Live versus mastered recording

[goat76]

Good is relative.

In this case, a good enough sound system in a good enough environment to be able to judge the recording's sound quality alone.

 

[threni]

Lol! It has a good chance of happening with classical. Those guys are pretty serious about the recording integrity.

You say that but when you listen to, say, the Boulez Wagner recordings (so, high profile conductor, critically acclaimed production, huge forces and something like 14 hours of audio - not cheap, and recorded recently so absolutely no reason for it not to be perfect) and you hear the audio inexplicably drop for 30 seconds or so like someone fell asleep and nudged a slider, you do wonder why there's not someone actually listening to it before release so they can go "wait, that's not right...".

 

[goat76]

Mahler: the symphonies Leonard Bernstein

I have compared the recordings now and I'm not sure, but maybe you appreciate more "raw" sounding recordings as I do?

I prefer recordings that are not overly clean sounding and I think some "realness" is lost when things get too perfect sounding. I like to hear minor faults like a foot tapping or something bouncing on the floor, or someone in the audience clearing their throat, or other similar things that add to the atmosphere of a real event with an audience.
All those faults are typically edited out from most recordings in the mixing stage (not in mastering which you may think) because they are seen as unwanted artifacts, but when all those little things get erased, I often find the end result way too processed-sounding and "too perfectly clean".

Have a listen to the following recording which I think sounds incredible, much thanks to the "perfect imperfections" which add to the overall atmosphere of the venue it was recorded in. Not Mahler, but maybe you find this recording have the things you are missing in most recordings?

Stravinsky: The Firebird / Petrushka / The Rite of Spring​

David Robertson • Sydney Symphony Orchestra​

Qobuz

Listen to your music in high quality

play.qobuz.com

 

[Vince2]

Well, after relistening to some more recordings, the advantage of streaming music, I am even more convinced about the importance of the recording. Also, the spl really matters! Especially for such an epic piece. In my previous comparison, I did not listen to equal spl. Now, I do appreciate the better recordings and absence of audience sounds.

 

[Waxx]

A lot also depends on how it's recorded. I did assist as sound engineer on some classical recordings, and the traditional way is using room mics mostly, and only a few spot mics for the solists. Like that you hear it like in the concert hall.

But fashion drives some to more close micing (still relative compared to pop and rock and so) that does not take the roomsound of the concert hall in the recording. I think that roomsound is essential to have a good recording, and the recordings of big ensembles that i like the most are those done with mostly room mics at a distance from the orchestra/choir/...

For smaller ensembles, closer micing is mostly needed, but still the room mic should be the main source of the recording i think. And the room where you record should have all the right acoustics to do that. That gives you the best recordings for classical music.

This is a good recording (i was present, but not as engineer) done mainly with roommics, in the excellent sounding Concertgebouw of Bruges (Belgium):