Introducing Travelear: Listen to the World in 3D Audio

Or something having to do with dolphins or fish?

I love things like this, thank you.

You could possibly record roller coasters while on the roller coaster. You could also record roller coasters off of it as well, I think that would be neat! I haven’t really been to a theme park since I was a kid and would love to hear 3d audio of a theme park!

This sounds amazing. I clicked on the French Quarter Jazz Festival since I live outside of New Orleans, and it is just like being there. I can't wait for you to add the ability to let users record and upload things.

I just ran into the London Tube ride, and being a huge rail fan and subeay fan, this sounds really good and would be mostly what I record and is mostly what I record now using my Olympus Dm 720. Wow! I play TubeSim on my computer, and things sound great.

I have done that tube ride several times for work. It really does feel like you are there. Love the sounds.

<a href="http://www.ndadamson.com/index.php?slab=tube-sim">Here is the link to the Tube Sim game.</a> Note that it is only available for Windows and has no visuals as it is designed to be played just by listening.

Definitely cool, although if you try to go through the list of sounds without first clicking "see all", all I get is "more". also, looking at the map is a bit odd as well. There also some unnecessary labels for the play and pause buttons such as "play big" and "pause big". One could shorten these to just play and pause and it'd be fine. Overall the app is cool for sure. I too would love the ability to record and upload my own soundscapes and things of that short. I'd also like to see some soundscapes dealing with theme parks, roller coasters, and definitely some more railway things and possibly some aircraft stuff in there as well.

I do love the app. My weirdness is that I'd love to hear a 3d desert sandstorm sound. Don't know if it could be safely recorded, but that would be great. Keep up the good work.

I love this, thanks for sharing your recordings! I particularly love the nature ones, but I'm desperate to know, how did you safely record the bees? Just the sounds of them hitting the mics by my ears was making me jump!

This app is really great and I think the beach sounds will make me sleep at night if I have trouble. When I listen to the sounds I feel as if I'm there. Some stuff I would like to hear are restaurant or kitchen surroundings, theme parks and people walking around in malls.

Following comment #16, I too navigated by swiping, from the top, from left to right and VoiceOver reads all the recently added one after another at once, then swipe to the right, you get the most popular, then swipe right you hear "See All", then if you keep swiping, you hear several "More" buttons, which I assume are the buttons associated to each "Recently Added" soundscapes. I also noticed that if you try to swipe back from the "See All", VoiceOver skips the "Most Popular" and goes to the "Recently Added" list and starts to read them all again. Perhaps having headings on the list tab with the "Most Popular at the top, then the next heading with "Recently Added", then the "See All" button, then each time you swipe right, you get one soundscape, then swipe again to get to that soundscapes' More button, then swipe again to the next soundscape, then again to that soundscapes' More button, and so on. Also, if you select to see all the soundscapes, when viewing the list, each More button reads out as "More Dark". As previously indicated, simply changing the button labels as Play, Pause, More, that would be better.

I am guessing that these soundscapes are not stored locally on the phone, which is fine, but I assume that since it is just audio, it shouldn't use too much of your bandwith.

I did listen to the London Tube soundscape and it did sound eerily as if you were there, which is so cool. I am definitely looking at trying more tonight once I am at home.

I was actually talking to a colleague at work and explaining how, although it is fun to travel, being blind, it's kind of pointless really as you can't really see the sceneries. Not to disrespect those who love to travel, if some wish to travel to experience first-hand the different countries and their culture, all for it. As for me, and I did mention this to my colleague, if I could just sit back and listen to soundscapes of different places around the world, I would prefer that.

Glad to hear someone else had the idea and developped an app for it. Thank you so much for making this happen.

Having listened to the n. Y. C train, its amazing the sound from the station, to inside the train and the sound of the chatter and announcements that go with the atmosphere. As to which one I prefer I couldn't say. They are each great in their own way. Again it felt like I was travelling through Manhattan. And again having the audio version of a place is like being there for real. This is a great app.

Some things that I could think of at this point would be rain on the car or rain on the roof, walking on snow, and some fireplace sounds. Keep up the great job. I will give a 5 star review on the app store later.

hiya, got to say, i'm going to love this app! there have been some sorts of attempts of this kind of thing in the past, but nothing like what you have produced here. what i'd like to put to you, is perhaps setting up the app so it has some kinds of categories. IE, location based, or perhaps more along the lines of kind rather than location. so something like ocean, suburb, industrial, home, and so on. you could find some way to define it best, but if you did that, and had each section something you'd have to tap into to load that category, that way, as time goes by and the collection of recordings grows bigger and bigger, you're not going to just have a single screen that scrolls on for ever and ever.
I'd agree with things like fireside, desert storm, so on and so forth. if you want to take things further on vehicles, you've got buses, trams, trains, cars, motorbikes, aircraft, and watercraft such as boats / ships. for example, one sound i just love if i can find a good one, is being inside the cabin of an old style, IE wooden, sailing boat / ship. love it, specially with the rhythmic creeks of the wood around you as the boat rolls in the swell and so on. or up on deck, hearing the water around you, the wind flowing through rigging, and the sail over head. that kind of stuff sort of helps you go back to a day without electronics, and working with nature. or one of my favorite things is aircraft. either outside on the tarmac listening to aircraft around you idling, taxiing, taking off and landing. or perhaps at the end of the runway where you can hear them taking off and landing. if you like more techy sorts of things, you could record what it's like inside a data centre or something like that. if you like nature, water falls, more forest stuff, more beach / ocean stuff, and so on. for example, along the lines of the sailing craft i talked of, one sound that brings back memories for me, is being out in a dingy, and hearing the swell slapping against the metal sides softly. the possibilities are practically endless. and i'd be honest with you. for all the work you do to get the recordings as good as you do, i'm truly surprised you aren't charging for the audio. perhaps something you might think about, is maybe putting in the ability for people to purchase a copy of the track. you could charge something like $0.99, or even just $0.50, per track, and that could do a couple of things. one, it would let you download that sound in the app, for use offline, and could also provide a link that could be emailed or something, to let you download a copy of it on your computer. this way, we could take full advantage of any device to listen to your awesome recordings. this way, you can maintain a free app and free listening, but those who want a copy of the sound, could pay some small contribution to the money it will take to continue doing so, and to help let you expand your potential recording of new scapes.

