Mono (Off Topic)

by PeterSt. , Netherlands, Thursday, February 01, 2007, 10:52 (6293 days ago) @ MirkoW
edited by unknown, Thursday, February 01, 2007, 11:02

Hi Mirko,

From the point of view that "an instrument is a mono source" (:secret this could be an interesting subject. There are a few things on my mind though, which you might think over (some things have been said (in)directly already by others).

First off, an instrument is IMO not a mono source. It's not stereo either. In the context of the subject it's a multi source. Take the cello as an example, and the whole (vibrating) cabinet produces the sound and timbre. For sure not only the "music slits" in it, and even those are large than a "point" *and* there are two of them.

Besides this, even a real point source -let's say a small flute- will never act as a point source in real life, because there will be reflections always. And they contribute to the sound.

Then there is the aspect of : it's kind of the other way around;
We have two ears, and those two ears have been created to locate a source. A bird in the field can be located by your ears, because you have two. With one you wouldn't be able to locate anything by means of its sound production, although to a certain extend you can because of your body senses too (and that is interpreted by the brain).

Actually, being able to listen to music (etc.) the way it was recorded (where is the singer, where is the piano, etc.), is a small miracle. For 100% sure it wasn't intended, because at the time sound recording was invented for sure this wasn't the idea behind it, not even when stereo was invented.
The "fact" that we are now able to see where instruments are, just came by itself, and it came with the improvement of quality (the quality of 25 years or so ago, is sufficient for that sensation).

With mono this is impossible.

The subject itself seems to allow for 4 speakers (formally quadrophony), but sadly that doesn't work, because sitting on the podium yourself as a listener, is hardly reality ever. With movies and the implied sounds it may do, *if* and only if it is about sounds like overhead aeroplanes and stuff like that.
Besides that, a center speaker is kind of the worst from all, because that immmplies mono really, and the spaciousness disappears with that. I mean, with normal stereo, and sounds which are intended to come from the middle, will come from the middle, unless the system is of poor quality.

On the risk of getting vague on the subject, one last step further is 3d spaciousness from even behind the listening place, with a two speaker system;
The beauty of this -when achieved- is, that whenever such a thing happens in music, it is natural, and you can sense it was intended. For this matter I'm not talking about QSound intentionally doing that (though created for headphones it works with a good system from speakers just the same), but about music in general, where nature forces this to happen.

The magic word is "nature", which phenomenon is used by myself more and more to achieve utmost playback. This obviously starts with passing through the music as exactly as possible as how it was stored on the source.

It is commonly known that two microphones are sufficient (if not best) to reproduce the image as how it was during recording.
Sidenote : ... while reflections from the recording studio / hall / church etc., should be passed through as well, and where I "state" that this is rather unrelated to the listening room where all is played back. This is a subject by itself I can (and will) workout further and further, with already enough proof to make it a physical law, although the contents of that law is unknown to me yet.

3d spaciousness is created with phaseshifts. Deliberately like with QSound, or by nature because there (during recording) it just happened.
Phase is the keyword to everything and once you have that right, the image will be correct.

Do note, no matter how unbelieveable this may sound :eek:, that when 3d spaciousness is working properly you can walk through the room and an instrument coming from, say, one meter behind you, 3 meters aside, will just stay at that position. Even when you walk behind that instrument. In fact you can walk around it.

Phase in a mono playback system, does not exist. There will be no image at all, there will be no spaciousness at all.
Phase in a stereo playback system, though the music recorded with one microphone, will have spaciousness, but no image. It could well be that any stereo playback system showing spaciousness from a mono recording, has phase problems (disalignment) within itself (or really bad reflections from the room).

Peter

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