I was going to say something but, alas, I was only First French Horn for three years. You must have really good embouchure.
At This Time Can We Recreate Full Range Live Music In The Home?
I read on this web site some members claim they go to the symphony orchestra and are "convinced" their system reproduces the experience. I agree with vocals, light percussion, acoustic music, light jazz, the best systems come very close. My experience comes from being a semi professional drummer for 40+ years. I currently have acoustic and electronic drums in my home. I play in a huge open space with 20 foot cathedral ceilings. I think I can state that I know what live drums sound like. Can even the six figure systems reproduce the attack and decay of a 20 inch crash cymbal? I say "maybe" in the future but not now! What makes me laugh is we audiophiles myself included will spend many, many thousands of dollars trying to reproduce the sound of a $20 triangle or a $15 woodblock or a $10 shaker. Play the song Aja by Steely Dan. I can play on my system the drum solo by the great Steve Gadd at realistic volume levels-if you dare -but it is not the same as real drums!! I don’t know if I can’t convince people that are not musicians. Not putting non-musicians down. Quoting my dad, "You don’t have to be a horse to be a horse doctor." Another quote by John Lennon. Someone asked him what he was listening to. He responded, "Dripping water." It would be interesting to know how many of the greatest producers/engineers are or are not musicians or vocalists.
Some statistics: Soft drums 105dB, hard drums up to 130dB, kick drum/timpani 106-111dB, ride cymbal 101dB, toms 110dB, ride bell 115dB, crash 113dB, snare 120dB, rimshot 125dB. I have a system that could produce 125dB, would I -NO WAY I value my #1 instrument -my ears. So the drums are playing at 125dB peaks, now add in the other 80+ members of the symphony orchestra-how loud now? I ask again, can we at this time reproduce accurately the power of a symphony orchestra in the home? For many of us this is the Holy Grail of being an audiophile - Keep Searching!
Some statistics: Soft drums 105dB, hard drums up to 130dB, kick drum/timpani 106-111dB, ride cymbal 101dB, toms 110dB, ride bell 115dB, crash 113dB, snare 120dB, rimshot 125dB. I have a system that could produce 125dB, would I -NO WAY I value my #1 instrument -my ears. So the drums are playing at 125dB peaks, now add in the other 80+ members of the symphony orchestra-how loud now? I ask again, can we at this time reproduce accurately the power of a symphony orchestra in the home? For many of us this is the Holy Grail of being an audiophile - Keep Searching!
Showing 4 responses by millercarbon
It's not about replicating 'live music' - it's about getting as close as possible to what the producer and artist wanted the record to sound like; it's all about their subjectivity. "Live music" will sound 10 completely different ways from 10 different perspectives. Pretty good. What we are doing is putting art on display. Van Gogh saw an olive orchard, painted his impression of it. Beautiful painting, deserves to be seen in a good light, with space for perspective, all of that. Saw it in a museum, nobody was trying to recreate an actual olive orchard. We just want to appreciate the art of Van Gogh. Music systems are even harder, because the art isn't always like that. The recordings are the art, and they are as different from each other as a painting is from a sculpture. Nobody even can say what the recording is supposed to sound like! Not even the recording engineer! Even he, all he knows is what it did sound like when he was in the studio. If he even can recall. But even then what he recalls is a composite of what it sounded like all the many times he heard it, over and over again, this mix that mix final mix and sitting wherever, whenever. It is when you think about it freaking amazing it works as well as it does at all. No wonder someone sings into a can, play it back on a gramophone and even that sounds pretty freaking amazing. Even though, as always, it is just a representation and not recreating anything. |
A fascinating aspect of this I forgot to mention, it was Eric Alexander being a professional drummer who was upset with the inability of even SOTA audio to reproduce that sound that motivated him to invent his MTM array. His Tekton speakers are phenomenal success. So in spite of the fact no one really wants an actual drum kit in their home (well almost no one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVFFjp90ouU ) we do appreciate being able to get reasonably close. |
If you are asking can any system play with all the dynamic volume and slam of a live drum kit, no. Which, interestingly enough is the answer to a related question: Would you want it if it did? NO! Are you nuts?!?! You know perfectly well how freaking loud a drum kit is. When the kid across the street took up drums in the garage it lasted about 20 minutes, the time it took everyone on the street to gather up their pitchforks and torches! Even a piano. These things were created to fill large concert halls and noisy bar rooms with sound. They were not created to sit in a normal size room and listen. This all stems from the crazy notion that what we mean by realism is literally in every sense the same. Which would you rather look at, a Polaroid of an olive grove or The Olive Grove by Van Gogh? The world has spoken: one is worth millions, the other peanuts. Neither one is ever going to be confused with an actual olive grove. One however somehow captures the essence of "olive grove" so beautifully people compete to pay millions to have it. That is what we mean by "recreate at home". When you hear Tchaikovsky on my system the walls dissolve the space expands and you feel transported to a concert hall. It is like watching a really good movie, no one ever for an instant believes they are on another planet. But if the writers and director and cinematographer all do their job extremely well you care so much for that stupid blue dude your eyes well up with tears when he dies. Mine sure did. If they can get you so wrapped up and lost in the story you cry over a blue guy floating in space, and you can do this in your living room, then for sure we can do that with music too. |