In another thread somebody raised the question of the soundstage that we perceive when listening to 2-channel audio. Rather than polluting that thread anymore, I'm moving that discussion to this thread.
chill;684657 Wrote: > I considered starting a new thread for this, because I promise you, I'm > not raising it in a thread entitled 'Audio Myths' because I think it > falls into that category. But since the subject of the soundstage was > raised here I thought it could make an interesting aside to the main > topic, and I think it DOES pertain to the question of objectivity > versus subjectivity. > > I've often wondered how our brains construct a soundstage from two > channel reproduction, so I thought I'd get input from those here with > more experience than me. > > In every day situations we are able to place sounds using various cues, > such as relative volume (both left/right and near/far), and probably > slight differences in arrival times. If a sound comes from a point on > my left, for instance, then the sound in my left ear will be lounder > than that in my right ear, and it may be that the arrival time in my > left ear will be sufficiently ahead of the arrival time in my right ear > to aid me in placing the source. Similarly, sounds, such as voices, > that are close to me will be louder than those further away, so I can > use my experience of how loud a voice should sound to estimate a > distance. Nevertheless, there have definitely been occasions when a > sound that is directly behind me, for instance, has sounded as though > it's directly ahead of me, or more accurately, it's source has been ill > defined, and I've put that down to the fact that the locus of all points > where the source would have equal volume and time delay in both ears > would be a vertical circle with me at the centre. I have to turn my > head to resolve this ambiguity. This is probably what a bird digging > for worms is doing when you see it cocking its head to one side. > > Similarly, our ability to place the height of the sound source seems to > me to be difficult to explain - I assume it is something to do with the > shape of our ears. > > So when the sound source is PHYSICALLY in various places our anatomy > and our experience allow us to determine the location of the source. > > However, when it comes to sound reproduction from two speakers, I can > easily see that relative volume and phasing can help me to locate a > source laterally (left/right), but I'm not so sure about how our brains > allow us to construct height and depth. I suppose relative volumes in > the mix can give cues about near/far, and maybe minute phasing > differences among voices and instruments can create the impression that > some sources are nearer than others. But the real physical differences > in the live sound are, for the most part, lost if you put a microphone > in front of each voice/instrument. The relative volumes and phasing > differences are lost, except maybe if each instrument bleeds into the > neighbouring microphones, but in the case of multiple tracks recorded > at different times then even this is lost. Unless a performance is > captured live by a couple of microphones representing our speaker > locations then it seems to me that the sound stage, such as it exists > in the recording, is something that the mixing engineer has created > after the event. > > And for the life of me, I can't see where the height of the soundstage > comes from. Since the sound all comes from two point sources, rather > than being physically at different heights, the anatomical shape of our > ears can't come into play - that just allows me to work out where my > speakers are. What if I was to lean my speakers backwards to lie on > the floor - would the sound stage rotate backwards as well? I don't > think so. > > So I don't deny that the sound stage in two channel music reproduction > cannot be experienced - far from it, it is what contributes to our > enjoyment of well reproduced music - but I suppose my question, after > all that rambling, is how much of the soundstage actually exists in the > recording, and how much is down to our powerful imaginations. -- chill ------------------------------------------------------------------------ chill's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10839 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93092 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
