does mixing kill the soundstage?


All this talk about "soundstage" gets me to thinking how in the world do we hear an accurate (or even close) soundstage on anything other than live, acoustic, performances recorded by just 2 mics with no mixing. Why would you even *hear* where a singer is if they are being recorded by a mic right in front of them that is recorded, most likely, seperately from anything else? They run all these different tracks (vocals, drums, guitar, whatever), changing the volume of each one to get the best *sound* Why would this not create a total mess? I guess I know nothing about how the recording process is done, but just off the top of my head it seems like almost everything would just be a garbled mess, which alot are, but some are not and I KNOW they are mixed somewhere down the line. Am I missing something? That being said how does one find good quality live, acoustic recordings that DO have a great soundstage? I listen to just about every type of music under the sun so I am not picky. I just want 50-75 good CDs that will send chills down my spine......
a71spud

Showing 2 responses by a71spud

So they actually try to create a soundstage that most likely does not exist in real-life (in the former example). Interesting. I guess a very large percentage of the sound quality falls on the shoulders of these people. I would love to "sit in" and experience that happening. Some may find it boring, but I love to watch a good cook prepare a meal. ( time for a midnight snack.......?)
Thanks to all who have responded (and for the positive marks too), it has been a real "ear-opener" for me. I am going to track down that Ry Cooder release before this weekend. It sure sounds like I should spend a bit more time looking for quality recordings to listen to instead of fretting about not having hospital grade outlets. Maybe that is why vinyl sounds better, they screwed around with the music a bit less. Technology can be a dangerous thing in the right hands......