Home
AudioAsylum Trader
Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

For Sale Ads

FAQ / News / Events

 

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.

You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login


Login to access features only available to registered Asylum Inmates.
    By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username:

The Name that you picked or by default, your email.
Forgot Moniker?

 
 

Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".

Password:    

Forgot Password?

 Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:  
Your Email:  
Subject:  

Message Comments

   

Original Message

RE: The idea that the

Posted by Tony Lauck on May 25, 2012 at 08:02:15:

"The idea that the ...acoustic "information" of the venue is captured in such a way that it can be recreated is wrong.

A large amount of information about the acoustics of the original recording venue can be captured by two microphones. There are certain spatial symmetries that can't be resolved, but in general if one puts a source of impulses at various places in the sound field the recording will change and in such a way that it is possible (e.g. by a computer) to recognize points from these patterns. If sufficient additional information is provided, e.g. a calibration grid, then it will be possible to locate the sound sources in real space. Similarly, if the walls are moved the patterns will also change, making it possible in principle to recognize hall acoustics. Left and right information is obviously present, but so is depth (it even appears in mono). There is also height information because of reflections off the floor or ceiling.

Note that I am talking solely about information that's on the recording, not whether (or how) it can be "decoded" by the human ear/brain/mind system. The sonic patterns at one's head when a stereo is played are not the same as those in a seat at a live concert, so they will have to be decoded different. The ability to "hear" microphone patterns on recordings, for example, is not something that an untrained listener can do, but an experienced recording engineer can do this with a good playback system.

You can tell if a system is "accurate" is by playing a large corpus of reference recordings. This is the way that mastering engineers fine tune their systems and is something that can not be done by measurements alone, although measurements play an essential role in the setup process. Recording and playback of music are an art as well as a science.