[Trevor]

On 25/03/2019 7:36 pm, Adrian Tuddenham wrote:
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.


And that's the reason, many listeners do not listen to classical
orchestral music let alone go to live orchestral concerts. What these
should sound like is irrelevant to the majority of listeners. Concert
audio for pop/rock/blues/country listeners is similar enough to what
they are used to on recordings except for the size of the listening space.