watchnerd
Grand Contributor
It could be chick and egg: if previous technology couldn't create a powerful image, it would be put at the bottom of the list and regarded as a myth or dismissed as a parlor trick.
People enjoy it. That doesn't mean it's accurate or high fidelity.
When I mix a live 6 track down to 2 channels, the resulting imaging is an act of artifice and one I manipulate into the recording. It doesn't exist on the unmixed session tapes (well, files) or in real life if you listen to the live mic feeds at the mixing board.
That's even more true when listening to isolation-booth recorded material where the musicians are never in the same room at the same time. Or there are no musicians at all, just a producer mixing beats.