Reply to Sarah Lowengard comment of...
 >WHile I agree with your first paragraph, I'm not sure what the
 >difference
 >is between an ultra-sensitive player piano like the Yahama, and an
 >excellent recording played on excellent equipment?  I like live music
 >because unexpected things can happen --not just a string breaks so they
 >hae to start the movement over again, but new insights of the
 >performer
 >that come out in the performance.  Was this just a poor analogy?
 
  I refer to the limits of a reproduction medium (not very clearly,
  I see - sorry).
 
There are some wonderful uses of technology delivering increasingly
detailed reproductions to a wider audience.   The Yamaha player piano
very much impressed me with how much *more* information (or art) is
provided in an instrument-based reproduction over a recording (most
of which are digitally mastered today.)
 
 The analog recording most truly captures "sound" but degrades each
 time you play the recording -- digital recordings step back even
 further from the original because the sound is interpreted by computer
 then approximated synthetically.  Digital recordings can clean out
 "background noise" but it also alters the sound you want to hear.
 
 The Yamaha impressed me because it recorded the action of performer
 (digitally!) allowing the instrument to deliver the sound.
 
Kathy Murphy - [log in to unmask]