Binaural sound samples - seeking for realism (Patreon)

I uploaded some recordings I did recently applying my latest compensation. These recordings should sound most realisic with my latest EQs, I need to rework the HD800S a bit more, as it still sounds artificial and not as lifelike as the HD58X EQ I posted before.

Before I have never achieved the same realism I managed now. With my old recordings and old headphone EQs there was always something fake to the sound, especially hearable with complex spectrums like demonstrated here, also recorded sea shore did never sound 100% correct to me. I will try to do some sea recordings with my new microphones once I have the opportunity. Right now I am partly correcting my recordings for my left and right ear separately. For 100% realism I should probably also equalize the headphone for left and right side which I may try once I have a model which I think could be worth it.

The frontally incident sound at ear height should be captured pretty neutrally just with some different tilt compared to flat in order to achieve exactly the same perceived spectrum you would also get when listening to the real thing. Interestingly a captured frontal spectrum (like 2 speakers in a perfect stereo triangle) don't sound correct if the binaurally captured spectrum is flattened to the same response like measured with a traditional measuring microphone, I cannot quite explain why, but to achieve that the headphone produces a comparable spectrum to neutral speakers and the captured speaker spectrum played back over the matched headphone to sound about the same I had to alter my recordings in such a way to perceive them exactly the same way I am also perceiving this spectrum in real life.

Aside of frontal direction all other angles and directions are distorted according to my personal HRTFs which may or may not correspond to yours, but for me they allow precise localization to know exactly where the sound comes from. Therefore I would be interested in getting your feedback. I welcome any comment about your impressions. Please keep in mind that even with my older EQ versions for the HD58X these samples sound fake to me. My IEM target I created a while back is also off and would need to be reworked.

The more feedback I get the better I can estimate how others perceive these samples and how much realism I can achieve. Therefore I provide different recordings with either 360° sound, or limited to the front only like the windows-sample, where the window is basically the boundary of what hits my ear, in this case the sound you get should be limited to about 160° to the sides.

All samples are WAVs with 48khz/16bit:

open window: just some storm and rain outside with me standing directly at the window, thus you only hear sound from front. There is lots of change in this sample with more rain or more wind, thus check it out to the very end.

rain at the window: just some calm rain with me standing at the window (looped to 1 minute)

wind+rain+traffic: standing at the deck still below the roof. wind hitting my ear from the side (thus the microphones directly) is not captured properly but I had to remove all wind protection because this compromised sound too much and made the results a bit unpredictable.

wind-above: I am standing below a tree, you should hear the leaves rustle mostly above your head with the wind hitting me exactly from front, this way the air hitting my ear should still sound pretty realistic even without the need of any additional protection.

wind-outside-behind: I am sitting at the sofa with the door behind being open, you can hear the wind and wind chimes outside together with some traffic passing by, then our dog comes back from the garden, walks around the sofa and jumps up right beside me after my wife invites her. In this sample I can precisely track the dog when I close my eyes and nearly feel her when she sits down right to me and I can hear the wind behind just as if the door was open in real life.

wind-garden: I am in the garden with the garden shed behind me to be better protected against wind, so there is no much sound coming from directly behind me. You should be able to hear the position of the planes above me precisely together with the wind blowing through all the trees and shrubs in front of me.

rain-pipe: standing at our entrance directly below the rain pipe, you should hear the rain drops hitting the pipe above your head.

inside rain: standing in middle of some rain, you should also hear the raindrops hitting my ears.

foil: just some plastic foil I moved around my head. I wonder how well the positioning works for you and if you can hear when I put it behind my ears and back to the front.