VNoPhones is supposed to counter-act the absolute stereo you get with headphones. This plug-in is just a quick-n-dirty experiment that allows you to change the amount of contralateral channel crossover and delay, so that you can let all those neurons that have been trained to spatialise and locate sound sources do a little of their thing. This is not aimed at being a particularly useful effect, it's just a basic realisation of some of the auditory stuff the author is researching. It will also only work in the master effects section, since it requires a stereo input.

When we hear stuff under normal enviromental conditions, sounds from any location in our auditory field reach both ears, the contralateral (opposite side) ear receiving a somewhat attenuated and phase-shifted version of the signal that the ipsilateral ear receives. There is also the head-related transfer function, the wierd spectrum adjustment due to lumpy body bits resonating, cancelling and bending various frequencies in various ways, but the author has, for some crazy reason, left that out for the moment.

The best results are obtained with a "very stereo" sound that has possibly been preprocessed with a bit of reverb (another 'natural' consequence of listening without headphones). You may not hear anything different without headphones either, since using speakers will allow the sort of natural signal cross-over emulated by the plug-in.

You may want to check the Vellocet web site for new plug-ins, help or to join their VST plug-ins mailing list.

Features

• Binaural Cross Over - (0 - 100%) Degree to which the signal from the contralateral ear crosses over to the ipsilateral ear.
• Binaural Delay - (0 - 11.6ms) Delay time of the contralateral signal to the ipsilateral ear.

Requirements

• Windows 95/98/NT
• Software compatible with VST plug-ins
• Sound card (optional)

There is also a Mac version available from the Product Home Page.