Klarinet Archive - Posting 000660.txt from 1997/11

From: Harlan Harris <hharris@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Digital Recordings.
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 13:01:05 -0500

GELENNE Fabien STNA approche BC104 p5154 writes:
>I'd like to add that I attended a very interesting demonstration 2 years
>ago:
>a small band was playing a piece while being recorded with 2 mics on a
>DAT. Then the microphones were replaced with loudspeakers and the piece
>played again this way:
>
>The band played one bar, then the loudspeakers one bar, then the band
>and so on. Therefore the comparison was made very easy and I was very
>impressed:

This reminds me of a demonstration I saw (participated in) once. A recording
was made by putting two microphones in the ears of a plastic dummy head. When
you stood where the dummy was, put on a set of headphones, and listened to a
recording made moments earlier, it sounded perfect, since the room acoustics,
and the acoustics of how stereo sound is affected by your head and your outer
ear were all taken into account.

>1. The room
>2. The loudspeakers
>3. Microphones, recording and mixing procedures (mics location)
>4. amplifier

In the demonstration I saw, since headphones were used instead of speakers,
what you heard were the acoustics of the room in the recording, without the
effects of the room of the replay. The microphone location was also perfect,
in that it reproduced the location of the ears of a listener precisely.

On the other hand, this demonstration was made with just a cheap analog tape
deck, so the fidelity of the signal would not have been perfect. I wonder to
what extent musical recordings would differ if they were made this way...
Could you take such a recording and play it over loudspeakers successfully? Or
would it only be an acceptable recording for headphone use?

-Harlan