does mixing kill the soundstage?


All this talk about "soundstage" gets me to thinking how in the world do we hear an accurate (or even close) soundstage on anything other than live, acoustic, performances recorded by just 2 mics with no mixing. Why would you even *hear* where a singer is if they are being recorded by a mic right in front of them that is recorded, most likely, seperately from anything else? They run all these different tracks (vocals, drums, guitar, whatever), changing the volume of each one to get the best *sound* Why would this not create a total mess? I guess I know nothing about how the recording process is done, but just off the top of my head it seems like almost everything would just be a garbled mess, which alot are, but some are not and I KNOW they are mixed somewhere down the line. Am I missing something? That being said how does one find good quality live, acoustic recordings that DO have a great soundstage? I listen to just about every type of music under the sun so I am not picky. I just want 50-75 good CDs that will send chills down my spine......
a71spud
Bmpnyc, obiviously if you have a great sounding tracking room, then it can only help the quality of the final mix. It sounds like you'll be recording in only one room, hence your ambient room sound will be consistent from one track to another. Alot of recordings are not this fortunate and efforts must be made suppress the original room sound and to then add a synthetic ambience (basically a reverb, nearly always digital) as a sonic "glue" to bind the divergent sounds together. Good luck w/ your project!
Speaking from experience both as an audiophile and having done professional recording engineering both in top notch studios and minimalist classical recording venues, I just had to chime in. First of all, 99% of all pop/rock music is completely artificial. Single source mono microphones are used to record the majority of instruments. In a final mix, the mono signal is panned to the left/right channels to give a sense of "placement". Personally, I think it is more accurate to call most pop recordings "placed" mono than stereo. Still, to make a good sounding mult-track rock recording takes talent and possibly the finest engineer out there is George Massenburg (he also designs his own gear under the name GML and it can be as breathtakingly expensive as high end audio gear). In terms of symphonic recordings, multi-channel micing is utilized mainly by Deutsche Grammaphone. Engineers opt not to record in this fashion because the sound leaves a lot to be desired. Recording a symphony is more about the sound of the orchestra in a hall and capturing the essence of the orchestra as a whole. 48 tracks of mono mics that are mixed together can never represent the sound of an orchestra. A recording that has been made in this fashion can be instantly identified and the phase shifting and incoherrence between the microphones is nothing short of annoying. The finest classical recordings out there often use very few microphones. Chesky does a phenominal job of doing minimalist micing (but the performers aren't the greatest). The older DECCA recordings from the "Golden Age" would be your best bet for symphonic recordings (but use a few more mics but did a great job with it). John Eargle recordings on Delos also use a few more mics but are exceptional. If you are looking for an out of this world acoustic recording, pick up "Meeting By The River" by Ry Cooder and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. The disc is impressive both because the two of them had never met when they recorded it and because of the calibur of the recording. It is a minimalist 2 channel analog recording that cannot be topped.
Hi A71spud; Great thread, and my thanks to all the above posters who took time to explain modern recording techniques. Now I know how JJ Cale can sing in the center of the stage and still lay down the guitar "hot licks" off to the left. Cheers. Craig
Slartibart, thanks for the heads up on the Ry Cooder/V.M. Bhatt recording. I also prefer a live 2 track analogue recording at 30 ips. I have done this previously on a few demos, and love the feeling of a real event being captured. Unfortunately, time and budget prevent me from recording that way at the moment, but I am hoping to eventually do another 2 track live recording. It is an amazing energy rush!