Re: [ARSCLIST] A fundamental Flaw: Was Sampling Theory (was Fred Layn's post on the Studer list re: Quantegy)

[David Lewiston <david.lewiston@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hellon Don

Unfortunately, your approach is the typical "audiophile" theoretical
approach. Where are your recordings of gamelan? Where are your recordings of
Tibetan rituals. My approach is practical, a report from the trenches.

Salutations, David Lewiston
The Lewiston Archive, Recordings and Documentation of the World's
Traditional Music

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] A fundamental Flaw: Was Sampling Theory (was Fred
Layn's post on the Studer list re: Quantegy)


> On 19/01/05, David Lewiston wrote:
>
> > An example: A decade ago I was present at a huge festive occasion in
> > Ubud, Bali, where a very large gamelan played the traditional Barong
> > repertoire as two famous Barongs danced. It sounded amazing. By good
> > fortune, the two mics suspended overhead captured the music very well.
> > It was an exceptional event, the loudness and richness of the gamelan,
> > the enthusiasm of the huge crowd, and the power of the dancing. But
> > when I returned home and played the recordings, they seemed flat.
> > Eventually, putting a limiter (L 2) into the chain, I realised that
> > the very large dynamic range of the recording robbed it of excitement,
> > which was restored by hefty limiting.
>
> I would have expected a large dynamic range to increase the excitement.
>
> >
> > Another example: Tibetan chanting accompanied by the ritual
> > instrumental ensemble has a huge dynamic range. Retaining all of this
> > results in a playback experience where the volume control has to be
> > twiddled constantly, turned down to avoid being deafened by the
> > instruments when they are playing, and turned up when only chanting is
> > taking place, so that it's audible.
>
> That tells us that the playback equipment is not satisfactory. If the
> low level sounds are hard to hear, the signal-to-noise ratio must be
> inadequate, or the reproduction is non-linear at low levels.
>
> If you are being "deafened" at high levels, there is probably distortion
> or bandwidth limiting at high levels.
>
>
> > The solution: Decrease the dynamic
> > range. It still sounds amazing. On an average playback system, the
> > instruments sound *really* loud, but the chanting is audible.
> >
> > These instances are typical, in my experience: I want the released
> > versions of the recordings to convey the excitement that was present
> > in the live performances. Often, this means that some modification of
> > the recorded sound is necessary.
>
> I think compression is a bad solution.
>
> Regards
> --
> Don Cox
> doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx