Stereo Recordings
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Playing back stereo recordings
Stereophonic sound attempts to create an illusion of location for
various instruments within the original recording. The recording
engineer's goal is usually to create a stereo "image" with
localization information. When a stereophonic recording is heard
through loudspeaker systems rather than headphones, each ear of
course hears sound from both speakers. The audio engineer may and
often does use more than two microphones, sometimes many more, and
may mix them down to two tracks in ways that exaggerate the
separation of the instruments to compensate for the mixture that
occurs when listening via speakers.
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Descriptions of stereophonic sound tend to stress the ability to
localize the position of each instrument in space, but in reality
many people listen on playback systems that do a poor job of
re-creating a stereo "image". Many listeners assume that "stereo"
sound is "richer" or "fuller-sounding" than monophonic sound. This
is inaccurate — stereo and mono can have equally detailed abilities
to play recorded notes. The spatial illusion is what sets stereo
recordings apart from mono recordings.
When playing back stereo recordings, best results are obtained by
using two speakers, in front of and equidistant from the listener,
with the listener located on the center line between the two
speakers.
The ORTF stereo microphone system is a microphone technique used to
record stereo sound. It was devised around 1960 at the Office de
Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) at Radio France.
This technique uses two small cardiod microphones, their capsules
spaced by 17 cm, the angle formed between their bodies being 110°.
The microphones should be as similar as possible, preferably a
closely-matched factory pair. In practical arrangements the distance
and angle can be manually adjusted slightly by ear for the best
sound, as this will vary depending on room acoustics, source
characteristics, and so on. These inter-channel signals have nothing
to do with interaural signals which come only From artificial head
recordings. Even The spacing of a = 17 cm has nothing to do with
interaural ear spacing. The recording angle for this microphone
system is ± 48° = 96°.
The result is a realistic stereo field that has reasonable
compatibility with mono playback. Since the cardioid polar pattern
rejects off-axis sound, less of the ambient room characteristics are
picked up. This means that the mics can be set back further from the
sound sources, resulting in a blend that may be more appealing.
Further, ORTF is easy to achieve, as purpose-built microphone mounts
are available.
Methods and media for sound recording are varied and have undergone
significant changes between the first time sound was actually
recorded for later playback until now.
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