Have you heard ofHyperradio?

Since 2017, the Maison de la Radio website has been home to a digital laboratory designed to introduce the general public to the immense capabilities of binaural sound, a technique that restores the natural hearing of sound, in three dimensions. The name? hyperradio.radiofrance.fr

The rustle of leaves and birdsong above our heads, the creak of branches under our feet on a walk in the woods, a car coming up behind us, a dog barking on the side: we hear in three dimensions because our auditory system localizes and analyzes sound sources. And it's not just our ears that are involved, but also all the asperities of our skull: chin, cheekbones, forehead, nose, eyes... Sound information is transmitted to the brain to situate the sound in space, as finely as possible.

Beyond stereo, 3-dimensional sound

Traditionally, recordings are made in stereophony. The sound space thus recreated is located between two speakers. The stereo system cannot reproduce the finesse of sound perception by the human ear. Since the 1990s, however, institutions and engineers have been developing new sound recording and post-production techniques that can reproduce a three-dimensional sound space, comparable to natural listening: this technique is called binaural or "3D sound", and Radio France has made it a real specialty. At the cutting edge of research in this field, the Maison Ronde's digital department is experimenting with new sound formats in its studios. What the general public doesn't know is that the results of this research are available on the Hyperradio website: concerts, documentaries and sound journeys designed to be listened to at 360 degrees... with headphones! 

From binaural listening to immersive concerts

These new modes of listening, which are very open to creation, are very popular with composers and students of composition, jazz and improvised music at conservatoires supérieurs de musique, such as the CNSMD in Paris. They also offer the listener a totally immersive way of listening to musical works. The concert thus becomes a completely physical experience. Indeed, the extraordinary thing about this technique is the immersion it creates, opening up an immense field of possibilities for its use. 

On air!

Equivalent to "on the air" in radio language, "On air" is the latest creation by Basile Chassaing, a young composer and winner of theAcadémie Voix Nouvelles at Royaumont in 2019, performed by the ensemble 2e2m, with whom he has forged strong links around several creations. "On air" features a quintet of spatialized brass instruments scattered across the Radio France studio stage.

Suzanne Gervais