What is Binaural 3D Audio?

The Future of Audio. Binaural or Binaural 3D audio is audio captured identically to the way we hear the world. When audio is captured with a binaural microphone like the Neumann KU100, it is capturing the exact location of every sound source and where it is in relation to the recordist upon capture.Binaural sound is not to be confused with conventional stereo sound.

Stereo audio allows for localization to the left and right upon playback. With binaural, a listener can localize sound sources in front of them, behind them, above and below.

Stereo does not factor in the natural ear spacing or “head shadow” of the head and ears. These things happen naturally as a person listens, generating their own ITDs (Interaural Time Differences) and ILDs (Interaural Level Differences). Stereo recording is not capable of capturing these ITDs and ILDs.