"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...

This is true for many instruments and the voice. Compared to
what the audience hears, the musican hears a highly
distorted version of the music he makes.

Let's consider direct sound from a smallish ensemble with a conductor, and
ignore the ear's different sensity to different frequencies.

On the conductor's left, six feet away, is a violin; on the conductor's
right, twelve feet away, is a double bass. Behind the conductor, twenty
four feet from both violin and double bass, is a listener. The violin is
about .75 feet from the performer's ear; the double bass is about three
feet from the performer's ear; and the violin and bass are about eighteen
feet from each other.

The conductor has the players play so that the sound intensity of both
instruments is the same as he hears it - say 70dB.

The violinist will har the violin at 88dB and the double bass at about 67dB;
the bassist will hear the double-bass at 82dB and the violin at 64dB. The
listener in the audience will hear the violin at 58dB and the double bass at
64dB.

I'd say the notion that live performances can match hi-fi standards is
implausible ... :-)

Tim