Watching Falcon Heavy launch into space was awesome. Buy you know what’s even better? Actually hearing what it was like to be at the launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Smarter Every Day, a science-oriented YouTube channel, posted its Falcon Heavy footage with the unique twist of using binaural audio. By using headphones, you can listen to the roar of the rocket’s launch and landing – not to mention the accompanying sonic booms – and feel as if you’re really there. Closing your eyes helps.
For those not familiar, binaural audio is a method of recording 3D sound using microphones embedded in a person’s (or dummy head’s) ears. This allows sound to be modified as it travels through your head and earlobes; your brain processes the different sound waves arriving in each ear to create eerily accurate directional cues.
It’s about as accurate as positional audio gets. However, it has the caveat of only working with headphones (with a very rare exceptions). It also might not work if your head is very different from the reference model, but for most people the effect should be pretty convincing.
You can check out the video below, or watch more footage with binaural audio at one of Smart Every Day’s other channels, The Sound Traveler.
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