Looking for a new way to listen to music? Since 2019, Radio France’s FIP station has offered a unique listening experience with its FIP 360 podcast series. At the crossroads of electronic creation, live concerts and technological innovation, FIP 360 offers unprecedented sonic immersion thanks to binaural audio recording.
A 360° musical experience
FIP 360 offers a collection of electronic music concerts recorded in real-life conditions (often with an audience) and broadcast in 3D, thanks to binaural recording. The idea? To immerse the listener in an enveloping sonic universe, similar to what the human ear perceives in a real environment. With a pair of stereo headphones, you can hear the event as if you were there: music surrounds you, sounds move around your head, and depth and pitch effects are reproduced with astonishing precision.
Since the project’s launch in 2019, FIP 360 has featured a cutting-edge selection of artists from the French and international electronic scene, often from the most creative and experimental worlds.
Concerts already available:
- Mézigue during the Biennale de Lyon, with an eccentric, rhythmic performance at Grandes Locos (episode #13, 2024)
- Roman Poncet aka Traumer, live at the Hôtel de la Monnaie in Paris (#12, 2024)
- Canblaster, recorded at Domaine d’O in Montpellier (#11, 2024)
- Camion Bazar, the iconoclastic dance/electronic duo captured live at a historic site (#10, 2023)
- Irène Drésel, at the Petit Palais, for an elegant techno performance (#9, 2022)
- Pablo Bozzi, futuristic electronic cold wave (#8, 2022)
- Para One, at the Musée Carnavalet, combining introspection and synthetic textures (#6, 2021)
- Jean-Michel Jarre, with the virtual concert “Welcome to the Other Side” in 3D audio (#special, 2021)
- Chapelier Fou, Fakear, JB Dunckel & Jonathan Fitoussi, Maud Geffray, Molécule, Etienne Jaumet: these are just a few of the artists who have lent their signature sounds to this immersive collection.
When venues become instruments
What also makes FIP 360 unique is the attention paid to the recording environment. Concerts are recorded in unique locations (museums, monuments, industrial sites), adding to the acoustic richness of each performance. Ambient sound, natural reverberation and the movements of the audience all contribute to the feeling of realism. The production quality, supervised by Radio France’s sound engineers, is studio level, a rare feature for concert performances. A good pair of headphones will let you experience these atmospheres as if you were there. Close your eyes, and let your ears guide you through a palace, a cathedral or a warehouse.
What is binaural sound?
Invented at the beginning of the 20th century, but recently popularized thanks to virtual reality and immersive podcasts, binaural sound recording is based on a simple principle: simulating human hearing. To achieve this, microphones are placed in an artificial head, that reproduces the shape of the skull and ears. Each ear picks up sound with its natural differences in delay and volume (mask effect, filtering, etc.), which our brain then interprets in three dimensions. The result? Striking spatial imaging, with no digital processing or artificial surround effects: just a perfect acoustic illusion. For fans of Dolby Atmos music, it’s the ideal solution for rediscovering that feeling of space with your headphones.
With FIP 360, Radio France makes it easy for everyone to enjoy rare performances, captured in unusual locations, with a sound quality rarely achieved on podcasts. All episodes are available to stream or download for free on the official FIP website.
