Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Binaural sound

Hi, just a quick question if anyone knows the answer. Is the binaural sound (on recent Yamaha digital pianos) only available on Yamaha? If not, I think this makes other brands of digital pianos inferior, IF most of the time you are using headphones to play. I don’t think the normal sound using headphones comes anything close to the binaural sampling.

I would like to hear an audio comparative between the same piece played with and without binaural samples on the same Yamaha DP before saying that it's superior.
Kawai uses their SHS technology to make their samples sound more natural with headphones but I prefer to hear the original samples without that artificial 'surround' effect which, in my opinion, blurs the sound too much between left and right channel.
Binaural samples, in theory, should be better sounding for the player, but sometimes theory and practice differ...

Most of what you read in product specs is pure marketing. At least that's what it was when I worked in consumer electronics...

Binaural recordings are based on science: physics and mathematics. It is not marketing. Of course marketing can be used to sell it as something it's not. But anyone can read links like the one I just gave for the science behind binaural recordings.

Dexibell uses "holophonic" samples which is a sort of binaural audio.

Supposedly.

I don't really know more than that

And then of course Pianoteq is an easy way to compare stereo and binaural. (In addition to a Clavinova)

One of the piano sample sets you can load into the Nords is binaural. I think that's the only other keyboard manufacturer that does this.

Roland have something on their pianos that balances the sound better in headphones than their previous models. I think they started that with the HP6XX series, or perhaps the 508. Anyway I think they don't call it binaural because of Yamaha.

"Binaural" isn't a Yamaha trademark. It's been around for decades (the word and the science). Kind of like "stereo".

Garritan CFX has binaural samples to, though I don't really think those are fundamentally better than the classic mic arrangement.

Binaural is recorded with an acoustics head and mics into the ears.
As you do yourself when you hear anything.

I have it on my 645, it's interesting but definitely not a game changer, IMO.

Of course you are correct.

What I meant to say is Yamaha might call it binaural sampling, others have super-duper-rendering, coupled with high-energy simulation plus amazing modeling. In the end the quality makers of DPs all have technology to make their products sound great. Some of them are better, some are worse. And then there is personal preferences.

Technology is complicated, and that's where the marketing comes into play to create a message with buzzwords that the average consumer can digest.

Thus my take on all of this: don't go with buzzwords praising the superiority of a product over others. Test yourself and buy what you like best.

And that's all I have to say about that

Well, Pianoteq creates both the piano sound and the binaural effect with algorithms, so the result could be different (not necessarily better or worse) compared with Yamaha binaural samples.
Anyway, what I hear when binaural output is activated in Pianoteq is a more 'central' sound, with frequencies more evenly distributed between left and right channel. Without binaural, I feel more stereo separation. I don't know which is better... It's just... different! Probably 'binaural' is more similar to what a pianist hears, 'no binaural' is more similar to a good piano recording. Of course, all of this matters just with headphones... The SHS effect on my Kawai DP does more or less a similar thing and you feel less stereo separation, but then the sound is more blurred, where in Pianoteq I feel it remains very clear even in binaural mode.
So, on my DP I prefer to play without SHS.

Heh, I kind of forgot that Pianoteq is "fake".

Definitely not recorded with a dummy head as it's not recorded at all. 🙃

I've never found binaural to be worth the fuss. And with pianos ... I wonder whether it's just another distraction, meant to deflect attention from the still-not-so-stellar sound?

Mac^3, when are you going to be able to try out the N1X? Last time you were planning to, a trip got cancelled and then you forgot later. Aren't there any Yamaha dealers in Raleigh?

Yeah, IMHO they could use that extra storage memory to put more velocity layers or longer samples in it, instead of binaural samples that probably don't make such a big difference in perceived quality...

There is some marketing voodoo around all audio. I've heard a lot of "meh" binaural recordings but found the "barbershop" demo to be awesome.

- CyberGene and a few others really like Yamaha's binaural piano sounds.

- There are varying opinions around Garritan CFX's binaural perspective. Disagreement if the L & R channels are swapped so that throws a wrench in the whole thing IMHO
http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2877942/garritan-cfx-swapped-stereo-image.html

- PianoTeq has a neat binaural audio implementation with some adjustability. I found increasing the head size to improve sound for me. You can try the free demo to see for yourself.

I turned the binaural off my CFX (P515) and it sounds better. The binaural in Pianoteq I never use; the stereo isn't as pronounced or pleasant as that on the P 515 either.
Whichever piano you select, the stereo sounds different anyway, so you're not stuck on the same old same old . . . .

I rarely used the binaural feature on my Yamaha DPs. I found it way to artificial.

Tried really hard to bring myself to like the binaural samples from both the Clavinova and Garritan CFX. Just couldn't.