Klarinet Archive - Posting 000697.txt from 1997/11

From: "BALDY" <comic@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Digital Recordings.
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 22:51:59 -0500

What you did not hear were the echoes. If the tape had been played backward
you would have heard echoes present - but our ears (sensitive, though
selective) have evolved to cancel out those signals. Bats, on the other
hand evolved the other direction and rely total on the echoes.

Baldy

----------
> From: Harlan Harris <hharris@-----.edu>
> To: klarinet@-----.us
> Subject: Re: Digital Recordings.
> Date: Wednesday, November 19, 1997 11:26 AM
>
>
>
> 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
>