On Tuesday, July 23, 2013 7:45:28 AM UTC+8, Audio_Empire wrote:
In article ,
ST wrote:
On Sunday, 26 May 2013 04:51:42 UTC+8, wrote:
Gary E:
Be very quiet as you read this. Listen to whatever sounds you are hearing,
whatever they are coming from and which ever direction....
That is stereo! Where ever you are - in your house, on a commercial
flight, hanging upside down from a set of parallel bars, rowing a canoe
across a rapid, etc. - is stereo.
How can that be? Sound which originates from a single source travels into
your left and right ears. A violin or a person singing cannot be consider
stereo. However, when we playback the recordings in stereo we are listening
two identical violins or singers over the left and right speakers and it
cannot be correct but we accept that as natural.
Actually there aren't TWO violins or singers. Each mike is "hearing" the
same ONE violin or singer from two different perspectives - which is
precisely what your ears do when you are there. Each ear hears the same
violin or singer from a different perspective. It's likely not the SAME
perspective that the microphones hear, but it's close enough to give the
listener the illusion that he can locate that instrument in space.
That's stereo
There was two experiments conducted in 1957 and in the 70s to see if
audiences (3000 of them) could tell difference between live sound and
recording. The experiment concluded they couldn't. How good can the gears and
the recording be in the 50s?
Means nothing. Live versus recorded demonstrations going back to the
turn of the 19th century, using acoustical recordings and playback gear
came to the same conclusions.
Reference: Reed and Welch
"From Tinfoil to Stereo"
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---
When there's a group of musicians playing there are lots of sources,
and the majority of sound may even be coming from the ceiling! Our
brains tell us where the sound is coming from, but as a matter of
physical reality it often isn't. The sonic illusion that satisfies
our brains may be far removed from the actual sound of the performance
space.
Andrew
My issue is not about making recording in stereo but the playback in stereo what supposed to be a mono sound. Let's forget about scholar's articles or research papers about stereophonic. I am asking to look into ourselves for accepting stereo sound as natural.
I grew up in a rural area and my first experience of stereo sound started rather late in my life. I still remember the first experience of hearing sound going from left to right and getting all excited. Not excited about the music but the magic of sound floating beyond the source. That was not natural but rather a different experience of the new way of presenting sound to my ears.
Audio Empire showed an example of stereo recording supposedly capture exactly how we hear. Let's say we were to record a violin according to Audio Empire's method shouldn't the reverse also be true for reproducing the sound. The idea of recording a sound is to be able to reproduce as accurate as possible. So how can we then say by splitting the sound into two speakers placed a distance many times wider than a violin and expect that to sound correct and natural? That's illusion and that how stereo works but is it natural? Or have we been brain washed and adapted such stereo sound to be normal?
I am not advocating mono but for a single instrument or vocal - the replay of them using a single speaker sounds more accurate than stereo. Many audiophiles think Sonny Rollin's Way out West recording is outstanding. Isn't that recording actually made of two mono channels. Each channel playing just one instrument?
It is my understanding that most vocal recordings were made in mono and then panned over to left and right but why are we saying that's more natural than listening the vocal with just one speaker in centre. To my ears Tracy Chapman's Behind the Wall sounds more realistic over the centre channel than in stereo. (Behind the wall is vocal rendition without any music.).
The point about the experiment mentioned earlier is that it shows we don't really care much whether the sound is stereo or not. In a concert hall when many are performing simultaneously what we hear is just one big sound. All the information about the location is no longer important. Stereo does not exist the moment we turn our head towards the sound. It can be a harp playing at the extreme right but the moment you turn your head to focus on the sound then it comes straight to you like it is in the centre. We focus to the sound that pleases or frighten us by hearing them directly by facing towards the sound. In such situation the minute spatial information required to locate the sound is no longer is important once the localization process over.
Try listening to solo instruments using a centre channel or in Mono using a single speaker. Listen for a couple of months abstaining yourself from listening to stereo playback of anytime material and then try to listen the same in stereo. You will know something is wrong with stereo.