Point-source mic capture loses the binaural ability to separate direct from reflected sound

Evidence

A major problem with microphone pickup of sound is that sound is captured at a point in space, and instruments and voices radiate different sounds in different directions. In a live acoustic concert, all these sounds eventually reach our ears through reflections in the performance space, but a microphone positioned in an audience location collects sound that is judged to be too reverberant. Two ears and a brain—binaural hearing—in the same location can perceptually separate the direct and reflected sounds, but the microphone simply combines them. Therefore, recording microphones are placed much closer to the voices and instruments, meaning that only a sample of the sound from the source is recorded, which may or may not be a good representation of the sound heard in the audience. Compromise is necessary, and engineers have worked out schemes that work for them, with or without adding equalization. Recording engineers can manipulate the mix to sound something like the live event, to create a totally artificial experience, or anything in between. In the absence of live references, contemporary listeners have adapted to the new close-miked instrumental sounds which may have more clarity and detail than a more distant “acoustical” version. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 271

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the psychoacoustic mechanism of binaural hearing commonly covered in Toole’s companion acoustic research and to precedence/HAAS effect discussions. — connects to: Microphone configuration determines whether sound origin location can be recovered — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 1978