Stereo in stereo out

[physics]

Hi, thanks for starting a thread on this! I really do find it interesting. I've wondered about just recording the room, like you mentioned. Since live mixes at times sound great as a listener in the room, I find it curious that common practice (in popular music genres) seems to be individually miking each instrument and then fiddling with stuff in post. I suppose it gives the engineer more control, requires less musicianship of the players since they can cut their parts in and out, retrying endlessly, you can apply effects to the various tracks, etc. Still, there is something alluring to me about recording... raw, for lack of a better term. In part because it seems like you'd have better band dynamics.

If the microphones are widely spaced, the distinction of instrument placement across the stage may be enhanced, with caveats: Each instrument must have its own single speaker cabinet or "zone" where its sound is dominant; the PA sound ideally carries only vocals or has a proper mix corresponding to the stage positions of the instruments; or the PA sound is minimised as much as possible in the stereo microphone placement.

Hmm, so if I'm running a(n) (ultimate) symmetric setup, then I don't care much about extra wide spacing, since part of the symmetric idea is to have uniform sound across the stage for all the amplified instruments. Is that correct?

Thanks for all the great info you've already provided. I hope the music club I'm part of will allow me to set up a few mics to try this out during our performances this semester, really curious how it will turn out. You've described it of course, but I want to experience it myself.