Is A Live Concert Stereo Or Mono

I could be off the mark here but the point your emailer may have been trying to make, and how it differs from Tvad's assessment, is whether the performance is amplified or not. If it is not then Tvad is right on that it is not stereo or mono it's real. If however the performance is amplified and played through speakers around the stage or on either side, I think that "reproduction" is normally done in mono so people sitting outside of exact center will hear the entire performance too. Maybe someone will chime in and correct me, but this is what I have surmised from personal experiences. I don't know why a mono recording would conceivably sound better but I'm sure someone else will chime in on that concept.

Concerts are actually reproduced from stage right and left speaker stacks running in a stereo mix. The engineer (the guy sitting in the audience working from a mixing console) runs the show in stereo but mixes it so that there is directionality from the speaker stacks and on-stage amps but with a view towards mixing the show to make sure even those in far right and left seats can hear everything. Bottom line result is sort-of stereo from the front and sort-of mono from the sides.

Nwext time you are at a show ask the engineer before the show when he at the console waiting for the houselights to go down (but not too close to the start of the show). Having worked many years with them they are generally friendly and will answer simple questions.

G'day all, this is actually a very good and interesting question! I'm always believed, and read that the invention of stereo recording was an attempt to reproduce the sound of an actual live performance!

Yet as a regular attendee of live music performances (unmiked) myself and sitting pretty well in the middle of the venue my own impressions are that 'stereo effect' (left /right directionality) is discernable, but only marginally so which leads me to believe that much 'stereo' on recordings is deliberately exaggerated!

Whilst that sounds great coming over a stereo system, in my opinion it isn't the real thing! Regards Fap.

I would think the individual instrument would be mono with there own speaker location. So we would here the drummer center keyboard guitars and other instrument where the group players would be located for the concert. The same as it is when we listen at home. Plus we have line of sight to help with location for it to appear we are hearing stereo. Stereo is really a way for us to here the location of the instrument is it not.

Apparently none of you have attended a Pink Floyd concert. They used multi-channel reproduction since the 1970's at their shows.