I’ve listened to a lot of binaural programmes for this project. There’s a wide range of ways people use the technology and as a lot of interviewees said they haven’t heard much of other people’s work, especially from other countries, I thought it would be good to share a selection here. Even if you don’t speak the language, you can dip in…

Here is an example of the use of spatial sound to create a richer or more spacious soundscape for a feature. L’Accent et la Cigale is a documentary by Nathalie Salles for France Culture. Although some people have told us binaural is wasted on ‘talking heads’, Nathalie chose it anyway, and recorded these interviews in mono and placed them in a 360 sound field in post production.

For me the difference between this and stereo interviews is subtle, but there’s a sense of additional space, depth. It feels, well, three-dimensional. The technique was also used to help listeners differentiate one speaker from another. A prosaic but also important benefit.

The feature is partly about the way southern accents are marginalised. Nathalie herself comes from the South of France, but has made a place for herself in the institution perhaps most associated with the standard French accent, public service broadcaster, Radio France. If you like the accents, try the fantastic investigative podcast by Alexandre Mognol le Canon sur la Tempe. He also uses some binaural recording in the series.

Give Me Space Below My Feet was produced by Clare Walker for BBC Radio 3. Interviews with a retired climber are contrasted with the presenter, Helen Mort, out climbing. This is an example of how binaural opens up of extra techniques, to add to the possibilities of mono and stereo. The open rock face, a sense of up and down as well as left and right and a more vivid sense of the spatial judgements being made when a person climbs contrast with the armchair interviews.

Here’s something a bit different. Normally of course we introduce music or sounds and foreground them by making them loud, then we lower the level ‘under’ speech which signals the listener to pay attention to the words. On SessionLab, at RFI, the French international Broadcaster, Xavier Gibert puts the music track behind the listener, to allow them to focus on speech of interviewees, as well as lowering and raising loudness levels in the traditional manner.

Binaural and surround sound has a longer tradition in music and in audio drama, but some of the techniques are relevant for thinking about factual programme making in spatial sound. The audio isn’t available any more for rights reasons, but the BBC’s States of Mind: The Sky Is Wider is a really interesting one. The starting point for the writing is the prone position of so many podcast listeners – in bed, headphones on. This offers the listener the perspective of the protagonist – woman with ‘locked in syndrome’ – minimally conscious, she is unable to move or communicate from her hospital bed.

1,000 Words. The Verge Extras podcast from America, presented by Paul Miller and Dami Lee, is dedicated exclusively to describing pictures from the internet. In binaural. No fancy locations, no amazing sound effects. Just a couple of people in a small studio. The idea is to make you feel like you have a seat at the table. Does that work? You decide.

BBC Radio 4’s Wireless Nights with Jarvis Cocker visited Joujouka in Morocco. It’s not unheard of for producers from western Europe and North America to use immersive audio to transport you to an exotic location in the global south. This programme feels a bit different, because it centres Moroccan expertise and the local musicians who the presenter tags along with. The feature uses the technical immersion of binaural together with Jarvis Cocker’s immersion-encouraging banter to try and make you feel you’re there.

What you might not have noticed is the way this feature manages a common problem with movement in binaural recording. Unless there is a consistent sound to anchor your sense of position. If traffic is approaching you and to one side as you walk along a pavement, the cars appear to move right behind you on the pavement. Jarvis Cocker avoids the problem by talking as he walks, the cues help your brain to keep the ambient sounds in their right place. Thanks to John Heraty of the BBC for that insight.