[Assorted]

I was listening to the 1st movement of the Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat by Mozart played by the Moscow Philharmonic + Oistrakh father-son, and I kept noticing that big bass section that plays a huge C resonates from the right to the left channel, completely saturating the soundstage. Is that a recording defect? Or is it something that happens naturally? When I go to live performances I never hear such kind of bass that takes up the entire room. Either way its an awesome sound.

Another question, does anybody have the url for that German site that had all the Mozart scores for free?

 

[ken36]

I've never sensed this shifting.

 

[Assorted]

Yes, it's very wierd. If I use my EW9s that doesn't quite reach down the lowest frequencies, it almost entirely blacks out in the middle channel for 1/4 second, then the left channel plays out the echoing harmonic. It's so awkward, yet so powerful.

 

[Henry Flower]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Assorted /img/forum/go_quote.gif Another question, does anybody have the url for that German site that had all the Mozart scores for free?

This one? http://dme.mozarteum.at/mambo/index.php It's Austrian, though.

 

[Assorted]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henry Flower /img/forum/go_quote.gif This one? http://dme.mozarteum.at/mambo/index.php It's Austrian, though.

Oh yes that's right, it was Austrian, thank you!

 

[billinkansas]

With headphones, you can sometimes hear the engineers at work (play) with a moving or expanding/shrinking soundstage. This seems to be most noticeable with large orchestras where they fade mics in and out, I think especially so with mics to the extreme outsides of the orchestra.

Never heard a note move from side to side. Perhaps the mics were near a standing wave in the hall for that frequency?

 

[F107plus5]

My daughter brought over a movie soundtrack CD that had a piano being played by the principle artist, and through my speakers I could hear the orchestra laid out normally, but the piano wouldn't hold still. It sat there dead center of the stage, but actually seemed to be slowly spinning!

The treble and upper mids were easiest to track, but it was really quite obvious!

My daughter re-rented the movie and said Yup; the camera slowly orbited the piano during filming.

Apparently the mic went along for the ride!

...I outta see if I can get it from her and try it again with phones. It was quite a few years ago BC(Before Cans)!

 

[Aman]

What you will notice when you attend an orchestral performance is that the sounds being emitted from the various instrumental sections don't stand still at all, even in real life. They do, to some degree of obviousness, shift slightly from left to right. Even more noticeable is that the notes tend to appear to be coming from a higher direction when the respective pitch is also higher.

How dramatic is the right-to-left shift? Is it literally going from +180 to -180, or is it just noticeably "on the move" during the huge C? If it's the latter, it could just be a normal quality of sound in an auditorium/stage. If it's the former, I'd suspect some poor engineering work. They tend to fiddle around with the mixes during production nowadays, so don't be surprised if your brand-spankin'-new $30 CD from EMI features noticeable sound manipulation.

 

[Assorted]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aman /img/forum/go_quote.gif What you will notice when you attend an orchestral performance is that the sounds being emitted from the various instrumental sections don't stand still at all, even in real life. They do, to some degree of obviousness, shift slightly from left to right. Even more noticeable is that the notes tend to appear to be coming from a higher direction when the respective pitch is also higher. How dramatic is the right-to-left shift? Is it literally going from +180 to -180, or is it just noticeably "on the move" during the huge C? If it's the latter, it could just be a normal quality of sound in an auditorium/stage. If it's the former, I'd suspect some poor engineering work. They tend to fiddle around with the mixes during production nowadays, so don't be surprised if your brand-spankin'-new $30 CD from EMI features noticeable sound manipulation.

Yes I notice that in concerts. It's a remaster from a pretty old recording (Oistrakh's performance). The bass is literally going from side to side, like the former you said. Here's what it looks like:

to

to

As you can see in my awesome pictures, the bass literally saturates the soundstage. So it's just in the engineering then right? Thank you

 

[Fitz]

That has to be the best picture I've ever seen to describe how something sounds. Absolutely brilliant !!

(yes I'm serious)

 

[eyeresist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Assorted /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...that big bass section that plays a huge C resonates from the right to the left channel, completely saturating the soundstage. Is that a recording defect? Or is it something that happens naturally? When I go to live performances I never hear such kind of bass that takes up the entire room.

It seems to me it would be a simple reverberation effect - the loud sound on the right side of the orchestra bouncing off the left side of the hall. The saturation is probably due to standing wave resonance combined with mic limitations.