Concert stage layout -- who made who?

Sean...Your recording approach reminds me of scrambled eggs, as opposed to sunny side. I gather that by your arangement of musicians, and some judicious mixing, you aim to create a "soundstage" when the two channel recording is played back. OK, I believe you can capture a soundstage, and your method may be one way to do it.

However, I think that the oposite approach of isolating instruments to discrete channels (and perhaps a phantom center) can also be very effective, although it is fashonable to ridicule it as "ping pong" stereo. When the number of instruments is small, say six or less for a multichannel system, the result on playback is to transport the musicians into the listener's room rather than transport the listener to the recording venue. The "soundstage" that is developed is the one of your room. It is a real soundstage, not a reproduced one. Not all music lends itself to this approach, but when it applies and is done right the result is astonishing.

Eldartford, I think Sean was trying to describe the arrangement of amps for a live concert, not a recording. I think you're right in that what a lot of small ensemble jazz recording producers are trying to do is to bring the ensemble into your living room, rather than give you an illusion of the recording space, and it can be effective if done right.

I understand what you are saying Sean, but not sure I understand the need for it, unless there was a dearth of stage monitors for the players and not much more than the vocals being routed through the L/R PA mains for the audience (which is certainly sometimes the case, but usually only in venues so small that it might not make much difference). When I've played onstage, having the other guy's amp on the other side of the drums has been just about right in terms of my own personal mix balance, where I want to hear myself louder than the other amplified instrumentalists.

I concur about the annoyance factor sometimes associated with listening to early 'ping-pong' stereo mixes. I often wish for a preamp cross-mix 'blend' control, where you could balance the trade-off between excessive panning separation and the cancellation effects that can degrade a 100% mono'ed stereo signal. Unfortunately, these days it's a victory just getting a preamp with a mono button at all, much less the type of channel assignment capabilities you see on older Macs (or even 80's C-J's).