On the other hand, our ears tend to prefer higher frequency sounds on the right.
Hmm? So it is all wrong in concert hall when the violins sit to the left and basses to the right? Sorry I have to totally disagree with that statement. It would be one thing if you said that you as one person preferr it this way. In order to make a statement like that I believe you should have a statistically larger sample than 1.
But as very often, it is a question about taste, and we all have one but not necessarily the same.
To be clear, I respect your taste in this respect and by all means follow your own taste when recording, but I have a different taste and follow mine.
// Gunnar
Hi Gunnar,
I won't blame you if you don't believe me, but I recently read that fact about human preference on the web somewhere. Of course I can't find it now, and unfortunately I can't spend any more time this morning trying. If I come across the site, I'll PM you.
Your point was that the audience hears a piano with the treble on the left and the bass on the right. But for 90% of the audience at a piano recital, they are too far away to hear anything but mono. Even standing in the curve of the grand piano, you are hearing the full length of the bass strings. So you won't hear only the treble on the left. It will be a mix of bass and treble strings.
If a producer truly wants to record the way the audience hears, he/she should use a kunstkopf and make a binaural recording.
And then have two people on either side of the kunstkopf, fidgeting and coughing....