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Date: Fri Apr 20, 2012 9:36 am ((PDT))
This has been an interesting discussion to read, to see the dialogue betwee=
n those who wish to preserve a more "naturalistic" listening environment in=
their recordings and those who have other concerns, though the rather tent=
ative nature of the discussion is unfortunate, perhaps because the debate i=
s old and tired to some participants.
In any case, though I have nothing to say about pre-amplification, I will m=
ake a couple of points that might be regarded as truisms by the very experi=
enced recordists in the thread. But there are always new readers and so new=
reasons to restate points of view. I'll address something Vicki wrote, mor=
e for convenience than to single out one part of the discussion:
"I sometimes try to record 'the air' when nothing is calling much, but I ca=
n never get that sense of space and airiness that I hear with my ears."
This is a fundamental limitation of stereo playback and stereo recording (b=
y which I mean here the common definition of two sound sources, not the pro=
per use of the term to mean anything more than mono). There is only so much=
that can be done with two speakers. Though we listen to an environment wit=
h two ears we hear sounds from all directions. This cannot possibly be simu=
lated with common domestic playback scenarios, which is why I prefer compos=
ing for eight speakers, and indeed would target larger speaker configuratio=
ns if they were not even more rarely available.
Likewise the Ambisonic folk are working away on more accurate and envelopin=
g recording setups with multiple speaker caps in tight arrays.
Given the (to me) irrefutable fact of the deficiencies of stereo, any colla=
pse of a sound field to two channels is highly artificial from the very beg=
inning. Stereo recording and listening is a cultural act that is steeped in=
convention. We learn and use these conventions, (which I did when trainin=
g as a recording engineer in the eighties) whether we later choose to react=
against them or not.
Dolby 5.1 and other cinema-based standards don't help the situation much, s=
ince they are all frontally-oriented in a way that our natural hearing isn'=
t. By which I don't mean to deny the frontal orientation of our bodies, but=
rather that 5.1 etc., with their asymmetrical configurations, don't try to=
simulate this. Instead they overlay other pragmatic and programmatic conce=
rns that have more to do with commerce and traditional staging than natural=
istic listening.
To be pragmatic, most listening is done today on headphones, not speakers. =
So, to be practical, we should abandon stereo mixes for binaural, achieving=
our "perfect" imaging in that way. I continue to find it extraordinarily o=
dd that commercially recorded music isn't largely binaural. Nature recordis=
ts continue to lead the way on that front.
Apologies that this diversion has become longer than intended.
-- Robin Parmar
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