Recreating the environment that the recording was done or the environment that we want the listener to imagine can be created with a a.b system such as 2.1,5.1,7.1,...... This somehow reproduces parts of the environment. This would be equivalent to a three dimension movie.
The naturalness of the sounds or the true nature of the sounds and their propagation patterns are a different matter however. Did that drum beat sound like a real drum beat or did it sound like a recorded drum beat ? Did that alien sound feel alien or did it sound like a recorded alien sound. In terms of the three d movie this has to do with resolution, how clean and clear are the images projected.
The naturalness of the sounds or the true nature of the sounds and their propagation patterns are a different matter however. Did that drum beat sound like a real drum beat or did it sound like a recorded drum beat ? Did that alien sound feel alien or did it sound like a recorded alien sound. In terms of the three d movie this has to do with resolution, how clean and clear are the images projected.
Recreating the environment that the recording was done or the environment that we want the listener to imagine can be created with a a.b system such as 2.1,5.1,7.1,...... This somehow reproduces parts of the environment. This would be equivalent to a three dimension movie.
The naturalness of the sounds or the true nature of the sounds and their propagation patterns are a different matter however. Did that drum beat sound like a real drum beat or did it sound like a recorded drum beat ? Did that alien sound feel alien or did it sound like a recorded alien sound. In terms of the three d movie this has to do with resolution, how clean and clear are the images projected.
Doesn't matter how "clean and clear" those images are projected (by the way, there's a threshold where things can't be perceived more "clean and clear" even if they are presented more "clean and clear"). It's still an artificial creation and perceived as such. You would need a new way of presenting things, e.g. wave field synthesis.
What secret? You were the one that claimed to know the missing "pieces". I just described what pieces are missing.
No. Stereo is the equivalent of a 3D movie. The term "Stereoscopic" comes to mind.This would be equivalent to a three dimension movie.
As for realism, more resolution does help for images. Ever see a good 70mm print of a film that was shot in that format? It's amazing. So are electronic displays when they get above ~2K. I'm sitting in front of a screen that is almost 12000 pixels wide. When the content allows, it looks more real than real - it's astounding.
Audio recording seems close to maxed out for resolution. Images are not there yet.
great link Marcus! Im not a huge binaural fan, some stereo recordings just sound weird, but that is likely due to the stereo recording technique. I agree stereo recording can be lacklustre, and a good stereo recording is as much a work of art, symbiotically wrought by the musician AND engineer. WFS would be great to experience, using small widerange pods, and muliple subs to negate room modes in the bass region, may be a good way to negate some of the room influence. Quite possible for the DIYer to emulate. If the source material is available, of course.
great link Marcus! Im not a huge binaural fan, some stereo recordings just sound weird, but that is likely due to the stereo recording technique. I agree stereo recording can be lacklustre, and a good stereo recording is as much a work of art, symbiotically wrought by the musician AND engineer. WFS would be great to experience, using small widerange pods, and muliple subs to negate room modes in the bass region, may be a good way to negate some of the room influence. Quite possible for the DIYer to emulate. If the source material is available, of course.
Lots of problems with WFS. First of all there's no content. Secondly, current systems although expensive and hard to implement deliver just a 2D presentation.
Our best chance to get closer to realism is a headphones based renderer for Atmos (if content creators don't f... it up).
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Now that you mention it I do have vague recollections of reading about this technique a few years ago. Is the audio xpress article available online, or is there some some other online reference explaining the principles of it ? Do the drivers phase track ? The link you posted has a calculator program but as far as I can see doesn't explain the principle behind it.There is a hole class of symmetric, 2-way, 2nd order TP crossovers that consists of overlapping HP and LP filters and applying EQ. The 2nd order filter characteristics can be used acoustic targets and the eq is best applied using analog active eq. I wrote an Audio-Xpress article on this back in 2002.
Opps. I completely forgot about subtractive filters, I was aware of them but I've always dismissed them due to the fact that one of the slopes is always 6dB octave, which IMHO makes them of marginal value for speakers due to the large overlap and inadequate out of band attenuation for one driver.Then there are all the subtractive crossovers that are TP which are defined by HP= 1 - LP. These are generally asymmetric at for any order LP filter the HP section ultimately has a 1st order roll off. The inverse, LP = 1- HP is similar but the LP is ultimately 1st order.
