On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 3:13 PM, Fons Adriaensen <fons@linuxaudio.org> wrote:

> An electrical instrument, whether analog like the Moog Model D or digital
> like Pianoteq can't do this: it never generates ANY sound at all except via
> some amplified speaker system. So it is entirely reasonable to think that
> you will always hear the same thing when you play a recording (analog or
> digital) of the instrument over the same playback system that you first
> heard it on.

There is even no way to tell how it should sound, except when the
original amp / speaker system is considered part of the instrument.

Right, that's a better way to think of it. It also has the important corollary that since you have typically more freedom to place the speakers in a space than you do many instrumental setups (e.g. orchestra!), the physical speaker arrangement within the room is inherently a part of the instrument for that performance too.

Obviously, that's true to a more limited extent for some acoustic instruments too - "let's try the piano over there" - but the degrees of freedom are generally reduced.