Real vs. Reproduced Sound. How Close? ..What Percentage?

[semente]

I think that realism depends first and foremost on how the recording was made. Multi-track close-mic'ed studio recordings can never sound realistic for many reasons such: excessive proximity of capture, no room ambience, images and their location are fabricated in the mixing desk, reverb is artificially added, EQ, bandpassing and compression of different tracks, etc.

In my experience minimaly mic'ed recordings of acoustic unamplified which aim at recreating the listener soundscape sound reasonably realistic in the best systems.

 

Interestingly my observation (as a multiple forum lurker) leads me to believe that many people prefer studio mixes because they remove/bypass the original venue acoustic cues from the recording making the musicians appear to be playing in the listener's room and special effects added are able to extend the soundstage beyond the sides of the speakers.