positioning

so here i am, listening to dick dale jam like nobody's business on "Unknown Territory", first track, and i figured out something else about "positioning".

i've been trying to get the whole "imaging" and "positioning" thing, but it dawned on my (secondarily to what really dawned on me, which i'll get to) that i'm listening to the wrong kind of stuff for that.

there is "soundstage" and positioning, but in the case of this recording, it's compressed, stacked, mushed. they didn't get the band together and put one mic in the room -- they got the band together and put one mic on each band member. so when the percussions from the drum solo rush on by from left to right, i'm not observing the drummer, i am the drummer. and when it's not a solo, when it's just the drummer banging away to support dick, he doesn't sound "apart" from dick, because he's "on top" (er.. heh) of dick as far as this recording sounds.

and suddenly it all makes a lot more sense. i'm not observing a performance, with this album and setup, i'm not "on the stage", i am each band member simultaneously. i get to do something that's physicially impossible. i get to feel like i'm "there" for a physically impossible value of "there".

cool.