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Pirate Vinyl Records! :D
xtabber:
Classical music, and to a lesser extent, Jazz, provide a better test of recording techniques.
-xtabber (March 31, 2013, 01:44 PM)
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Classical recordings are generally pretty dreadful - especially when soloists are involved. The only place to hear classical music as it should sound is in the concert hall. On recordings the balance of instruments is always wildly different - and usually REALLY unbalanced.
-Carol Haynes (March 31, 2013, 02:12 PM)
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I have to disagree with that. I have attended many hundreds of live concerts over more than 50 years. I'd guess about 75% classical, 20% Jazz and 5% popular music. I consider the concert experience to be almost always better overall, but the actual sound of the music often is not.
Sound balance varies tremendously within a venue, and what musicians hear on stage is not what you hear in the audience. And what those in the back row hear is not what those in front or in the balcony hear. In orchestral concerts, soloists are often hard to hear in the middle of the hall, although they may stand out to those listening on the stage. That doesn't mean that a recording where you can hear the soloist above the orchestra is out of balance - just that the balance is not the same as what you heard from where you were seated in the hall.
Carnegie Hall in New York is considered one of the finest for classical music. From personal experience, I have found that the best place to listen to a piano recital is nose-bleed territory in the top balcony, whereas the best sound for a full orchestral concert is in the parterre, but you won't hear the soloist as well there. A good recording -- and many have been made in Carnegie Hall -- allows you to hear it all.
The biggest problem with most recordings is dynamic compression. For LPs, that was required by limitations of pressing and playback devices, although the actual range on the original tapes may have been much greater. It is not as necessary for CDs, but is usually done because most people don't have playback equipment capable of handling wide dynamic ranges.
Tinman57:
I generally use a flat EQ with no effects. Why mess with what the band and recording engineers intended? Sometimes I'll put up the bass for some music, but in general, I listen to it flat.-Renegade (March 30, 2013, 09:28 PM)
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Because there is a difference between what is heard in a studio with studio monitors and what comes out of, even expensive, domestic audio equipment.
-Carol Haynes (March 31, 2013, 07:52 AM)
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Yes! I have about $5K invested in stereo gear, and even then the CD's/LP's sound like crap if not "tuned" to the environment.
Tinman57:
IMHO engineers in concerts can't mix a decent sound at all - I have yet to go to a concert of any band and not be irritated by the bad mixing! -Carol Haynes (March 31, 2013, 12:06 PM)
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Very Very True. The only live album I ever truly liked was Peter Frampton's "Frampton Comes Alive". Now that Aussie knew how to play a guitfiddle, and they mixed/mastered it perfectly. ;)
Carol Haynes:
Sound balance varies tremendously within a venue, and what musicians hear on stage is not what you hear in the audience.
-xtabber (March 31, 2013, 03:40 PM)
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That is true but the sound heard by musicians is a lot different to what is presented on CD or vinyl or even DTS on BluRay disks and in a good concert hall, with well chose seats, you will not be far off what the musicians hear.
Recorded sound is the sound agreed between engineers, producers and performers and the balance is almost always heavily bent towards soloists. I can only assume that the engineers and producers have the biggest say in the final product because recordings never seem to reflect the balance sought in the live hall.
Tinman57:
It is not as necessary for CDs, but is usually done because most people don't have playback equipment capable of handling wide dynamic ranges. -xtabber (March 31, 2013, 03:40 PM)
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A dynamic Range Expander is one of the most important pieces of equipment on my stereo system. It takes a mono sound and makes it wide, like going from 2D to 3D. It really makes you feel like your surrounded by the instruments like Dolby Digital.
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