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On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 10:40:01 AM UTC-7, news wrote:
The question of is there a correct gain for playback has come up before, but
I don't think it has been answered conclusively. I bring it up again because
of an interesting experience today.

I was playing back one of my own recordings of our local concert band.
...
It sounded OK but uninspiring. I'm saying to myself,

But I knew that I wasn't playing it at live levels, because I didn't expect
that much from the recorder's mikes, so I grabbed the remote and boosted it
up a little - then a little more... easy now, just a teense more, and
suddenly something "clicked" in, and the sound became very real and very
fabulous, to the point where I had to go back through all that I just heard
and hear it again, hear it right.

It was just enthralling - everything about the presentation just seemed more
right. The imaging improved, the balance among instruments, the frequency
response - this was now believable, I could "see" my band again.

So what gives here? I have heard that just the right volume "fills" the room
just right.

I will simply repeat the story an experiment I did some years ago,
one that I have posted here time and again.

I had done a recording of a local moderate sized classical
orchestral performance. In addition to the recording equipment,
I also had precision sound level metering equipment and was
able to make take some good samples of sound levels at
several places during the performance.

At the gathering after the concert, we had available a good
playback system in a room apart from where the party was, so
I set up the equipment and was playing it back for people.

I asked people, individually and in small groups, to adjust the
volume on the playback until it matched their memory of how loud
it was in the performance venue. Every single person, except one,
adjusted the volume so the playback SPLs were measurably louder
than the original performance, some by a substantial amount. And,
now that you mention it, some had a similar "aha" moment where it
could be said that it "clicked" in for them as well. And, my memory
at this point may be fuzzy on this detail because I didn't note it
explicitly at the time, those most cock-sure of the level were the
farthest off, in general.

Not a single person adjusted the volume control so it was lower than
the original playback level.

And the one person who consistently nailed it dead-nuts on was the
conductor.

Is it possible that having been there, it "clicked" in
because of my memory of the live sound?

It has been said, and the research is there to back it
up, that acoustical memory is notoriously unreliable.

I will further suggest that there is NO purely acoustical
memory in situations like the one your are relating. The
entire experience contributes to the memory, the sight,
the surroundings, the woman sitting next to you who's
about to ralph her liquid lunch in your lap during a
performance of the Back St. Matthew Passion (as happened
to me one time), all mix together as the "memory". And each
element colors the other.

If you are going to tell me that you got the actual
acoustic levels matched to within a fair-the-well by
ears and memory, I'm going to tell you that the probability
is very high that, on an objective basis, you're wrong.

If what you're saying is that by adjusting the playback
volume, you found a point where you achieved the same visceral
feelings you experienced during the live performance then
I say, good for you, and have no counter to your claim.

Just don't get yourself upset by bringing out and properly
deploying an SPL meter.

Dick Pierce