# "Smearing"



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

NoCoPilot said:


> "Massed violins"? Yes, I've heard distortion on recordings like that, when the microphones in the studio were overdriven.
> 
> Never from digital recordings of massed violins. In fact, analog recordings are famous for violin smearing (viz. almost any Ormandy recording).


I have a question for the assembled wisdom here. I just ran across a recording, a 1991 DDD recording in fact, which MAY be an example of the smearing that people have been talking about. It's Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony" by Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra.





To my ears this sounds "smeared." The massed violins and massed brass instruments sound almost indistinguishable, to my ears. Is it me? The low basses and kettledrums have plenty of low end punch, but the rest of the orchestra? I dunno -- sounds like maybe it was recorded in a swimming pool or something. A hall with very resonant surfaces. No clarity. Everything "rings" at the same frequency, with all the instruments blending together. "Blending"? More like a food processor making paste of everything.

Or maybe it's just me.


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## AndorFoldes (Aug 25, 2012)

Excessive reverberation can definitely affect a recording negatively. Try this one, especially when it gets busy around 1:36:


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

NoCoPilot said:


> I have a question for the assembled wisdom here. I just ran across a recording, a 1991 DDD recording in fact, which MAY be an example of the smearing that people have been talking about. It's Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony" by Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I was unfamiliar with Strauss' *Alpine Symphony*. This short movement is *great*! Thanks!

As for the "smearing" issue, I thought that the point of having odd instruments doubling each other was to create a "new" sound . . . isn't that what's happening here?


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

a very reverberant hall may result in "smearing" if a fast tempo is engaged....the decay time for the sound is so long that the previous sound still persists even as the succeeding one is sounded...this will result in a muddled, smeared sound....esp if the full sonority of the orchestra is employed.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

pianozach said:


> I was unfamiliar with Strauss' *Alpine Symphony*. This short movement is *great*! Thanks!


Seek out a good recording; it's a wonderful piece.



pianozach said:


> As for the "smearing" issue, I thought that the point of having odd instruments doubling each other was to create a "new" sound . . . isn't that what's happening here?


I'm familiar with the technique you're describing, it's usually used with single instruments or at most 2-3 of each. When used with "a whole mess o' strings" and "a whole mess o' brass" at the same time, the effect is less a "new sound" than a painful oatmeal.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

AndorFoldes said:


> Excessive reverberation can definitely affect a recording negatively. Try this one, especially when it gets busy around 1:36:


I didn't find that objectionable at all. Although boomy, everything is well delineated.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

As an experiment I bought a different recording of the "Alpine," this one by Zubin Mehta & Berlin Philharmonic, also recorded DDD but two years earlier (1989) on a Sony PCM-1630. Although loud and brassy and very dynamic, this is no smearing, no loss of definition in the horn section or the violin section.

Guess the Edo de Waart is just a crap engineering job.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

NoCoPilot said:


> As an experiment I bought a different recording of the "Alpine," this one by Zubin Mehta & Berlin Philharmonic, also recorded DDD but two years earlier (1989) on a Sony PCM-1630. Although loud and brassy and very dynamic, this is no smearing, no loss of definition in the horn section or the violin section.
> 
> Guess the Edo de Waart is just a crap engineering job.


Maybe one of Edo's ex wives snuck into the mixing console and deliberately tweaked a few knobs.
I've never seen a precise definition of the term "smearing" but have always taken it to imply a fault of recording engineering, or of reproduction of a recording by playback equipment, and is usually applied to critiques of digital filtering, not necessarily used to criticize analog recording or playback. I have seen the term "blurring" applied when the performers or the acoustic tend to blur passages by failing to separate instrumental lines or having details lost in a swimming acoustic


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Triplets said:


> I've never seen a precise definition of the term "smearing" ...


I attempted to describe what I was hearing in the first post:


NoCoPilot said:


> The massed violins and massed brass instruments sound almost indistinguishable, to my ears. The orchestra sounds like maybe it was recorded in a swimming pool or something. A hall with very resonant surfaces. No clarity. Everything "rings" at the same frequency, with all the instruments blending together.


I have minor tinnitus, have had most of my life. I'm therefore very sensitive to high frequency sounds. Sounds that "ring" or are full of distortion are literally painful to me. The de Waart recording hurts to listen to, like standing next to a working sawmill blade.

I get none of that with Mehta.

So it's not the piece, not the recording technology, not the timeframe.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

NoCoPilot said:


> I attempted to describe what I was hearing in the first post:
> 
> I have minor tinnitus, have had most of my life. I'm therefore very sensitive to high frequency sounds. Sounds that "ring" or are full of distortion are literally painful to me. The de Waart recording hurts to listen to, like standing next to a working sawmill blade.
> 
> ...


Smearing is a term that shows up in audio discussions. You apparently have a more personal interpretation of the term, to which you are entitled. Enjoy the music


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Triplets said:


> Smearing is a term that shows up in audio discussions. You apparently have a more personal interpretation of the term, to which you are entitled. Enjoy the music


So what does the term mean in its normal usage?


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