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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: Closer to the musicians - closer to the music?
Post Subject: Closer to the musicians - closer to the music?Posted by el`Ol on: 10/5/2008
Hello all!

I have always loved purist stereo recordings that give me the impression of sitting in a real concert hall, and rather accept musical details being smeared than spacial information being lost due to the resolution limits of the playback chain.
The big labels have gone the opposite way, placing microphones as close to the musicians as possible and let a "Tonmeister" do the task of conducting the work a second time on a huge console. The result isnĀ“t perceiving the musicians very close acoustically, but in some way more direct than sitting close to the orchestra / performers in a real-world situation.
Meanwhile some smaller lables have gone the way of "pushing up" recordings (mostly from smaller ensembles, yet) with synthetic reverb, only slightly more moderate than it is done with popular music. The aim of this procedure is not adding spacial information that is lost by doing multi-microphone recording, but creating an effect that is sometimes called "being enveloped by the music", so rather bringing it even "closer" to the listener.
Am I an unmusical acoustic nerd, or a progress-rejecting anachronist?

Regards,
Oliver

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