Quite right, elgordo. On the topic of live rock recordings, let me add that IMHO many of their technical limitations are probably the result of the equipment used in the live performance. Having the lead vocalist sing into some Shure dynamic microphone -- that's designed to be rugged enough to drive nails with so it will survive a concert tour -- will not yield the same quality of vocal as a Neumann condenser microphone that costs thousands of dollars but stays in the studio. Then the vocalist, inspired by the sheer energy he (or she) is drawing from the crowd, lets a particularly gutsy high note wail a few db louder than at the sound check before the performance, with the microphone virtually in his mouth, and the additional signal clips the input of the mixing console or the compressor that's in the signal path before the console. The console may be full of chips that don't sound particularly good, but hold up well to the rigors of travel and enable the manufacturer to produce a mixing console that doesn't cost more than your entire house, like the ones in the studio. Then, a different equalization curve is devised for virtually every microphone, so the mix sounds the way the sound tech thinks it should when played through the massive array of speakers that are deafening the audience members who are standing directly in front of them. Meanwhile, the output of the mixing console is also feeding a recording device of some sort, from which your CD or LP will be mastered. Small wonder it doesn't sound all that impressive by the time you settle into your listening chair.
Applause: Bummer
Now that I have a rig I can call a "system", I often find myself looking up from a book or the computer or whatever to pay attention to a particularly involving musical passage. Finally, it ends and I think, 'wow, that was just right', or 'jeepers, Vladimir or Dizzy or _______ was right here a moment ago'. But if it's a live recording, the applause always brings me down. Never, not once have I heard applause on any audio rig that sounded like hands clapping. Baez "From Every Stage", Dizzy "An Electrifying Evening" and "Newport II", "Jazz at the Pawnshop", Horowitz at the Met", Clapton "Unplugged", nada. Am I opening the gates to hell pursuing realistic applause? Is it out there at $50,000 per? Should I care? Have I ruined anyone's day?