Fun discussion. I believe the on stage versus audience perspective matters more to listeners that are musicians than to listeners that are not; in particular musicians with either an active or strong background in performance.

On a side note, perspective is much more noticeable to me when the panning doesn't match with how things are set up. If I'm seeing a performance from the audience perspective then my brain expects the sound to match what I see. For instance if I see the keyboard player far left, acoustic guitar near left, singer center, drums and bass behind singer and electric guitar far right then I expect to hear the keyboard to my left and electric guitar to my right, not vice versa.

Recorded music I'm far less particular because most of the recorded music I listen to are studio recordings and the overall perspective is more difficult to determine.

On a side note two songs from the 70s that were available in discrete four channel really stand out in my memory, "No Time" by the Guess Who and "Light My Fire" by the Doors.

In stereo Randy Bachman's lead guitar intro and solo for "No Time" are panned from far left to far right with the panning duration matching the length of the intro or solo. Four channel the guitar panning is 360 degree from left front to right front to right rear to left rear to left front. Same trick is performed with lead and background vocals at the outro. Made me dizzy the first time I heard it.

The "Light My Fire" mix was much more conservative with the front channels almost standard stereo but with light delay or reverb and the rear channels drenched with delay and reverb. The doubled electric bass and keyboard bass parts were easier to pick out. It was also easy to hear the effects used on the kick drum.

Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
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