I want 150+ channels!!!!! muwhahahahaaahaaa Sound Engineers' wet dream....or worst nightmare???? :scratch2:
wet dream, would be a tad harder to mix, but definitely doable...
if only there would exist such a system, let alone medium to store it on, available for the people...
as for the nightmare, with a bigger concert, they get 100+ channels input anyway, and they then have to mix it to 2 speakers...
as far as the "stereo conspiracy" goes: if you have a room, with 3 musicians in it, a guitar player on the left, drums/percussion on the right, and a vocalist in the middle, how much sources do you hear? unless the distance you're standing at is more than twice the distance between the left & right musician, you can easily (without any problems at all), locate them with your ears alone, this too goes at greater distances, until reflections and such in the room, or soundwaves "broadening out" (don't know correct description), make it sound as a single point source. In this retrospect, stereo provides "stereophonic" imaging, meaning left & right, and a soundstage in between that, and on good recordings (with good phase, depth,...), you even get the impression that the soundstage goes further than the left & right speaker (due to phasing).
A good (and I do mention GOOD), mono setup, can provide excellent depth, but no imaging from left to right. So no image, the 3 musicians in the room would sound as if they were all at the same place, standing either behind each other, or, with bad recordings, all in the same place (unrealistic), this perceived depth largely has to do with the mic quality & position. A mono microphone, with sound coming from the 3 musicians, placed in front of the middle source (the vocalist), placed not to close, the sound from the vocalist reaches the mic first, and the sound from the guitar & drums reach it later, because there is a greater distance between the mic and the source than with the mic and the vocalist. This creates depth. If all three distances would be different, you'd get each source as if it was placed behind each other. A bad mic cannot "spot" these differences in distance. A bad room, or a too dead sounding room can cause the lack of depth too.
Here mono does have the advantage of having the edge in depth perception, although, with a good stereo setup, with carefully positioned speakers, and good quality components (same goes for the mono setup, of course), depth is almost as good, if not even as mono systems.
As for 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 or more for music: many many many surround music recordings do it wrong. Where are you sitting when you're going to a concert? Where are you sitting when you are listening to some music played by a small band? you're in front of them. Behind you there are more people, room, whatever, but no more musicians. This is where much surround recordings "fail" in my humble opinion, they try to put us "right in the middle" of the stage, between the musicians. Not only is this never going to happen for most people, unless you're a musician in that particular band, it's not realistic neither. Our hearing works better for things coming from in front of us, things coming from behind are less well perceived.
So, again, in this retrospect, a "good" & realistic surround recording would have music coming from front L+R, and center, and "ambience", coming from behind. On concerts, this means, people, and "outside" noises, in venues, this can also include some reflections from music bouncing back at you from behind (mostly we don't like those in real life), so not so much of them on the recording, please. But then again, we're talking concerts here, not studio recorded music. Here, with "normal" music (with this I mean, played by a band with musicians playing actual instruments, etc, not the funky electronic stuff, in which case it can be 'cool' (read cool, not better per se) to have surround). you are not in the middle of the band. The band is still playing in front of you, like in real life, and there are no noises coming from the rear, unless it's a really really really big studio/venue, but still, not that much.
So, surround music, no thanks, having been on much stages so far, I'd much rather be down there with the public, listening to music coming from in front of me...
(not saying that surround is not cool, it is, it's actually pleasant too, sometimes, but realistic? no, and better than stereo? not at this time, and I won't see it happen for the next few years neither...)
Keep them spinning,
Bert.
