Is Sound Stage an artifact of recording?
Yesterday had the opportunity to hear a fine chamber music concert featuring musicians from the NY Philharmonic in a small modern chapel with a slightly domed wooden roof. We sat about 15-20 feet from the musicians. The all acoustic sound was excellent. The Schubert Trout piano quintet and Brahms piano quartet in G were the program. Afterwards while de-briefing at dinner with an audiophile friend who went with me and our wives, he made the point that despite the excellent acoustics and premier seating he could not close his eyes and see a "sound stage" during the concert. I had noticed the same thing. The locations of the instruments were diffuse. You could not pinpoint the location of the violin as you might expect you could on a good recording of the same work! We agreed that this was not the first time we had noticed this about live music. So I put the question to learned assembly here on Audiogon. Is sound stage something that is invented or perhaps just an artifact of the recording process to help us get the illusion of real musicians playing in front of us. Responses from those of you who have made recordings will be particularly appreciated.
Neither did I. The best music player I was exposed to as a kid was the car radio. You can grow into these things. Learning more about music and trying to play it helps. The big jump for me came in my adult years when I began to find the ever changing lines of jazz more appealing than the ABAB structure of most pop and rock. Stay open and enjoy your journey. |
https://www.merlijnvanveen.nl/en/study-hall/216-mono-or-stereo This article might explain why your missing soundstage/image? |
i do have some classical and jazz, acoustic etc. songs on my playlist that I have discovered in the last few years and I enjoy them. I’ve just always been so surprised so many here rely on that type of music to build their system around. I guess that type of music is above my pay grade being a blue collar guy. |
@ghdprentice You may not have read the full details about the recording of Body and Soul by Joe Jackson. Multiple microphones were used.
In the history of the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album—classical or non-classical—there have been few, if any, recordings made using only two microphones. Please do your due diligence. |
