Is soundstage just a distortion?

"This is a major reason why so many recordings and orchestras sound more and more the same in this day and age - not only are players all over the world sounding more and more the same, and regional differences are being lost, the recordings themselves contribute to this sameness by the way they are miked and edited and mixed. "

Hadn't thought about that but rings true.

Does it matter?

I tend to think whenever everything starts to sound the same it does, but most people probably would not care.

The flip side is there are more recordings out there than ever each day, so the variety is still going up even if many newer ones tend to have more similarities due to production than in the past.

Also I suppose the fact that much litening to music occurs on portable devices using earphones has a major effect on the way recordings as a whole are produced. Gotta be a very small % of listeners out there who care about soundstage and have the tools to actually get it.

The good news is that most all recordings these days can have a big soundstage when played if desired, even if in many or most cases it is mainly a result of the production as opposed to anything resembling an original live performance.

Its a lifelike illusion of the players performing in YOUR room which is different than where recorded regardless. That's all one can expect and mostly what matters to me.

Having said that, I am a big fan of recordings that DO attempt to reproduce original live performance soundstage, Like old MErcury recordings from teh late50's and early 60's, and some current niche labels like Mapleshade and Dorian.

I'm from the camp who's position is 'been there, done that' regarding original music production. Not much if any new stuff is worth while anyway. There's so much original vinyl out there I haven't heard that I'd need at least two more lifetimes to sample it all.

Commenting on Learsfool's most recent post -- multi-miking classical recordings is not necessitated by the use of digital recording devices. There are no technical reasons why a 2 or 3 track, a la 1950s Decca/Mercury/RCA, digital recording cannot be made. The reasons for miking each orchestra section and/or soloist are artistic, practical and ultimately economic. Multi-miked, multi-channel digital recordings give the audio engineer/conductor/record producer/record label far greater control and make it easier to sculpt the final sound of a recording than purist recording techniques can. Effectively, classical recordings have adopted the pop music paradigm of record production which doesn't place an emphasis on "realism". It's not about the capture of an event, instead it's more about the creation of one.

I have one old Mercury Perfect Presence lp where the liner notes and graphics provide exact detail on performer's locations on stage during recording, the goal for the recording being to reproduce that, and for the listener to have a clear reference for how well the mission was accomplished. Very cool! That makes that particular lp very special and useful as a reference recording for soundstage and imaging.

Some recordings with huge untampered-with soundstage include Dave Mason Live, Paul McCartney Live, Clash Live, Lou Reed Rock and Roll Animal, New Jersey Percussion All-Stars on Nonesuch label, and Jazz at the Pawnshop.