Quote Originally Posted by Hyfi View Post
Um, that means ALTERED. Any change to how it sounds to the people at the show is an alteration. What do you think everyone is talking about when the topic of recreating the live show means? How many people at any concert get to listen thru a Mixing Board?
Hyfi, this is a ridiculous comment. A recording is a snapshot of the live event. As such it must be "altered" to sound acceptable on the media that it is transferred to. There is no recording system or media that can capture(or play it back) a live event like it is heard in the hall. It would require hundreds of microphones(to capture every discrete reflection) to record, and hundreds of speakers to play it back.



A true live recording is done from the mic directly to the recorder, not thru a mixing board. Chesky uses 2 stereo mics and records directly to the recorder so what you hear on the recording is about as close to what you would have heard if there.
Sorry, you are trying to reinvent what a live recording is. A live recording is simply a capture of a live event, no matter how it is done. When it comes to recording, there is no one way fits all circumstances, and that is something you learn when you actually have to record rather than just sit back and listen. Telarc and Naxos both produced "audiophile" grade recordings, and they both use mixing boards to assist in balancing what they capture. There is no way a single stereo microphone can capture a 110 piece orchestra in a concert hall with all the proper balance needed for playback. The musicians would have to have perfect control of their sound in respect to other musicians, and that is difficult to do when you are outer edges of the orchestra in placement. Add a large chorus into the mix, and you lose all control of balance.

Secondly you are making the assumption that the mixing board somehow blocks a recording from sounding live. That is simply not true. Their are mixing boards out there that are as neutral to the sound as the microphones used to capture it.