Meet Yul.
Once upon a time he had a body and enjoyed a brief movie career. He was in 2006's Casino Royal and in 2007's Margate Exodus where he was dismantled and used as props. His head was recovered at the end of the shoot by myself and a friend and it is only now six years on, that he has found purpose again.
If I had £5000 lying around I'd consider buying the Nuemann KU100 Dummy Head for realistic binaural stereo recording. This method of recording essentially captures the sound of an environment, say for example a woodland somewhere. When played back through headphones it's as if you were there in the woods experiencing it for yourself. Alas I don't have such funds so I decided to create my own on a budget using Yul here.
The first order of business was to repair his ear that was close to falling off. I then had to drill through his ear canals and hollow him out enough for me to be able to reach in and secure the microphones at my leisure and still be able to attach him to a mic stand.
The head itself has a soft foamy interior with a hardened outer shell. His ears are a natural human shape that should, to some degree at least, replicate how you and I perceive sound. The microphone capsules are fixed just inside the ear, about an inch from the position of the human ear drum.
The microphones in this case were a set of MM-HSLO MICRO Sennheiser-driven capsules. At some point I'll try ECM77B's and when I finally pick up a pair of DPA 4060's, try those. This shall have to do for now. They have a stereo mini-jack connector so I can use it with my Olympus LS5 for extra portability, or with a few adaptors I can split the signal and use the FR2 LE for a better quality recording.
Here's the first test recording with the "Yul BBDH-07" recorded to Fostex FR2 LE. Listen with headphones for best effect. Please let me know what you think!