Oliver, what you describe is very much NOT now I see the true ceremony of recordings experiencing. This high fidelity mimic of  the  “impression of sitting in a real concert hall”, or among the musicians in the pit, or whatever… are certainly a great achievement of playback but it all has meaning only in context of Pure Audio practice. There is nothing wrong with that and the Pure Audio is a noble task itself but Pure Audio is just an instrument not a purpose. So, in context of the actual USE the audio results for something more then just self-contained audio applications I think that this high fidelity mimicking is absolutely irrelevant. The real results of listening experiences, would be recording or a live event is located at emotional, esthetic, ethical and other levels of listening perception.

(First and second levels are audio-levels at http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=50)

You see, in my view, what those smaller labels and big labels do in term up-closed microphones and artificial reverberation (even though it NEVER done properly) is something that event delivers a small tactical advantage in trim of sale to ignorant public but it at the same time has a huge strategic disadvantage in trim of absolute quality of Sound and preservation of artistic values of performing events.

If you wish you might try yourself to assess the sound quality of something like spring 1949’s recording of Sergey Koussevitzky lead BSO. Listen the first movement Tchaikovsky’s IVth symphony, listen that THAT sound and you might review for yourself what the sound quality come from… It would help if you found S1 pressing in good condition…

Romy the Cat wrote:

You see, in my view, what those smaller labels and big labels do in term up-closed microphones and artificial reverberation (even though it NEVER done properly) is something that event delivers a small tactical advantage in trim of sale to ignorant public but it at the same time has a huge strategic disadvantage in trim of absolute quality of Sound and preservation of artistic values of performing events.

Oliver, I do not know and I do not particularly care about what is going on out there with synthetic reverb. There are few major reasons for it.

1)    All synthetic reverb is gone by DSP of signal and my experience indicates that post-recording DSP destroys the “fine structure” of recorded material.

2)    Reverberation time of acoustic space what the play took place is one of participating instruments that better musicians use. Taken this tool out of the musicians awareness and giving it to a Moron with headphone, mixing console and diploma of appliances’ electrical is not good thing to do.

3)    With after-performance synthetic reverb the feedback between results, expressivity and the means to accomplish that expressivity does not incused the musicians awareness. Pretend an amplifier where open loop does not behave as it was affected to closed loop. Scare? The where same happen with music. If you are musician then your definition, you feeling of tempo and timing are greatly modulated by reverberation time at the performing space. If you need to hit two keys on piano with an internal (let present that it is the Beethoven’s Sonata no. 8) then how long the internal would be? The duration of the internal is very important but it is also very important the organization and the reaction of the rest of your play to those internals. That organization is the product of musician awareness and the reverberation time is one of the ingredients that affect the musician compliance. Changing the reverberation conditions without changing the “musician compliance” is not good thing to do/

In the end I have to add one thing – the management of reverberation conditions in playback. This is totally different subject and the synthetic reverberating is fine there if it is done properly. I have some experience with it and some great successes but I do not talk about it as people generally do not understand it. A few years back I mention at My Playback section that I use ADS delays and phase randomizers as “RT60 extenders”. Then I begin getting emails form idiots who blamed me (can you believe!!!) that they bought the ADS processors and the processors sound like shit. The cretins who have “recommended components” intend of brain thought that the ADS are good amplifiers…

Romy the Cat wrote:

3)    With after-performance synthetic reverb the feedback between results, expressivity and the means to accomplish that expressivity does not incused the musicians awareness. Pretend an amplifier where open loop does not behave as it was affected to closed loop. Scare? The where same happen with music. If you are musician then your definition, you feeling of tempo and timing are greatly modulated by reverberation time at the performing space. If you need to hit two keys on piano with an internal (let present that it is the Beethoven’s Sonata no. 8) then how long the internal would be? The duration of the internal is very important but it is also very important the organization and the reaction of the rest of your play to those internals. That organization is the product of musician awareness and the reverberation time is one of the ingredients that affect the musician compliance. Changing the reverberation conditions without changing the “musician compliance” is not good thing to do/