Depends on what I'm trying to get across in the recording, ZeroZero.

For classical musics, the idea of creating one hall or actually using same, with various simple stereophonic pickup methods up to including a plastic human head with mics inside the earholes (!) may succeed in getting the actual sound of the ensemble in the hall, but often doesn't make a great warm and rich listen. Orchestras where close mic'ing and hall mic'ing have been used with multiple tracks often succeed better due to the added warmth created.

As for popular musics, musics with vocals, etc. the idea of a single hall with one basic reverb time doesn't hold up well when mixing either. Consider that a modern vocalist will ofen use a PA system with its own reverb, projecting into a hall that has yet its own ambience effect as well.

Today we are accustomed to listening to recordings that do not emulate the real acoustic situation but are much more able to become an easy listen with lots of things done to add to that experience. For example, those recordings where an intimate and not so loud singer is made to project overtop of many loud instruments by use of the Compressor.


--Mac