Listeners attribute bass imbalance to venues, not instruments, via auditory scene analysis.
Evidence
In live performances we don’t normally feel a need to “equalize” (even if we could) the sound from instruments and voices. They are what they are, and for the most part, the timbral signatures are well replicated in different performance venues. Bass balance is a possible exception, but it is interesting that if we sense an excess or deficiency of bass in a live performance, we are not inclined to blame the instrument or the musician, but the acoustics of the venue. This can be interpreted as a case of perceptual streaming, the result of, as Bregman (1999) describes it, auditory scene analysis. Clearly there is significant perceptual analysis, deduction and adaptation going on. This cognitive activity apparently happens subconsciously in everyday listening; we hear and recognize the timbral identities and subtleties of the same sound sources, but in different rooms. Two ears and a brain are massively more analytical and adaptable than an omnidirectional microphone and an analyzer. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 614
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Bregman’s auditory scene analysis and to the reader’s soundscape/silence reading — the brain as an active analyzer rather than passive transducer. — connects to: Listeners can perceptually separate loudspeaker timbre from room coloration in comparisons