– In a word, control – over the recording process and finished product. Most modern recordings are built around multi-track techniques (each instrument or vocalist having their own ‘track’ in the recording).

– Multi-track recordings afford the engineer and producer tremendous control over the relative loudness, character of the sound, and quality of each part of the recording. However, this process destroys the natural time-dependent properties in the recording process (the phase information). As such, the final mix of a multi-track approach cannot contain the natural ambiance that is present in a binaural recording – it just isn’t real.

– By contrast, binaural recordings are generally based in a two-track format, and as such, the engineer and producer have far less control over what gets recorded. However, the realism is stunning and the recording serves as a very accurate ‘acoustic document’ of the performance.