GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: The dynamic range of our playback

Post Subject: Choose your illusionPosted by steverino on: 6/29/2014

Yes it would be good if our terms weren't colored by specific circumstances. Physics had to move beyond weight and define it as mass. But if we step back for a moment, we have to acknowledge that much in audio is based on fooling the ears rather than replicatiing the sound event directly. We can start off with the stereo effect. This isn't something that happens in the real world or any music. It is an auditory illusion which audio designers use to capture a central image along with the lateral sounds. Dither is added to create an illusion, resonances are added to create an illusion, equalization curves are used to create an illusion etc etc etc. This is just like creating a picture based on visual illusion rather than accurately representing it. For example if we arrange ten bulbs in a row and then turn them on ond off in sequence we see a moving light, not each bulb turned off and on, one by one, statically as it really is.

Do we really think we can accurately capture musical events by jiggering enough auditory illusions together? It's amazing the ears can be fooled as much as they are but there is a limit how well a mask can substitute for a face.

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