Do we really belive that the goal is to reproduce live music?

[ptwining]

Do we really belive that the goal of building audio equipment is to perfectly reproduce live music?

Just a personal (subjective) question. I guess I believe that *no* system can do that. In fact, I actually belive that reproduced music is a "ding an sich" (German for "a thing in itself") and that our goal as builders and designers is to make that *thing* as enjoyable and rewarding as it can be to as wide an audience as we can.

What do you think, honestly, given the subjective nature of *taste*, live or not, and given that a physical system can *never* (in a raw physics sense) reproduce a live venue?

What about music like The Beatles? Producers like George Martin worked like a dog to produce sounds that could never be performed live - but were specifically designed to be reproduced...

I don't want to kick off a pointless thread but I do want to know if you believe that we are seeking to do the impossible...

In the end, anyone with enough background in the formalism cannot help but agree that the *accurate* (in every detail and nuance) reproduction of a live venue is so multivariant as to be impossible to reproduce.

What do you think?

Regards,
Tom

[snowball_rx-7]

i would say low distortion is the goal not "sound like live music"
at least for me personally.

[markus76]

It can be the goal but is only achieved by recreating the original wave field. The only techniques capable of doing that are dummy head recordings over headphones and wave field synthesis.

Best, Markus

[Rudolf]

As far as stereo is concerned - indeed I don´t see how anything bigger than "chamber music" can be reproduced with life like accuracy in a commonly sized room.

I see recorded music as an art in itself. With demands that nature alone can´t fulfill. Not only do I prefer the analytic sound that multi-miked orchestral recordings allow. I also hate those live recordings where I know from the start that at 12:46 min the clarinet will play the wrong note.

[Andy G]

sounding "like live music" doesn't make sense when most music is recorded in a studio.

as for live rock concerts, I'm not at all sure I want to reproduce that, not that it could ever be prpperly recorded live anyway.

That being said.. NP: Supertramp.. "It was the best of days." but I doubt very much that the recording is much like what would have been heard at the original concert

[Nigel Goodwin]

Even a live album isn't just recorded 'like you were there', it will be recorded as multi-track, with the crowd miked on a spare track or two to add crowd noises. It will then be mixed down and edited in the studio, with parts replaced, deleted, or added as required. Usually a live album will contain tracks from various gigs in the tour, some are always better than others, so pick the best where you can.

[planet10]

Originally posted by snowball_rx-7
i would say low distortion is the goal not "sound like live music"
at least for me personally.

As Geddes has shown, pursuit of low distortion at all expense is a red herring.

dave

[planet10]

Originally posted by ptwining
Do we really belive that the goal of building audio equipment is to perfectly reproduce live music?

Even if we could capture a live event in a manner to provide sufficient information to have any hope of reproducing it, even the best systems are still only a fraction of the way towards good enuff to do the job (i usually estimate 10%).

It is possible, by juggling the compromises, yo make 2 very different systems that are equally valid. With this amount of wiggle room the only valid approach (IMHO) is to aim at making something that the end user finds communucates the music, its emotion, and gets the foot tapping (or drags him out of the seat and gets him dancing)

dave

[pelanj]

I would love to have the sonic atmosphere of a rock gig - at lower volume - in my listening room. Multitracked or not - the mix is pan-potted even to the main PA - so the front speakers are the main PA in the listening room - and then some sonic sense of the big space and crowd. It does not seem impossible to come quite close, I've had some nice experience with live gigs DVDs.

[MJL21193]

About a month ago I'm in the back lot of a high school that is being renovated. I have to do my work outside as the cutting and welding I need to do will set off the fire alarm (school is open).
Anyway, I'm working and I hear this "boom, BOOM!" I think: 'Wow, that's some car system!, whoever has that certainly paid dearly for it". Again, Boom, BOOM! closer now. This one made my chest throb. "No way" I said "no way that's a car stereo". A few seconds later the other instuments of the players in the marching band join the bass drum and round the corner of the building.
What a relief.