binaural microphone question

There was a great article in TapeOp magazine several issues ago that dealt with building a binaural "head mic". They used a manequin head for that model to try and keep some of the natural facial features in for sonic influence. If you don't have a proper mic pre, what is it you are plugging into? ($50 for a mic pre is amazingly cheap--the ones in my studio run between $1000 and 3500 (just sayin'). Circuit City and Best Buy are NOT places to ask about anything to do with microphones, this much I can wholehartedly assure you (I say this both as a studio engineer and a former Worst Buy employee).

What is the purpose of your binaural mics? Are you using omnidirectional mics? The first poster is correct--you will need two seperate tracks and you will need am audio mixer to "mix down" the two monaural tracks to a stereo bus. Depending on what sort of mics you are using, a consumer level audio card may not be appropriate in terms of operating voltage, gain, or busing.

This sound card is awesome though, so I would prefer to not need a new one. I'll just have to look around for a nice cheap stereo preamp I guess :) As I dont always plan to be sitting at my PC when im recording sounds :)

I'm not real sure about this, but if you talk to the guys at Best Buy or Circuit City computer service counter (or maybe one of the guitar/pro sound shops), they probably can recommend a new sound card for your computer that has multiple mic inputs.

I do know they make battery powered inline preamps, but I can't say if that would be more cost-effective than a new sound card.

Thanks for the reply :) Ive gotten the mics now connected to a stereo jack but I now have another problem. I need to record into the Line-In jack on my computer since the Mic port is only mono, this presents a big problem. The mics only produce a few Milivolts of power and about 1+ volts is needed for the line-in jack to "hear" anything at all. I was looking at portable pre-amps and most are rather expensive ($50+usd with a few in the $30usd range). Is there a way, via software on my computer, to boost the signal that the Line-In jack hears? Im using an Audigy 2 sound card :)

Thanks again!

You don't want to combine them. You want to record them onto two separate channels/tracks because your left and right ears hear different things -- unless of course your head is completely transparent to sound ;~))

Customarily, the artificial "head" in binaural recording was made of a 1/2" thick steel disk-shaped plate the size of a front-to-back cross-section of a human head. With the mics placed on either side.

Binaural recordings are (IMO) best heard through headphones.