When I listen to my system.......

@immatthewj ....! A food means of describing 'the audio experience'......

for example, that is flat and lifeless or harsh and grainy.

...comparisons with various menu marvels....(*sigh* ....I know, I know....

Happens every issue these days.

"This prototype preamp functioned like a stale tuna sandwich....." ;)

@inagroove ...Precisely, much like when film was a series of single images with the sound track added.  One's mind accepted these as smooth moving imagery.

Cut to Now:  In our shared reality, the digital means to 'do' most anything is basically Here.

AV is just one block in a very big and growing; one could conceive of an environment that could simulate an actual situation down to the smell of the space and what it felt like to be 'there'....

....comes down to the same old question...

"What's that worth to you?" *S* ;)

@inagroove there is no requirement on the definition of music that it applies only to live music.  It’s music whether it’s live or recorded.  I do agree that there are differences between the two.  Among them being that the sound of recorded music, that a loudspeaker creates, is a facsimile of the sound created by the actual instrument and is subject to both of the influences you mention and certainly more.

Agreed "music" does not have to be live to be music.

But even a live performance performed though any sort of public address system is subject to many of the same "flaws" as a recorded track.

What of the music that is performed simultaneously with background recordings?  Is that "live?"

What of a performer who "loops" a sound byte?

How about the guitar player using an Echoplex where the echo is created through the use of a tape loop?

@ toddalin

Your comments are missing the point. 

Once music is recorded/reproduced you leave the world of music and enter the world of music reproduction, which is why we gather in this forum to discuss gear, not performers/performances (unless it is to clarify a point regarding gear).

If you are still scratching your head, perhaps an explicit analogy will help - 

Claiming a recording IS real music is analogous to saying a photograph of my dog IS my dog (without the fur :-).   Really not the same thing at all.

Once this is concept is clear, 'music vs gear' comments (which started this thread) in this forum are inappropriate.  There are more appropriate forums in which to discuss music.

And yes, Loops are processed, not live music.  I thought that was obvious.

No further comments needed.

@inagroove music is defined as “vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.”  There is no requirement that it be live.  Your dog analogy represents the distinction between a “live” dog and a photograph of a dog.  They are both dogs but different representations of it.  Live music and recorded music are both music just different representations of it.  What happens when live music is amplified and played through speakers?  Does this mean it’s not music since it’s being reproduced by microphones, processed by electronics, and playing back through speakers which may or may not capture exactly the sound produced by an unamplified instrument?