Pirates of the Caribbean
The Binaural Recording

Download Pirates MP3 recording (15 MB)

Click to go to Winamp home page

Link to Haunted Mansion Binaural Recording Page


So what's this all about?

On my birthday visit to Disneyland (July 7, 1998) I took a DAT recorder and a pair of binaural microphones and made some full-ride recordings of The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean, and Indiana Jones. Since these files are pretty big (over 150MB for the uncompressed Pirates recording), I've squished them down to MP3 format. This Pirates recording was made with a family of kids sitting behind me, so you'll notice a lot of little voices narrating where we are, which at first kinda bugged me, but then I realized it's sort of like an audio tour of the ride. The MP3 format sounds almost as good as the uncompressed recording, but it's 10% of the size. Still, this makes for a 15MB download, so unless you're on a high-speed line, it'll still take a while to download.

To listen to it, play it with the Winamp program (or any other MP3 player, like Microsoft's Media Player), available from the above link. Preferably, you should listen to it on headphones, for the best stereo recreation from the way it was recorded. Crank up the sound pretty loud until it sounds "realistic", then sit back and enjoy the ride. If you close your eyes, it's pretty easy to feel like you're back in the Bayou.
 
 
 

Binaural Recording

The binaural mics are two condenser mics I bought from Core Sound, which I attached to the left and right side of the headphones I was wearing (yes, I was in full geek mode this day), sticking out away from my ears. They in turn capture  the sound I heard in my ears, at approximately the same location and with the same reference echoes and obstructions (like my head, body, walls around me) that I heard with my own ears when making the recording. The result (especially on headphones), is a you-are-there realism in sound recording that makes it easy to picture yourself back in a boat once again.

Questions? Comments? Email me at sleekgeek@geocities.com