If you’ve been reading GalleyCat for a while, you may recognize GumboWriters.com founder Jeff Rivera as the columnist who provides our “People of Color” coverage—he’s also the author of the novel Forever My Lady, and to promote that book he’s teamed up with FilmSound123.com to create an aural “book trailer” with a difference. The two-and-a-half-minute clip presents a dramatization of a scene from the novel, recorded in “holophonic sound” that is intended to create a “3-D effect,” putting the listener in the center of the scene, as it were. And, according to a press release, the holophonic presentation generates such a realistic effect that it influences other sensory perceptions; it’s claimed that the sound of a match being struck can make listeners believe they smell sulfur.
Here’s the “virtual boot camp” scene from Forever My Lady. You’ll want to listen to this on headphones, not only for the full holophonic effect but because the dialogue, while not strictly speaking NSFW, isn’t 100% office-friendly, either.