Examples of Holophonic Sound
Matchbox |||||| Sensual Voice |||||| Barbershop |||||| Blowdryer |||||| Bell

Holophonic™ is trademark of Hugo Zuccarelli

I first read about Hugo Zuccarelli and HolophonicsTM in The Brain/Mind Bulletin around 1982. Artists like Pink Floyd and Vangelis were incorporating the technology into their works. I recall wishing that I could get to know people like Hugo and, within a few years, I was spending time with him, discussing this and many other topics—he's a brilliant man with multiple innovations of thought and design. I remember attending a Sound Engineers' conference in Studio City—the kind of event where these tech-heads spent hours discussing the frequency of notches on volume knobs for maximum performance (not kidding). Later I sat around a table drinking coffee with these guys and brought up HolophonicsTM, one of them quickly said, "We don't go for all that black magic stuff". It was obvious then that this technology was different, that its effects were beyond even binaural technology and so I became even more intrigued with it.

We set up the HolophonicsTM Division at the Brain/Mind Institute and Hugo and I worked together to produce a series of tapes using the technology including; Shamanic Drumming, Tibetan Bowls and Ancient Gongs. All designed to offer listeners a 3D kinesthetic experience of these transcendental disciplines.

For me, the real transcendental experience was spending time with this Argentine/Italian as he eagerly demonstrated his many inventions (Holophonic Mics, Speakers and even a One-Man Helicopter) like a modern day da Vinci.
— Tom Ross 4/08

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[from wikipedia.org]

HolophonicsTM is a form of sound recording that employs a dummy head recording arrangement and is based on the hypothesis that the auditory system acts as an interferometer. As with binaural recordings, the sound characteristics are most clearly heard through headphones. HolophonicsTM should not be confused with holophonic recording (or holophony), which is a system of sound recording over the surface of a sphere.

[ "RINGO" The original Holophonic Recording Robot Head ]

History

HolophonicsTM rose to fame in 1983 with the release of a recording entitled Zuccarelli HolophonicsTM (The Matchbox Shaker) released in the UK by CBS which consisted entirely of short recordings of sound effects designed to show off the system. These included the shaking matchbox, haircut & blower, bees, balloon, plastic bag, birds, airplanes, fireworks, thunder, racing cars. This specific system was designed and promoted by Argentine Hugo Zuccarelli, though the technique of binaural recording has been around for over 100 years.

Zuccarelli posited that the human auditory system is a sound emitter, producing a reference sound that combines with incoming sound to form an interference pattern inside the ear. The nature of this pattern is sensitive to the direction of the incoming sound. According to the hypothesis, the cochlea detects and analyzes this pattern as if it were an acoustic hologram. The brain then interprets this data and infers the direction of the sound. This was printed in the magazine New Scientist, though it was followed by two letters casting doubt on Zuccarelli's theory and his scientific abilities.[1][2]

Like all binaural recording, HolophonicsTM reproduces the interaural differences (arrival time and amplitude between the ears), as well as rudimentary HRTF (head-related transfer functions). This causes the illusion that sounds produced in the membrane of a headphone emanate from specific directions.

The Zuccarelli Holophonic recording technique can validate the front - back localization capabilities of a binaural recording, where the listener can distinguish the sound of a matchbox behind their head from 2 sound sources. To produce digital holophonic binaural recordings, a mono source requires many HRTF channels combined.

The basilar membrane analyses many individual spectral components of a sonic environment, all processed in parallel by the brain

The digital process for generating holophonic sound can be computed from just a few lines of computer code.

Recordings released using HolophonicsTM

• Pink Floyd, "The Final Cut" Harvest/E.M.I,
• Roger Waters, "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking", Harvest
• Psychic TV, "Dreams Less Sweet"
• Pearl Jam, "Binaural" Epic/Sony EK63665 (2000).