I would love some soundskapes of african jungles, amizon rain forest, zoo. I love nature sounds.

If they haven't been added, the sounds of San Francisco. Riding a cable car, a Ferry, a BART train, an Am-Track, fog horns, the Redwood forest, and other sounds associated with this great city.

@Charles I believe there is a San Francisco cable car sound already there. But I too would love to hear more sounds from the Bay area.

I'm going to try and listen to travelear later on today.

household sounds are great also like a washing machine and a drier running, a pot of water boiling, the possibilities are endless.

I use the Sennheiser Ambeo Smart headset with my iPhone to record binaural audio. I wonder how it compares with the equipment you use.

Hello.
I would like a recording about surfing. I really enjoy the skateboard stuff because it sounds so alive.
I also enjoy all the beaches. And the forest story. Okay, to put it short, I love all of them.

Hi,
I'm definitely going to check out this app in detail, but reading through the comments on what and where to record, I was thinking of some things of which I've always wished to have a binaural recording. The drum circle is definitely up there, but an in-room recording of a Hammond organ with a proper Leslie would be so cool. Also, different musical instruments, just solo, without any kind of PA or anything like that.

Hope this is something you could look into. Thanks in advance, and I'm looking forward to checking out your app.

I just stumbled upon this post and fell in love with binaural audio a couple of years ago. However I'd love to have a Website of some sorts so I can listen to those recordings on my Notebook and really good headphones to get even more of the feeling of being there. Also a Android-Version would be awesome eventhough that would basically be done by having a website with the same content as in the App.

To the Dev... Just wanted to add my thanks for the skateboard recording. Just incredible. Felt like I should be diving out of the way. Glad you risked it all to capture that one.

Two things:
First, hah, I was right; someone actually fell.
second: It is incredible that I can hear things behind me and all of that and I don’t understand how that works because it is like having surround headphones, though that may be the case.
I look forward to the updates.

I love to write, and this app is perfect for setting the mood or putting me in a place I'm trying to write about. A few of your soundscapes have even provided fodder for a few short stories, for which I am thankful. I rather like the subscription idea, but would be happy to pay for your work whichever way you decide to do it, should you decide to apply prices at all. As for sound ideas, I'd love to get a recording of a sound bath with crystal singing bowls, vocals, flutes, and the like. A renaissance fair, and perhaps some sort of Christmas bazaar? And perhaps a small coffee shop or café? I also love the household idea, with the add on that I'd love a porch outside with a wind harp or wind chimes in the background. Right, enough nattering from me. Just thank you for making this app and keep up the good work!

Hi Garret.
These headphones are big bluetooth headphones, very cheap but durable. I can hear surround in them somehow and I have no idea how that works. They are way better than the old expensive things I had were. They can be plugged in too. They have several days of battery. Awesome headphones, but I don’t remember the name.

Hello. I just downloaded this app today. I haven't listened to any of the soundscapes yet, but I plan to. I'm glad you're taking VoiceOver accessibility seriously. Navigating in the app is a little hit and miss at the moment. I'm glad someone pointed out the issues VO users are having--they did it better than I could.

Sound suggestions:
One. Someone pointed this out already, but a horse or horses going at different gaits, ridden and not wridden. I’d love to hear all the tack noises and things. Or maybe getting inside of a stable during working hours, and just after the horses have been given food. I find it very relaxing to listen to horses munching. Also grooming is really cool to listen to. Or maybe you could go to an English eventing show, which is where they do dressage, Hunter jumping and something else but I can’t remember at the moment.
2. A rail suggestion I have for you is recording the Boston T. And maybe the metro link into Alvara Street. I may be getting the name wrong. It’s kind of a touristy location in southern California .
3. I’d love a recording of a person, probably you, walking through a really wet swamp or marsh area. It sounds totally gross, but I’ve always been a bit obsessed with swamps, particularly after hearing the Mind‘s Eye recording of The Lord of the Rings. They did a really neat job with all the sounds when Frodo, Sam, and Golum were walking through the Dead Marshes. I’m not trying to punish you or anything, I sware. :)

Thanks,
Shersey

Here are a few more suggestions, the interior of a bank, farmecy and probably supermarket hustle and bustle. The movie theater popcorn or food area. I like to hear the people using the machines that gives out the stuffed animals and people walking around and shopping in different parts of the mall.