418 Recording Studio Design 16.5 Spacial anomalies Three of the more substantial criticisms of the low decay time monitoring conditions are that they lack a sense of spaciousness; they are not representa- tive of `normal' listening conditions; and that in the smaller rooms of this type they fail to support an adequately wide area of stereo imaging. The last of the three points will be dealt with in some detail in Sections 16.7 and 16.8, but let us first consider the question of spaciousness. An accurate rendering of spaciousness can only be achieved by multiple, lateral reflexions, arriving from the directions and with the inherent delays that are appropriate to the performance space, whether that space was real, or imaginary. A less accurate sense of spaciousness, which is perhaps a more realistic goal, can still only be achieved by reflexions coming from a direction other than that of the stereo loudspeakers. Any sense of spaciousness (in the enveloping sense) is not therefore inherent in a conventional stereo recording. It will be dependent in its nature upon the reproduction acoustics. It can never be truly represen- tatively `monitored' at the time of mixing. Introducing an arbitrary set of reflexions into the mixing environment tends only to confuse matters. Surround sound helps us to tackle this problem somewhat more reasonably. Spaciousness and the perception of detail tend to be mutually exclusive. This is true whether it is in the performance space, the microphone technique or the reproduction chain. Orchestral conductors hear more detail from their rostra than the audiences hear from the seats in the auditoria. The conductors need to hear the detail to be able to do their job, but most audiences like to hear