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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: Time Alignment : Live Performances vs Audio
Post Subject: Stating the obviousPosted by jessie.dazzle on: 3/31/2007
Hello Stringreen,
First, though I do use it, I think the term "time alignment" is a misnomer... We should really be calling it something else.
When you say "Time Allignment has nothing to do with the placement of instruments in an orchestra", you may be correct (apart from the fact that alignment is spelled with one "L").
If we take into account both the conditions of a concert hall, as well as those of a room where recorded music is being reproduced, sound will travel through the air in both spaces at the same speed for all frequencies (about 340m/sec). There is just no getting around this.
In both cases there are point sources, and a simple time/distance relationship as the sound makes its way to the listener. If there is a difference in the placement of these sources relative to each other it can only mean that the arrival of the sounds to the point of reception (the listener's ear) will be a function of this relative distance between each source, and to the ear of the listener. If the distance between the various sources is small relative to the distance to the listener, things will "appear" to arrive more or less at the same time ; the closer the listener, the more the perception will be one of staggered arrival.
When you say "Did anyone wonder why a violin playing 2nd space A sounds different that a trumpet playing the same pitch?" (btw, there are grammatical errors in this sentence). Well yes of course, but how is this relevant to the discussion?
"In physics, when a string or air column in excited into vibration, not only does the basic pitch get reproduced, but so does its harmonic series - an octave higher, then a 5th higher than that, etc. The violin's overtone series differs from the trumpets in that although the same pitches are produced, the strengths of each overtone varies quite a bit"
Well this is interesting, really, but again, what is your point here?
"...the discussion would be more authoritive if you could edit your spelling, syntax, grammar, etc."
Your word "authoritive" is not English (or French!)... Did you mean authoritative?
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