Re: Digital to Analog downloading Question ?

On Apr 10, 8:45 pm, Sonnova <sonn...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 20:36:24 -0700, bob wrote

> > No, it doesn't. Live music sounds different to me, every time I hear
> > it.
>
> I knew someone was going to make JUST that pedantic comment. Of course
it
> sounds "different" every time, but it still sounds like the instrument
or the
> set of instruments that it is. But does a sax not sound like a sax -
every
> time you hear one? A violin like a violin? A piano like a piano? Can you
not
> ALWAYS discern live music from canned?  I think anybody can. Music and
> reproduction wouldn't mean very much if you couldn't make those
> determinations. The fact that the venue changes some aspects of the
sound
> doesn't mean that a saxophone becomes something else. It's always a
saxophone
> and its always recognizable as a sax and will be every time. Now, I'm
not
> discounting the possibility that a sax (or any other instrument) sounds
> different to you than it might to me, but still, the sound that a
saxophone
> makes whether different for each of us or the same is stored in our
aural
> memory and when we hear one, we think "saxophone". Therefore the sound
of a
> live baritone sax, for instance, is an absolute because it always sounds
like
> a sax to each of us, even though, if I could hear it as you hear it, not
> having YOUR aural memory, I might think it sounds strange (and vice
versa).
> The point is that it sounds like a baritone sax to you and you are able
to
> identify that sound and tell whether its live or reproduced.  

Granted, the binary distinction live vs. recorded is (at least
usually) clear. But that isn't strong enough to make your point. You
want to be able to determine whether one recorded sound is closer to
live than another recorded sound. I don't think you can do that
without specifying *which* live sound you have in mind--a full Avery
Fisher, or an empty Alice Tully.

At least, you can't if you want to anchor your perception to some
objective reality. Which is why I think you don't really anchor your
perception to some objective reality at all. You develop a mental
construct of what a live performance (of the particular type you're
listening to) *ought* to sound like. And it's not at all clear that
this construct is fixed. You could have a different idea of what live
music sounds like each day. It's hard, then, to call that a
"standard."

bob