VNoPhones PlugIn for Cubase VST

Click on the image to download VNoPhones.
Current release: 1
If you want updates, join our VST
plugins mailing list.
Parameters:
Binaural Cross Over: (0 - 100%) Degree to which the signal from the
contralateral ear crosses over to the ipsilateral ear.
Binaural Delay: (0 - 11.6ms) Delay time of the contralateral signal
to the ipsilateral ear.
VNoPhones is supposed to counter-act the absolute stereo you get with
headphones. (why-o-why I hear you ask...) When we hear stuff under normal
enviromental conditions, sounds from any location in our auditory field
reach both ears, the contralateral (opposite side) ear receiving a somewhat
attenuated and phase-shifted version of the signal that the ipsilateral
ear receives (There is also the head-related transfer function, the wierd
spectrum adjustment due to lumpy body bits resonating, cancelling and bending
various frequencies in various ways, but whoah-ho-ho, we'll just leave that
for the moment...!)
ANYWAY, this plugin is just a quick-n-dirty experiment that allows you
to change the amount of contralateral channel crossover and delay, so that
you can let all those neurons that have been trained to spatialise and locate
sound sources do a little of their thing. This is NOT aimed at being a particularly
useful effect, it's just a basic realisation of some of the auditory stuff
I'm researching. It will also only work in the master effects section, since
it requires a stereo input.
Best results are with a VERY stereo sound (not just a mono run through
the world's best choruser/stereo expander - phasing effects will result).
I also preprocess any sound examples with a bit of a reverb (another 'natural'
consequence of listening without headphones). You may not hear anything
different without headphones either, since using speakers will allow the
sort of natural signal cross-over we are trying to emulate in the PlugIn.
The programs in the plugin are NOT meant to reflect real-room numbers
either. They may be in the ball park, but that's it... mind you, the "BIG
HEAD" setting is just what it says - the delay time means the head
must be in the region of a metre wide.
Useful numbers: A human head takes a couple milliseconds to travel around
if you're a sound wave.
A TUTORIAL:
As a first step, try setting the delay to zero, and then increase the amount
of cross over to about thirty percent. The sounds will appear to be more
centrally located in your auditory field (big surprise, since all you're
doing is changing the pan settings really.) Now slowly add a few millseconds
of delay - you should hear the sounds move 'outwards' again, thanks to circuits
in your brainstem designed to detect inter-aural delay and translate it
into a location in the horizontal plane of your auditory spacemap.
Author: SKoT
|