"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 03:32:36 GMT, "Spiderant"
wrote:
You are forgetting one critical point in a modern recording - it's in
stereo. The very best, in accuracy terms, are made using minimalist
microphone techniques in real concert halls, and they can replicate
the ambience of the hall extremely well.

I have thought about this. I also understand (I think) how stereo
microphones and subsequently speakers would help create the illusion of
three dimensional sound (sort of like those Viewmaster 3D Viewers we all
played with as kids, but for ears). I used a single microphone as an
example just to keep what I wanted to express simple. Although it seems
logical that you would have up to double the information for a stereo setup
than from a mono source, I'm still not grasping why the original signal(s)
would contain more than the peripheral information of frequency extremes at
any given point in time.

But I'm also realizing at this point that the response I am looking for is
probably much too basic for this newsgroup. As posted elsewhere, I assumed
that a signal at a given point in time contains no more information than a
simple polarity difference between two wires. From what other posters are
telling me, I'm way off, which is why I hit the library today to do some
basic research.

Given a good stereo recording, as described above, the soundfield
reaching your head will closely mimic that which would reach your ears
in the original concert hall at the microphone position, and sure
enough, you can 'focus' on individual performers by slight movement of
your head in the same way. The only real drawback is that, in a
top-class system playing such a 'minimalist' top-class recording, the
'sweet spot' is very small, and moving your head more than a couple of
inches from the bisector of the speakers will destroy the sharpness of
the imaging.

I remember reading about how Eliahu Inbal was a strong proponent of dual
microphones. I have a CD of him conducting Mahler's 7th Symphony where he
is using only two microphones. I'm actually listening to this as I'm
writing. If you have any recommendations of good recordings using dual
mikes, I'm sure that more newsgroup readers than I would appreciate hearing
about them.

Unfortunately, because my in-laws live below us, I'm relegated to listening
to most of my music through headphones, which means that although the sweet
spot never varies, but the in-the-head stereophonic image is not optimal.

Again, please correct me if this analagy is incorrect.

It is incorrect, it should be 'this analogy'............ :-)

Thanks for the correction. I'm not a frequent poster to newsgroups and I'm
used to Word spellchecking my documents before I send them. I'll try and
remember to use the spellchecker in Outlook before I post.

Besides, just *listen* to a good recording on a good system. One
careful observation is worth a thousand philosophical discussions!

Totally agree. The trick is to find the good system while on a tight
budget. Again, any recommendations for good recordings are always
appreciated, as are most of your postings in general.

Regards,

Roland Goetz.


Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering