[geoff]

On 25/03/2019 9:36 PM, Adrian Tuddenham wrote:
nickbatz wrote:

One of the wonders of audio is that we're able to accept lots of radically
different spaces in recordings - even acoustic recordings, as opposed to
pop production.

This comes up all the time when people ask whether xxx sample library's
orchestral woodwinds would blend with yyy library's brass and zzz
library's percussion and strings. The answer is always yes - just choose
the library with the woodwind sound you like. It doesn't matter that the
instruments are recorded from totally different mic positions in different
spaces (leaving aside that you do still have to position the sections
appropriately for a realistic sound).

Similarly, I'm working on a short piece with a bunch of synths and sampled
instruments up close, but adding sampled timps far away at the back of a
stage with huge recorded hall reverb is totally believable. And we all
know about obvious things like drum room mics and overheads marrying
perfectly with gated snare reverbs, etc.

I've been trying to come up with a reason why this seemingly total
suspension of disbelief works. One avenue of explanation is that
everything is coming from speakers in the room, and that integrates it
all. But it's also true with headphones.

Any ideas?

Most listeners hear but don't really listen; they don't try to form a
'sound picture' in their heads, if they did it would be obvious that the
unnatural reverb is fake. Even if all the performers were 'live' and in
the same room (with good acoustics) but multiple mics made them appear
at unrealistic distances, the effect would be noticeable if anyone took
the trouble to listen properly.

I have seen paintings where the shadows in one part were in a different
direction from another part, it gave the picture a very disconcerting
effect, but the reason wasn't all that obvious to the casual observer.
Modern recording techniques with multiple mics and multiple 'plug-in'
reverbs have the same effect; the listeners have become used to
accepting it because they have no idea what a live performance sounds
like.

You are producing a synthetic sound to be listened-to by people
(including yourself) who have rarely heard anything but synthetic sounds
on recordings. If your listener had, for instance, frequently attended
live, unamplified, orchestral concerts and knew the sound of each
orchestra and conductor, or listened to old recordings where one main
mic and perhaps a single spot solo mic were used, they would never be
fooled for a moment.


The purpose of many (most) recordings, other than classical and most
live jazz/pop/rock/whatever recordings, is not to even attempt to
emulate a real performance space. And need not be.

geoff