Patrick Dixon
Imagineer
One source of loss is of course compression of peaks due to saturation/clipping in the amp or speakers, but if that was all there is, we would all have 2 kW amplifiers
As it happens, I do.
Decca cartridges
- Thread starter topoxforddoc
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As it happens, I do.
Paul R
pfm Member
I've been able to avoid those...
I do have a Chesky binaural sampler thing with a 1 minute drum solo that sounds good on headphones. Could never be 'realistic' for the obvious reason that you experience drums with more than the ears.
Unless you are pursuing Briggs style live/recorded comparisons in the same hall 'realism' has to be tempered with reality (sic). We know what we're talking about, either we have 'big' systems or we've heard them. The problem with talking about 'realism' is that it is an internal construction, the way is open to having one record(ing) that sounds fantastically real and loads of disappointing ones, and the real one sounds nothing like it did when recorded.
Decca carts are obviously a good thing though.
Paul
Tony L
Administrator
Agreed, for me it is all about that intangible ability to suspend belief, and that is different things to different people. FWIW I hate being in a living room space with real drum kit, and I’ve spent far too much of my life in exactly that situation (usually wearing ear plugs!) so that really isn’t what I’m personally trying to create. I can feel transported to an event and just transfixed by the music with quite small systems that operate within an obvious performance envelope, e.g. my Leak and 149s upstairs. Stick say Bill Evans Live At The Village Vanguard on, turn out the lights and I’m just there! Just magical stuff.
Patrick Dixon
Imagineer
True dat.
Patrick Dixon
Imagineer
It's not about volume though, if you walk down the street and hear someone practising the drums though an upstairs window, you can instantly tell it's a real kit and not a recording (and not just because they are playing crap).
Tony L
Administrator
Far less easy to tell with a good vintage jazz recording. The main difference is that for some reason that entirely escapes me everyone treats a drum kit as a group of entirely different components when recording. This has been the case since 8 and 16 track studios became the norm in the early ‘70s. As such you get a group of mono recordings of individual drums and cymbals each EQd and with its own FX rather than considering the kit as a single ensemble instrument positioned as a whole somewhere on the stage the way of the classic jazz recordings on Blue Note, Riverside etc. Drum recording really is a pet hate of mine. It detest the hi-hat hard left, ride hard right, kick centre, snare about three feet behind it and toms panning wildly across the soundstage bullshit. If I had the photoshop skills I’d do a piss-take blog of how ridiculous the drum-kits of various classic rock albums would look like based on their sound alone! Don’t even start me on pianos with the top notes out of one speaker and the bass out of the other. I’d happily punch engineers that do that. Stick in on a believable stage FFS!
Julf
Facts are our friends
Well, yes. I know I should have written "2 kW amps or very efficient horn speakers".
Grenadier_45
pfm Member
Much the same problem for orchestral music. I suspect the driver in that case had something to do with it being possible to get an acceptable recording in a less than ideal acoustic space and/or keeping costs down. Sadly, a violin does not sound the same when it's rigged up like an electric guitar as it does from a few yards away, however much eq you apply.
If you're after a realistic performance in space, you mostly need a recording from before the multitrack era or an 'audiophile' recording.