Re: Digital to Analog downloading Question ?

"Jenn" <jennconductsREMOVETHIS@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:fu3brn02un6@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In article <fu11gu016c3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> "Norman M. Schwartz" <nmsz@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> "Jenn" <jennconductsREMOVETHIS@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>> news:ftom3q06me@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>>> I disagree.  Live acoustic music ALWAYS displays
>>> distinctive qualities that separate it from any
>>> recorded sound.  Live acoustic music produced in Alice
>>> Tully, whether full or empty, will always sound like
>>> live music, and recorded sound has never displayed the
>>> those distinctive qualities.  For example, it's easy to
>>> tell the difference between an oboe and an English Horn
>>> in any live situation I've ever experienced, even when
>>> you don't know the score and can't see which instrument
>>> is being played.  It's often possible to even tell the
>>> make and model of the instrument.  In the case of
>>> recordings, it's sometimes impossible to tell the
>>> difference.

>> If you listened to the microphone feed resulting from
>> live music and compared that to a good recording derived
>> from that feed, I bet that you would NOT be able to
>> distinguish live from recorded music.

That follows from the fact that a good digital recorder is sonically 
transparent. Playback is not audibly different from the signal that was 
recorded.

> But the mic feed already isn't live, in the the context
> that I mean it.

I agree with that, but...

The "but" comes from the fact that I frequently compare the feed from a
mic 
or mics to the concurrent live performance.

The differences I hear can be explained by the following:

(1) The mic/headphone combination I use don't have perfectly flat
frequency 
response.
(2) My head and ears are never at the identically same location as the 
mic(s) for pretty obvious reasons.
(3) My head and ears don't have flat frequency response, either.

> You're hearing it through a speaker, of course.

Or earphones. One major problem with listening through earphones is that
as 
typically used, the mic/earphone combination bypasses the human body's
HRTF 
(Head Response Transfer Function).

> I believe that you are correct in your
> statement, but neither the mic feed nor the recording is
> "live".

Agreed. However, a major difference between sitting in the seats and 
listening to a mic feed is that the sound is being monitored at two 
different locations. The sound field in a concert hall is really quite 
diverse.