Live vs. Recorded - can you hear a difference?

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Saying stuff like that can also be a good way to get a certain reaction from the performers - not saying in this case but a s a general performance management trick.

Heard from a producer that Mick Hucknall (simply red) went in to record a direct to tape album but he and all the engineers knew he wasn't good enough so they rented next door and ran everything to multitrack so they could mix it later, his different takes.. whist keeping the pretence of the direct to tape set up in the main studio I'm sure he felt great that it was direct to tape and he was in control hehehe..
 
The brain is great at filtering this out.

The crux here is live vs. recorded. The brain has a way of filtering a lot of stuff, but once it is recorded, there is a huge difference. Everything that got filtered, now stands out in sharp contrast.

It is like a wonderful sunset, viewed in your neighborhood. Once you take a picture of it, all the distractions that were once filtered are now prominent. Power lines EG. That is why photography is so hard.

That is why recording something live is so hard.
 
Vocals coming from 2 speakers is a very unnatural event. Having a crossover in the vocal range doesn't do good either for the realism.
I'm looking into a LCR setup to get the vocals 'perfect' and hope to do some experiments in a live setting soon. So far my musician friend look at me as if they see water burning...... :D But the idea is the same as having a center speaker in a surround setup and also resemble the wall of sound idea.

More on LCR: Mixing for Three-Channel Reinforcement
and LCR Sound System - A Perfect Solution - dBB Audio

Last week I found this quite impressive comparison:
Hi-End System vs percussion band
 
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Interesting reading. I was experimenting with LCR live sound systems in the early 90s. I liked the concept, but ended up using the center cluster for voice only. By having a center cluster dedicated to vocals only, it became much easier to control and mix them on large scale shows. It also helped pin them to the center, where the vocals usually are.

I'm surprised this isn't used more often in concerts, as it works terrifically well.
 
"where the vocals usually are" is the compromise of that idea I'd guess.

We only have two ears to hear vocals so doesn't it come back down to directivity and nearfield speaker placement to prevent reflections of the listening location etc? The conclusion to that being in-ear headphones?
 
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