<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>One of the key reasons why concerts of pre-recorded music are presented in public is so that the music can be heard from a better source, on a better sound system, and in a better space than most of us have access to at home. Though created in the studio, much electroacoustic music is designed for playback in conditions that do not exist in most homes, just as movies are created for the cinema rather than the home theatre. While it is certainly possible to enjoy a movie at home, a DVD on even the finest home theatre set-up simply cannot even come close to a print projected in a fine cinema house. The same is true of music. Live presentation of recorded works affords the public the opportunity to hear pieces presented in formats that are not available for the home market; the playback system in a good venue is better than what most of us have available at home; and a proper concert hall has much better acoustics than even the best home listening rooms. So if you take questions of performance out of the equation, there can still be great benefit to hearing recorded works presented in a public venue. </div><div><br></div><div>Importantly, this is precisely where the work of the diffuser comes in. Regardless of whether or not we respect the diffusion as a performance, it is the diffusion that allows for a studio piece recorded on a fixed-medium to become a site-specific event. The diffuser translates the original mix into the specific playback system and architecture of the concert venue, and allows for a unique experience of a recorded work that cannot be replicated in any other context. Sure, there are many crappy venues with poor playback systems that won't do justice to the compositional intention behind a good piece. And there are many inadequate diffusers out there too. But this is true of live music as well, and I have experienced many venues and sound systems poor enough to negate the value of hearing the musicians live. A good many of the live musician concerts I've been to have made me wish I could have a recording of that performance to listen to at home (which, happily, is often only a couple mouse clicks away nowadays). But given the right conditions, the presentation of a recorded work in a public venue with the help of good diffusion can, in my opinion, easily equal the uniqueness of any event involving live musicians performing music on a stage. This is something you just can't get at home.</div><div><br></div><div>Randolph.</div><br><div><div>On 12-Jun-09, at 4:46 PM, greg g wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; ">i'd rather just listen to it at home</span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>