Sound stage of studio recordings


I have felt that in live recordings it is easy to pin point the location of musical instruments. However for other recordings it is a hit and miss. Also for vocal solo with some instruments, the center imaging is also a hit and miss. In some songs the vocals appear to be in center. In other cases, it feels like coming from both speakers and circling around etc. 

 

Anyone though about this topic.. 

saurabhgarg

Trinity was done with an Ambisonic ( array ) microphone…. and with speakers that don’t destroy the subtle time and phase information… can be shocking…

 

@tomic601 ....I’d forgotten Ambisonics.....wonder what that’d go down with a surround Walsh or Ohm array.....🤔🙄😏😎

Oh, great....another tangent to go off on....Thanks, maybe....*L*

It can vary with each recording and how the engineer mixed the recording. This can be especially true with older jazz and other recordings etc from the fifties and sixties when stereo recordings were just starting. Intentional separation of vocals and instruments were the norm to highlight the new format. The same was true for mono recordings that were later mixed to stereo. It really can be all over the map so @soix is correct in stating the benefit of preamp controls to correct some of these issues that can sometimes be annoying.