[Scott[_6_]]

On Feb 14, 7:14=A0am, Audio Empire wrote:
On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 03:54:11 -0800, Kele wrote
(in article ):

Wow, this is a heck of a subject. =A0I have done my own experiment
between a Gold CD against a Japanese vinyl pressing of Dark Side of
the Moon. =A0Does that count? =A0I think so. =A0I know which my favorit=
e
rendition is. =A0I suppose to explain the difference is similar to
explaining the difference between live and recorded music. =A0It is
difficult to explain, but it's not difficult to tell which is which.
Even the best sound reproduction systems I've heard aren=3D92t the same=
as
live. =A0My memory of hearing live is all I have. =A0And I agree that t=
he
environment of the live also influences my memory. =A0If I compare each=
,
digital and analog sources, against my memory of live... that answer
would be my preferred medium.

OK, this question might SEEM to be an attempt to denigrate rock music as =
a
reference, but it really isn't. It's an attempt by me to understand how t=
his
kind of music can be used for serious audio evaluations.

I don't listen to rock and never have. Of course, I've heard it all throu=
gh
high-school and college as everybody else listened to it so I heard it
whether I wanted to or not. But you talk about live vs recorded here, and=
I
wonder when you have ever heard Pink Floyd "Live"? Now before you list th=
e
number of Pink Floyd concerts that you might have attended, let me define
"live music" as I understand and define the term.

The term "live music" infers (1) real musicians, (2) playing un-amplified
music (3) in real time (IOW, if you go to a symphony orchestra concert, y=
ou
have a good chance of hearing the orchestra with NO amplification. That's
"live music"). And while the average rock concert certainly meets criteri=
a
numbers one and three, it misses out on the critical number two.

Point 1. Darkside of the Moon isn't a live album. 2. many of the
elements in tht album and many many other rock albums are "acoustic."
3. not much recorded classical these days is Live and real time. Most
of it is edited to hell and back.

All
hard-rock concerts are artificial. You are not listening to the actual
instruments, you are listening to a public address system. Not only that,=
but
every rock live sound engineer that I've ever read about says that they m=
ix
and EQ the performance to sound as much like their band's recordings as
possible because that's what the fans want to hear - familiar music that
sounds familiar to them. Solid-body electric guitars, make no sound (to s=
peak
of) without an amplifier. Neither do any other electronic instruments suc=
h as
synthesizers and Fender Rhodes pianos. So, in effect, there is no way to =
hear
most rock "unamplified."

So the question remains: how do you discern the sound of "live" rock from
recorded, when it's never really live in the first place, and when the
concerts are engineered to mimic the group's recordings?

Certain elements do the trick. We do have experience with human
voices, drum kits, acoustic guitars, painos etc. We can judge the
quality of those elements aginst our experience with live music. Heck
just listen to the barrage of clocks going off at the begining of the
track called Time on Darkside of the Moon. Sounds pretty real.