Hi guys (and all the other)!

I've tried to hear room information in binaural headphone mixes for two years now. I've tried hundrets of binaural mixes on youtube & co., tried my own mixes (Nuendo, Wavelab, Fiedler, etc.), but never heard it working. It stays always stereo. Yes, i can hear that things changes in the mix, i.e. phase changes or less high frequencies. but i miss any room feeling. Is it just me? Mixes in 7.1.4 in my studio work fine. And yes, i had my hearing capabillities checked. Perfectly normal. Any ideas?

 

What do you expect to work?

A binaural mix does not imitate a complete room with all it's acoustical components. It just changes your ability of localizing sound. A signal that is around 50-60% panned in one direction is heard like 99% panned in this direction on earphones, while with binaural manipulation it is heard like 50-60% panned.

You gotta check the localization aspects.

 

Hello @Teccno!

Immersive Remix – How does stereo become 3D?
https://hofa--college-de.translate....l=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Source/German: Immersive Remix – Wie wird aus Stereo 3D?
https://hofa-college.de/blog/immersive-remix-wie-wird-aus-stereo-3d/

Dolby Atmos - Understanding Binaural Mixing

https://www.production-expert.com/production-expert-1/dolby-atmos-understanding-binaural-mixing

 

Last edited: Feb 13, 2026 at 12:40 PM

yes please, let´s first finish the question. ;)

 

I expect that to happen with my binaural headphone mix, following its definition:

And in my head the sound appears, but not above, below or behind me. Again, my physical 7.1.4 setup works acoustically perfect for me.

 

still difficult to grasp what exactly you mean, as well as what you do.

but yes, it sounds of course different than your speakers in a room.

first of all, rendering 7.1 directly to binaural is somewhat unideal (unless your panning is atmos based and you render that panning already), it works better with discrete formats.

a prologic 7.1 sum basically only has two channels, left and right, the rest is done by amplitudes and phase inversion.

one things you could try is to move the center a little bit out of the perfect center or eventually even let the center move a bit around. simply because that is what happens when listing to speakers, too.

another thing to try is to add some room reflections to the individual tracks/positions. same reasoning: because that is what you real room also does.

i wonder if you could give us a little example sample where you think the effect is dull or nonpresent and then we will see what others hear or not.

 

I know what you feel ...
If it worked so easily, everything would be transferred in stereo field only.

Too many variables for a "one size fits all" : head dimensions, ears profile, different headphones ... at the end, it is just an average spatial enhancer.
HRTF and such.
I don't even speak trying to apply binaural mix in a real room ... impossible.
Binaural is just an average solution.

Multi drivers headphones works better. Not without problems anyway.

Some ppl pretend "generic HRTF" in soundblaster soundcard driver is working "right".
At least, you can set it the way you like.