of panning. It's also annoying when I'm playing a game that doesn't have a very realistic "depth" of sound -- the first Half Life comes to mind, as well as CS 1.6. There is no reason that I should not be able to hear loud explosions or gunfire in an otherwise silent environment just because it's coming from my deaf side.

I also don't think I'm any more uncomfortable with loudness than the average person. I mean obviously I'm going to feel discomfort if I put on my headphones and they're at some ridiculous volume level. However, strangely enough, my left ear can still feel pain from excessive loudness. I think I've mentioned before that my headphones are shitty and broken so the volume oscillates randomly and drastically between the two headphones as I adjust the volume, and sometimes I'd inadvertently adjust it so that it'd blasting into my left ear and I wouldn't notice for a few minutes, then I'd start to feel pain in my left ear and I'd be like "uh crap."

I was listening to some older music like the Doors that was poorly mixed for Stereo, so I Rockbox'd my mp3 player. With Rockbox you can turn on Crossfeed which makes it sound more like you're in a room with speakers, though it still relies on your other ear, so you'd want to go to the Stereo Width option and turn it all the way down. Since your ear isn't likely to get better in the near future, you may as well try batch converting your mp3 collection too.

[Caesius]

Since your ear isn't likely to get better in the near future

Haha nope.

you may as well try batch converting your mp3 collection too.

I convert any music that I'm going to listen to on my mp3 player to mono, and I use foobar's built-in downmixing DSP when listening on my computer. Permanently downmixing my entire collection would be a no-no I think.


Edit: Holy shit this thread is almost two years old. Wow.

[Dollywitch]

Rockbox your mp3 player then, and turn Stereo Width down to 0.

[Caesius]

My mp3 player doesn't support Rockbox. In any case it's a 4GB model so downmixing to mono effectively doubles the available space.

[Bringerof_D]

due to the fact that the ear is not the same as a microphone, being able to tell front from back is not that hard. i have no idea how it works but under almost any circumstance unless i'm dealing with echoes and the like, i can tell which way i'm being called from.

[PasterOfMuppets]

Don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet...
But the new ipods have a "mono" option.

I use this when im listening with only one of the phones in ear, because i too find it annoying when something seems missing in the music.
Otherwise I switch to stereo when both my buds are in. It gives it more of that "full" experience.

[Dollywitch]

Actually, it should be possible to get a stereo/mono adapter. You just run the two signals into one. Not sure exactly what it'd be called, but google around. They're probably very easy to build too.