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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: Time Alignment : Live Performances vs Audio
Post Subject: Yes, it is pretty chaotic but still….Posted by Romy the Cat on: 3/7/2007

 op.9 wrote:
Yes, I agree they are different issues.
However, quite a big however too...
It all depends on where we believe 'reproduction' starts. We are very rarely simply reproducing the feed form one single microphone. Choices are made very early on in the recording chain that might as well be called 'performance' choices. Choice and positioning of players and mics, mixing, delay of spot mics, multi-band compression and multiple waves plugins - and that strange buisness of 'mastering' too. As I see it our 'hi-fi' reproduction is just the tail-end of those choices. Lets not kid ourselves that we are reproducing something absolute. Its all pretty chaotic by the time it get to us!

…I would differentiate, in fact would recognize as completely irrelevant, the arriving discrepancies from instilments to microphone and the arriving discrepancies form loudspeakers to listener.

Let make a mental experiment: We have a single mono microphone, 6 feet form it we have a double-bass player and in another 10 feet from the double-bass we have a flute player. We record them: let call it “Result A”. Then we put them at the same distance, record them and call it “Result B”. Then us to play  the “Result B” on a playback where (let simplify everything) a woofer is 6 feet form a listening position and the tweeter is 16 feet – Let call it “Result C”. The point that I would like to propose is that “Result A” and the “Result C” would be very different. BTW, I did not try it and it is purely my speculations…

In reproduced sound any fundamentals will have harmonics and overtones across entire frequency range. Therefore some of particles of a same note will reproduce by two very different drivers and reach a listener at different points in time due to the different axial positions of the drivers. Our hearing is not accustomed to us as it does not exist in nature. In live sound it should not take peace as ach instrument fundamentally and harmonically sit at its own place and we use it...

Rgs, the Cat

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