Live vs. Recorded - can you hear a difference?

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Live music is sure only a test this relevant if you only want to listen to live music that has been recorded with the intention of preserving a live event.

I would say that was a very small proportion of the sounds people listen to on their systems. So just because of that, it is not a particularly relevant test.

personally I want recordings that bring me sounds OUTSIDE of my everyday experience not just to be a substitute for going out . That includes closely mic'd stuff that ordinarily I would never be close enough to experience. I still have fond sonic memories of a theatre show where the band was backstage and the resting area for us stage hands between cues was with a stage black between me and the drum kit. And similarly hiding out of sight in the orchestra pit ready for a quick change over - again sitting next to cymbals. And too, when you stick around and give the sound guys a hand to set up mics on a grand piano and can stand there with your head inside the lid while some guy plays...

You rarely get that attack and clarity of such close up listening and definately never out in the audience where most people get their experience of live music from.

personally I would guess that many people's idea of live sound is actually slow attack and mushy! Because all their experience is coloured by the hall/venue/PA they don't realise the instruments are DI'd through...

Give me unnatural attack and detail any day. It IS there in real live instruments but most people don't hear it because they are too far away.

You missed my point.

I say live music - not live music as can be heard in a typical audience.

What's "there in real live instruments but most people don't hear it because they are too far away" is still live music.
 
You rarely get that attack and clarity of such close up listening and definately never out in the audience where most people get their experience of live music from.

Give me unnatural attack and detail any day. It IS there in real live instruments but most people don't hear it because they are too far away.

As a violinist I agree with your first point, the sound "under the ear" has a lot of shrillness and attack. But I disagree with your second point. What the player can hear is not the sound he is intending for the audience to hear, in terms of tone quality.
 
I do wonder recording inside an anechoic chamber must sound
very very dry, no reflections to speak of etc

For several years I recorded for light music in a pop music studio, which had carpet on the floor, sound deadening on all walls, and a thick curtain down the middle. It was horrible, horrible. The sound left you and never came back. Then Montovani-esque levels of reverb were added by the engineer.
 
I did a quick 10 minute recording of 2 friends mucking around with an acoustic guitar and singing, using a cheap zoom H1 - this sounded fantastic played back on a decent set of speakers, as if they were sitting right in front of me.
Better than most live recordings
 
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It's the reflections that worry me.
And you are wise to be worried. :up:
You've taken care of the recorded reflections by not recording them, it's now playback you have to worry about. It would be easier if playback were in an anechoic chamber, but you have to worry about the differences in reflected sound between the cello in the room and the speaker in the room.

I still think you have a good chance of doing it. Looking forward to reading about the results and any obstacles you encounter.
 
I did a quick 10 minute recording of 2 friends mucking around with an acoustic guitar and singing, using a cheap zoom H1 - this sounded fantastic played back on a decent set of speakers, as if they were sitting right in front of me.
Better than most live recordings

I have used the Zoom H2 and found the same. The realism is startling. I did my listening on headphones in the room I recorded in.
 
Does this mean that if a recording is make in a live space
our room has to be dead when playing these recording
Midrange ? Then again with the multitude of Cds being
recorded in all sorts venues we just have to make
compromises in our listening rooms. Perhaps a live &
dead end approach with diffussed side wall reflection
is the way to go Dead space being wall behind our
listening chair

Cheers
 
I'm going to sit firmly on the fence and say a middle ground is best, a room that is not too lively yet imparts its acoustic on the reproduction so that the sound appears to be in the room and not in an "imagined" other space. From a psychoacoustic viewpoint I think this would be a more comfortable and believable experience even if a full orchestra would be a tight squeeze!
 
I don't enjoy those limitations. Having a room that's a chameleon and seems to change with the recorded acoustic is the most fun for me. In fact, it's about half the fun. :)

It's cool, but it can be weird sometimes, too. For instance, when you switch quickly between CDs recorded in completely different spaces, but you stay in the same space. It can make things sound off for a minute or two, because your brain has no reason to expect different acoustics. I never experienced that when I had speakers that were practically omni. For me, half the fun of listening is that the sound seems to exist on its own. I see the speakers there, but there is no audible reason to believe that they are creating what I hear.
 
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