R3 spatial layouts

[Dave2002]

In recent months I have had some hearing problems, but they may be receding. I now seem to be able to hear most sounds from left and right again.

What I do wonder is what positioning the BBC channels use for announcers voices - such as Tom Service in the New Music Show. Is his voice panned to the left, or is it supposed to sound central?

It's difficult to know for sure as so much of reproduced or transmitted music/sounds is heavily processed - and simple techniques don't give good spatial clues.

I can shift Tom's voice more over to the right, but it doesn't sound particularly well focused. On the other hand the Khrystyna Kirk track has a lot of ambience and seemingly well differentiated spatially organised sounds some which even seem to move around.

Perhaps this isn't something that many listeners concern themselves with.

[gradus]

Dave could this be a speaker phase issue?

[Dave2002]

I listen on headphones a lot. I suspect that voices are often recorded using a mono microphone, and panned into a mix. Also, if the voices are recorded into a studio with sound absorbing material, there will be hardly any ambient sound to give more aural clues. I know that recording for headphone listening the techniques are often different from recording for speakers.

I have made recordings in live venues using microphones and listened some way away to the output of the microphones, and on a few occasions I was really surprised at how realistic the effects were, such that I turned round to see/hear what was going on. So some methods of recording can give much better spatial information than others.

Phase shifts, ambience and time delays can all play a part, as well of course as level differences between the left and right channels. Another possibility is that humans also rely on timbre differences between the left and right ears. Timbre differences are not going to exist in recordings made with a mono mic, fed into the L and R channels, assuming that the equipment is all working well.

[LMcD]

In recent months I have had some hearing problems, but they may be receding. I now seem to be able to hear most sounds from left and right again.

What I do wonder is what positioning the BBC channels use for announcers voices - such as Tom Service in the New Music Show. Is his voice panned to the left, or is it supposed to sound central?

It's difficult to know for sure as so much of reproduced or transmitted music/sounds is heavily processed - and simple techniques don't give good spatial clues.

I can shift Tom's voice more over to the right, but it doesn't sound particularly well focused. On the other hand the Khrystyna Kirk track has a lot of ambience and seemingly well differentiated spatially organised sounds some which even seem to move around.

Perhaps this isn't something that many listeners concern themselves with.

Are you sure it isn't just Tom bouncing around the studio?

[Petrushka]

Are you sure it isn't just Tom bouncing around the studio?

[Dave2002]

Are you sure it isn't just Tom bouncing around the studio?

This article may give some clues!

https://www.linkwitzlab.com/frontiers_6.htm