[BC] The real thing....

[Richard Fry]

Bob Orban wrote:
>A lot depends on where you sit. For example, if you sit to the left
>of the hall, you will typically be more on-axis of instruments in the
>brass section (trumpets and trombones), so the brass sound will have
>more "bite."  I attend a lot of San Francisco Symphony concerts
>(in Davies Hall) and I never find the sound veiled or muffled.
_______

As an aside to Bob Orban's accurate post...

This raises the issue of the way ensembles are miked, processed, and mixed 
during their recording and transfer to commercial recording media.

Everyone sitting in the auditorium of Davies Hall during a performance of 
the SFSO (for example) has one pair of ears, no matter where they sit. Every 
pair of those ears hears the ensemble sound set by the composer, the 
conductor, the hall, and the abilities of the various orchestral members.

Yet most commercial recordings are made via multi-track recorders from 
closely-miked instrumental sections, and even of individual instruments in 
some cases. This can transfer the acoustic balance of the commercial 
recording away from that heard in Davies Hall or wherever to that thought to 
be desirable by the producer of the commercial recording.  And this doesn't 
even consider the dynamic/spectral processing that the producer applied to 
the individual/overall sound track mix for release to the final media.

This is the reason that in commercial LPs/CDs, a single flute, for example, 
carrying the melodic line might be heard in all its detail at about (or 
above) the volume of the total sound of dozens of other instruments playing 
as accompaniment to that passage.  Such is not likely for audience members 
of that performance in a natural environment.

I have attended a large number of performances of the Chicago Symphony 
Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and even some of the San 
Francisco Symphony Orchestra at Davies Hall, orchestras at the Academy of 
St.Cecilia in Vatican City, the Vienna Opera, and at The Metropolitan Opera 
in Paris.

I can truthfully say that no recording I have ever heard has been able to 
approach the quality of sound heard in these live performances, no matter 
where I was sitting -- which has ranged from the front row, center on the 
main floor (Chicago) to the side of the last row in the highest balcony 
(Vienna).

RF