Question: recording live musicians / clipped audio

[The Dong]

Martin Naef wrote:
> Yeah, that's all true, and part of the "tube magic" - except that we 
> want a *clean*, totally *undistorted* recording with the full dynamic 
> range still intact. If you hit the tubes hard, it may still sound 
> "nice", but you've lost the dynamic range that you wanted to retain in 
> the first place.

The recording would be clean and undistorted, but if it does go into 
clipping once or twice in the performance, it might not be a total 
disaster. That is all I'm trying to covey. If you just rely on a -brick 
wall- limiter to stop clipping and set it up willy nilly, your going to 
lose a lot more than dynamic range from a performance.

How much dynamic range do you want?
How much dynamic range does an orchestra need to sound 'good'?

80dB ?
90dB ?
100dB ?
120dB ?
140dB ?

Is dynamic range the most important factor?
Or can reduction or neutralising of unwanted noise or artefact sources 
be much more important?
Can the average consumer hifi even chunk out 80dB range?
Can top hifi gear really reproduce 120dB range?

Frankly, imho, in practice after connecting one piece of gear to any 
other piece of required gear it's not going to achieve anywhere near 
it's quoted dynamic range.

Much of the gear churned out today quotes these really high dynamic 
ranges and freq. response on paper, but in practise it simply does not 
happen for one reason or another.

If the conductor drops his baton or the lead violinist farts, that's 
10dB and 20dB+ respectively up the spout already, hehe..

"Don't cut that bit out!!"