Hello David,
Yes - I had confused the two and thanks for pointing this out. However, as is pointed out by the wiki article, IM is caused by non-linearities.
To clarify: IM isn't caused by non-linearities in the
sound being played; it's the result of non-linearities
in the reproduction system (speakers/amps).
The reason why I don't hear a difference between the two tones together through the same speaker or separately through individual speakers is that it is possible to design non-linearities out of the reproductive system and my speakers avoid non-linearities.
If your reproduction system is sufficiently linear that IM distortion is not audible then that's as it should be.
However, the
primary reason for using multi-channel audio
with dry sample sets, is not to reduce IM distortion (which should be small/inaudible with good speakers anyway), but to mitigate the very important, and very significant so-called 'signal mixing effect' :
http://www.pykett.org.uk/EndOfPipeOrgan.htm#Mixing... along with allowing room reflections to make the pipework sound distributed through space, rather than all emanating from a single point source, since dry samples contain no spatial information.
The 'beats' effect is closely related (also being phase addition/cancellation).
There are lots of topics discussing it in the 'amplification' section of the forum (and multi-channel audio in general), these being a couple of the more lengthy recent ones:
http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=6927http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=6498Martin: if you don't believe it, come and hear them!
Thanks very much for the offer. Perhaps one day I'll take you up on that, but I work extremely long hours on Hauptwerk (and have done for most of the past nine years), so I'm afraid I'm not sure quite when it would be.
I've no reason to doubt that your speakers are great, if you say so. I just wanted to emphasize again why I believe multi-channel audio, as well as the use of accurate, full-range speakers are both highly desirable for realism when using dry sample sets.
Sorry I don't really have time to get drawn into another lengthy discussion on it (we need to have Hauptwerk v4 finished one day!), but it is important to me that Hauptwerk users get what I'd consider to be good advice. Hence I wanted to stress the main reasons for multi-channel audio.
This is why I recommend Keith and others in a domestic environment to look at fundamental audiophile physics in choosing loudspeakers, whether for hifi systems or organs
Absolutely - good quality, accurate, linear, full-range speakers are very important indeed too.
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.