These are all casual and can be implemented using analog or digital approaches though some may not lend themselves to passive realization.
As you point out, difficult to implement passively too, especially if the drivers need quite a bit of shaping of their individual responses as well as the crossover function. Probably more of academic interest than practical use.
Pre-ringing is vastly more audible than post. That's because there is no sufficient pre-masking in our hearing, but generous post-masking. So anything that introduces pre-ringing to the signal is not desirable.
About them '(non)perfect' mics and soundfields - consider that there are 2 types of environments we wish to reproduce.
Natural environments - bird chirping on a snow field and the cave scenario (thanks Markus) AND any kind of music performances (symphony etc.). If you wish to be aurally transported to the venue then there is already the means. Binaural is easiest, but the lack of head-tracking could destroy the illusion. And WFS, but this is totally different capture/reproduction technique. Analogous to vector graphics.
In regular stereo, we don't need to reconstruct the original sound-field of the venue, but only just a illusion that is constructed by the recording engineer in the studio (or not in the studio, ie. live-feed-from-mic, there is still an 'engineer' positioning the mics etc.). So stereo is an art-form in itself creating a specific illusion, not aspiring to 'reality'
In other words, our goal should be to reproduce what the artist and producer intended us to hear, not some abstract unknown ideal. Skilled engineers and musicians understand the distortion of their equipment and use in intentionally for a result. Where would Fender be without an extra 50 volts on the grid? In the one case I mentioned, the intent was to produce a recording that was as close to the original as possible, ant they pulled it off.
Now that you mention it I do have vague recollections of reading about this technique a few years ago. Is the audio xpress article available online, or is there some some other online reference explaining the principles of it ? Do the drivers phase track ? The link you posted has a calculator program but as far as I can see doesn't explain the principle behind it.
Opps. I completely forgot about subtractive filters, I was aware of them but I've always dismissed them due to the fact that one of the slopes is always 6dB octave, which IMHO makes them of marginal value for speakers due to the large overlap and inadequate out of band attenuation for one driver.
As you point out, difficult to implement passively too, especially if the drivers need quite a bit of shaping of their individual responses as well as the crossover function. Probably more of academic interest than practical use.
The concept is based on the older work of Lipshitz and Vanderkooy who showed that HP and LP filters of various orders could be over lapped an generate a non-flat but minimum phase response. Then the response could be equalized flat. What I did was find the conditions, using 2dn order HP and LP filters which would allow the eq to be performed using a simple, single Q boost filter. The drivers do not track phase. The down side is that as a result the polar response exhibits a null on one side and a peak on the other. Additionally, compared to Butterworth filters, the peak can exceed 3 dB.
Yes, passive can be difficult, perhaps impossible. But with digital active its all pretty easy.
The hunt for magical frequencies continues
Are magical crossover frequencies snake oil or are they magic beans 😀
S3X-H - Technical Data | ADAM Audio GmbH
Focal Viva Utopia, 3 way loudspeakers for hifi stereo and home theatre installtion
Focal Electra 1028 Be: high end floorstanding acoustic hifi stereo speakers
Genelec Inc. - Genelec 8260A
AIR25
AIR20
Specifications?TAD-E1?TAD
These guys think its for real (plus you have what I told you earlier on), what do you think ?
Trident Audio Developments - HG3 High Definition Studio Monitors
Are magical crossover frequencies snake oil or are they magic beans 😀
S3X-H - Technical Data | ADAM Audio GmbH
Focal Viva Utopia, 3 way loudspeakers for hifi stereo and home theatre installtion
Focal Electra 1028 Be: high end floorstanding acoustic hifi stereo speakers
Genelec Inc. - Genelec 8260A
AIR25
AIR20
Specifications?TAD-E1?TAD
These guys think its for real (plus you have what I told you earlier on), what do you think ?
Trident Audio Developments - HG3 High Definition Studio Monitors
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I propose that the microphone captures incomplete information. If the waveform captured is reproduced, we are not guaranteed that it will have the same propagation pattern or behaviour. That is why we need to give it gentle cues about its true form.
The bird in a snow covered field can also be modeled .
Our best chance to get closer to realism is a headphones based renderer for Atmos (if content creators don't f... it up).
Thank you once again for supporting my theory😀
Now if only we would know what your "theory" really is...
It's MAGIC!
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