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RE: What IS it about live sound? The Question

Most recordings are garbage. They are fundamentally incapable of accurately reproducing live sound, in most cases because this was a deliberate choice on the part of the producers and engineers.

If you are trying to reproduce the sound of a symphony orchestra in your living room, good luck. The problem has nothing to do with audio equipment. It has to do with the size of your room. If you are trying to reproduce the sound of a live piano in your living room (assuming it fits) this is entirely possible. It requires good equipment on recording and playback and careful attention to detail. It is not particularly difficult, but does require decent equipment plus a system that is not power limited. Unfortunately, most commercial piano recordings won't work, because they have been compressed, distorted, or made in a large sound space that doesn't correspond to your living room. Again, the problem has nothing to do with the audio components involved. It's a matter of production goals and process.

This invariably pisses people off, but it is necessary to say it: If you don't actually make recordings and play them back, you have at best a superficial understanding of the art and science of audio.


Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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