It’s hard not to get excited by the thought of listening to Audio Drama in 3D. Though binaural audio isn’t a new thing, it’s still relatively rare to encounter unless you are actively searching for it online. Many people’s first (and often only) experience with this form of sound design comes from sitting in the chair of the binaural barber shop – stick your headphones on and have a listen if you’ve never heard this one before.

Scottish-based Canadian producer Michel Lafrance (The Owl Field) has learned and mastered the techniques of building soundscapes in this manner, and he’s using them to create first person 3D Audio Dramas which drop you right into the middle of them as the main character.

Michel is also developing a business model around his productions, and has ambitious plans to grow the company in the future. Aside from delving into how you actually make binaural audio, we also chat about his reasons behind charging for the shows (all expect Overnight, which is free).

The Owl Field have also been nominated for a FutureBook Award, and we discuss what that could mean for both Michel, and the medium as a whole.