[Audio_Empire[_2_]]

On Sunday, August 18, 2013 5:53:03 AM UTC-7, wrote:
Stereo imaging is another topic. For live recorded music, your stereo
impression is less that of the spread of the musicians, and more the specific
delay and reverberation caused by the room's shape and audio impression.

For music that is recorded in the studio, generally every instrument
is mic'd separately and the stereo spread is whatever the engineer(s)
decide....

The best stereo recordings I have heard were recorded out of doors,
with the microphones separated by a large distance, thus eliminating
much of the reverb and delay except that which comes off the ground.
The worst are generally those which have the mics on the same mount,
but pointed in different directions.

This is counter to my experience. Frankly, recording music
out-of-doors is fraught with difficulties. First of all, there is wind
noise. It doesn't take much of a breeze to ruin a recording, and while
wind "socks" help, they aren't 100% effective by any stretch of the
imagination. Secondly, without any enclosure for the musicians, the
amount of acoustical energy reaching the mikes is hugely attenuated.
Thirdly, there is no reverb, so the music sounds dry and lifeless. and
is definitely NOT something that I would want to listen to.

Also, the idea that Blumlein-style microphone technique ("The worst
are generally those which have the mics on the same mount, but pointed
in different directions.") is somehow the worst type of microphone
setup is as wrong as one can be. So called "purist" microphone
placement (A-B, X-Y, M-S, ORTF, etc,) yields by FAR the best stereo
sound stage and the best imaging (for speaker reproduction).

I'm afraid you have all this backward (and no, it's not a subjective
matter).

That is quite correct.

A good place to start learning about the subject is the stereo miking
demo created in the Caltech Music Lab, which has long been recognized
as authoritative by well-known experts, and has been adopted by NPR
Microphone Workshops. As a service to the audio field, I've made it
available on my label at shop.PerformanceRecordings.com . -James Boyk

Thanks, I;ll take a look at it.

Audio_Empire