Recommended albums for headphone listening

[istari_knight]

Recently purchased some Sony MDR-7506 "studio" headphones which have been a real revelation, headphones are certinaly better value for money than speakers!

Anyway, I stumbled across a recording called "vitual barber shop" or something like that whereby using a recording technique called binaural it can fool your ears/brain into believing you are there.

If you havent heard of it more information can be found here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

Amazed at how real it sounded I started looking for actual music recorded using this trickery & It tuns out there is quite a bit...

http://archive.org/details/cj2009-10-05.ku100_at37
http://archive.org/search.php?query=binaural%20AND%20collection%3Aetr ee
http://www.allmusic.com/album/r1389182

Well worth a listen IMO.

Interested if you can suggest any other binaural recordings or just any music that sound great on headphones :)

[Beechwoods]

Roger Waters' "Pros And Cons Of Hitchiking' has affects recorded using a technique called Holophonics which uses a binaural affect to create a 3D sound. Pink Floyd's Final Cut is similar.

I have an album by Japanese minimalist electronic artist Ryoji Ikeda called Matrix For Headphones, it's on Spotify I think. Very minimalist and avant garde, but it uses phase and timing to do weird stuff when listened to on headphones.

Edit... It's not Matrix that's on Spotify the album it's his debut, " +/- ". The first disc is called "Headphonics".

[Pete The Cat]

I remember the late Tommy Vance recommending Hawkwind's "Levitation" as a great headphone album back in 1980-ish. It was one of the first to use digital recording technology and featured Ginger Baker on drums. I was impressed at the time...must dig it out again...

Pete

[Mr Kipling]

QSound was a technique of encoding two channel sound so that it could be replayed on a normal stereo to give an enhanced sound field and was said to work well on headphones. Rodger Walter's "Amused To Death", Madonna's "Immaculate Collection" and Sting's "The Soul Cages" were recorded in QSound. Google top 10 headphone albums. You'll find Yes "Tales From Topographical Oceans", Genisis "A Trick of The Tail" and Neil Young "On The Beach".

Kind Regards,
Stephen

[Mr Kipling]

Forgot to mention QSound is widely in use today in computors, mobiles and gaming. Think you can get a download for audio files. And it can enhance mono and not just stereo Oh, if you like soundtracks John Barry's "Themeology" sounds good on headphones as does Roy Budd's "Get Carter". Bryan Adams' "On A Day Like Today" The Black Eyed Peas' "Bridging The Gap" and Murry Attaway (who?) "In Thrall" were recorded in QSound. Just Google it.

Kind Regards,
Stephen

[Alex_UK]

The Orb feat. David Gilmour - Metallic Spheres, deluxe version - CD2 is Binaural.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Metallic-Spheres-Featuring-David-Gilmour/dp/B0042BU1MK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1336858300&sr=8-5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_Spheres

[Rare Bird]

Klaus Schulze 'Black Dance', 'Timewind' & 'Moondawn'..

[istari_knight]

Cool, thanks guys. Some good suggestions there I'll follow up on.

I own pros & cons & amused to death but never tried them on headphones... Until now! Ballad of bill hubbard is quality :)

[Haselsh1]

"What God wants, God gets"