6 ms·
Modern encoders (especially Opus) are indeed impressive at preserving the stereo image at high quality settings. If you are on a stable connection getting the f
by AphantaZach 8mo ago
Modern encoders (especially Opus) are indeed impressive at preserving the stereo image at high quality settings. If you are on a stable connection getting the full 192kbps+ stream, the phase error is likely negligible.
The issue is that we can't control the delivery.
Streaming platforms use adaptive bitrate. If a user's bandwidth dips on mobile, the player might switch to a lower tier where the model starts aggressively quantizing the Side channel (L-R) to
save space.
Since the binaural effect relies entirely on that Side channel difference, I wanted to remove the variable entirely.
By generating it client-side with the Web Audio API, we get mathematical certainty regardless of the user's connection speed.
- LarsAlereon 8mo agoI think if you pitched this as "binaural beats that always work regarding of network conditions" that would be better-received. I don't think there's much of a scenario where streaming services aren't able to consistently deliver high enough quality for 3D positional audio. If there were, ASMR artists would be pushing much harder for alternate platforms.
- AphantaZach 8mo agoYou make a great point. 'Determinism > Bandwidth' is definitely the stronger argument. The main difference with ASMR is that it uses multiple spatial cues (reverb, tone) which survive compression well. Entrainment is more fragile. For a cognitive tool, I wanted to engineer that risk out of the system entirely.