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The sound of a real orchestra
Posted By: Keith Taylor (124.178.196.87)
Date: 5/19 4:13p.m.
I have just come home after going to an orchestral concert in Adelaide Town Hall. Although I have recently been to choral and chamber orchestra concerts, it would be two or three years since the last orchestral concert.
Being a recording and general audio enthusiast I often muse about the differences between home playback and the real thing. I had a reasonable seat in the balcony that was off centre but did not skew the balance too much. The program had Wagner's Parsifal Prelude, Samuel Barber's violin concerto and Elgar's second symphony.
One thing that struck me was how seriously loud much of the music was. The next was how inadequate two speaker stereo and phantom sources are in rendering the sound field. In my recording experience I have often wondered how people can talk about "precision imaging" and the idea that you can point to a performer in a playback situation. I have found that in listening to vocal groups etc rehearsing while setting up microphones I am struck by the many and varied directions the sounds come from. About the only sounds that have any consistency in direction are transients such as vocal consonants and instrument key and valve sounds.
Perhaps the overwhelming impression of the real life spatial presentation is how directionaly democratic it all is. Think of a direction and the chances are there are sounds arriving from there. People who have heard periphony (surround sound with a height aspect) wax lyrical about the improvement, and I can see why. While waiting for the next big thing such as a periphonic version of wave field synthesis! I am wondering if we could hang some diffusors from the ceiling just ahead of the listening position to give us some sound from above. The trouble is we are going to need more delay than the dimensions of a domestic listening room can provide. For those who have not done so Ralph Glasgal's Ambiosonics Institute is well worth a visit at the link below.
//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/popcorn.gif.32dd9e22fd77e77bc3c907062768fcd2.gif
The sound of a real orchestra
Posted By: Keith Taylor (124.178.196.87)
Date: 5/19 4:13p.m.
I have just come home after going to an orchestral concert in Adelaide Town Hall. Although I have recently been to choral and chamber orchestra concerts, it would be two or three years since the last orchestral concert.
Being a recording and general audio enthusiast I often muse about the differences between home playback and the real thing. I had a reasonable seat in the balcony that was off centre but did not skew the balance too much. The program had Wagner's Parsifal Prelude, Samuel Barber's violin concerto and Elgar's second symphony.
One thing that struck me was how seriously loud much of the music was. The next was how inadequate two speaker stereo and phantom sources are in rendering the sound field. In my recording experience I have often wondered how people can talk about "precision imaging" and the idea that you can point to a performer in a playback situation. I have found that in listening to vocal groups etc rehearsing while setting up microphones I am struck by the many and varied directions the sounds come from. About the only sounds that have any consistency in direction are transients such as vocal consonants and instrument key and valve sounds.
Perhaps the overwhelming impression of the real life spatial presentation is how directionaly democratic it all is. Think of a direction and the chances are there are sounds arriving from there. People who have heard periphony (surround sound with a height aspect) wax lyrical about the improvement, and I can see why. While waiting for the next big thing such as a periphonic version of wave field synthesis! I am wondering if we could hang some diffusors from the ceiling just ahead of the listening position to give us some sound from above. The trouble is we are going to need more delay than the dimensions of a domestic listening room can provide. For those who have not done so Ralph Glasgal's Ambiosonics Institute is well worth a visit at the link below.
//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/popcorn.gif.32dd9e22fd77e77bc3c907062768fcd2.gif
