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RE: The negative effect is a loss of musical realism. What one hears is not equivalent to a live experience.

Yes, it sounded like the real instrument. As far as I could tell, exactly the same, except as I mentioned the possible weakness of the three bottom notes on the keyboard. And this was true whether the piano was loud or soft. This was done with a 7.5 IPS tape deck, two track, and a pair of AKG C-451 cardiod pattern microphones. Speakers were Snell A III's driven by 200 watts per channel. At the normal listening position there was no audible tape hiss, but this was not the case when the open reel deck was replaced by a Nak C-7a cassette deck. There the problem was that if Dolby B or C was used the natural attack of the piano was gone. Without Dolby if the recording level was pushed then the tape compressed and the natural dynamics of the loud portions went missing. If the recording level was kept down then the tape hiss was burdensome.

To get the "in the room" effect it was necessary to keep the microphones close so as to avoid double room effects. This led to proximity effects, and to get the correct tonal balance the microphones had to be moved and pointed in minute amounts. Note that the room was odd shaped and had minimal room nodes in the bass. These and similar recordings can sound natural when played back in other rooms provided there is flat response in the bass. In some setups where the speakers are far apart then the piano will sound larger than life. (In the original room the speakers were only slightly further apart than the length of the piano.)

I see no point in moving around the listening room while playing a recording. That would be impolite during a live event. It is sufficient to get the sound right at one point in the room. In this case, it was where I usually sat when listening to either the live piano or recorded music. Things would be obviously different if standing close to the live piano (or worse ears inside the lid) or with ears next to a speaker driver.

Tony Lauck

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


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  • RE: The negative effect is a loss of musical realism. What one hears is not equivalent to a live experience. - Tony Lauck 11/17/1508:07:22 11/17/15 (0)

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