The Prevalence and/or Lack of Ambient Hall Sound in Certain Kinds Of Music
I was listening to classical music on the car radio – which is pretty much what I listen to, and not just because it is more or less commercial-free, which is nice, and not just because it is more or less news-free, which is also nice.
Anyway, I noticed that much of the individual instruments of the particular piece, I forget which, could be heard echoing in the hall where the recording was made. And, you know, a LOT of recorded classical music has along with it the sound of the hall. I like this. It makes the instruments feel fuller and the decay is more interesting and natural.
Funny how a LOT (all?) of popular music has no ambient hall sound at all, either recorded in a studio, and the sound of the studio is edited out if it exists at all, or, if recorded live, the sound of the hall is again edited out, often along with editing out the sound of the audience.
What cinches this for me, personally, is that many bootlegs, recorded live in concert, have an abundance of hall sound… and I really like this. Again on the car radio, this time the Fort Collins station, they were playing a country rock band playing in what sounded like a largeish stadium. The lead guitar was echoing slightly in the hall there… and I loved it.
But back to classical music… it is hard to think of any that we have here where I can recall it having no concert hall sound effects. Maybe this is like science fiction book covers having certain styles and colors, and mystery novels a similar but different style and color… i.e. this is the way it has always been done and we are used to it and the people who record the music just continue to do it the same was it has always be done, and, well, here we are with posts like this commenting on it. 🙂
Mike – No doubt as you observe, the acoustics of the performing venue have an impact, be it positive or negative, on the playback…I say that having just rented from the library three of the famed New Year’s Eve Vienna Philharmonic Concerts with all the audience noise and, especially, the clapping in the Radetzky March finale…which is starting to make me yearn for a “clean” version of this spirited piece. I like the hall but find the audience a bit distracting. That aside…both performaing venues have their sonic strengths thought the performaance may be generally more inspirational and draw you deeper into involvement where an audience was present.
Being a big organ fan, I love the resonating and revereberating and spacial acoustics of churches and cathedrals, which play heavily into the live experience as well as the recorded experience of this type of music. Well, here is a fix, which might not work for everyone – Specifically to see how room acoustics affected them, I recently relocated my Alexandria X-2 speakers out of the 16’x20′ “Audio Room” into the “Great Room” – 22′ ceilings and some 25’x 40′ of floor space and a ceiling that extends 15 more feet to cover a loft and then played the standard repertoire of music we’ve shared…Lord Nelson Mass, Sailing to Philadelphia, Pink Panther, Choral Fantasy….they all sound like live performances…not just Lord Nelson which has its own recorded spatial ambiance in spades, but “Sailing” and Pink Panther, which must have been in a studio, also resonates. The large room acoustics do impose themselves pleasingly on the music. Sounds nothing like a highly treated room when the hand clap strikes your ears like a hard-boild egg hitting the ground. So if you like your in-the-car Bose sound put on a closed set of headphones and try fallling asleep at night with that sound. And if there isn’t enough performance venue largeer spatial effect in the recording, and that nice cathedral ceiling large main listening room in Boulder doesn’t do it as is…blow out a wall, add an extension out over the viewing end of the room, and make it into a mini concert hall!
I suspect that what you have identified is a by-product of how the various types of music are recorded. The size and cost of recording a full symphony orchestra probably dictate that the event a) cannot easily be recorded in a studio and b) that there not be repeated takes over multiple days. Pop is different in that it is typically recorded in multiple takes over a longer period and then mixed. Also it is almost always recorded in a studio, often a section at a time with the singer/ performer separated from the remainder of the musians, often in a sound room. I do have a numer of live performances of pop/ rock/ acoustic music and you can hear the hall to a much greater degree.
Sometimes it’s not the problem of player or equipment but related to the quality of media. Even just mp3 format can have different quality such as 128K and 320K.
I love the resonating and revereberating and spacial acoustics of churches and cathedrals, which play heavily into the live experience as well as the recorded experience of this type of music. Well, here is a fix, which might not work for everyone