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Stereo imaging is another topic. For live recorded music, your stereo im=
pression 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. F=
or music that is recorded in the studio, generally every instrument is mic'=
d separately and the stereo spread is whatever the engineer(s) decide.... T=
he best stereo recordings I have heard were recorded out of doors,=20
with the microphones separated by a large distance, thus eliminating much o=
f the reverb and delay except that which comes off the ground. The worst ar=
e generally those which have the mics on the same mount, but pointed in dif=
ferent directions.

I'm afraid you have all this backward (and no, it's not a subjective matter=
). A good place to start learning about the subject is the stereo miking de=
mo created in the Caltech Music Lab, which has long been recognized as auth=
oritative by well-known experts, and has been adopted by NPR Microphone Wor=
kshops. As a service to the audio field, I've made it available on my label=
at shop.PerformanceRecordings.com . -James Boyk
Founder/Director, Caltech Music Lab 1979-2004
CV www.PerformanceRecordings.com/cv.html