Concert stage layout -- who made who?

Kind of a tangential comment, but I'm constantly intrigued by the miking of drums...especially studio recordings. I was a drummer for many years, and I often notice that drums are miked "backwards". For example, in a standard drum kit, as one is looking at (or hearing) the kit, the hi-hat is on the right of the set, and the tom toms move high to low from right to left. Ride cymbals are typically on the left, but not always. I'm constantly amazed at how many recordings sound as if you are sitting behind the drums because the hi-hat will be on the left and the tom toms will move from left to right as you play from high to low. Honestly, this happens on 50% or more of recording I listen to, and it's darn disconcerting! Anyone else notice this?

Picking up on Rcprince's point where Russ leaves off, recordings like "Time Out" were recorded in the early days of stereo as a commercial sensation in reproduced sound. There was felt to be an imperative in those days to really "show" the music consumer the stereo difference - hence mixes tended to exagerate separation to the extent that instruments seemed to come from one channel or the other, with something (often the vocal if there was one) mixed to the center. Remember, a lot of the home stereos sold at that time were console types, so both channels were often located in one longish cabinet, but not with the degree of physical separtion that's usually used for individual L/R speakers. Played back on a modern system, these early stereo jazz and pop multitrack studio recordings typically display the kind of unaturally diced-up and isolated 'multi-mono' soundstage that you notice, whereas classical orchestral recordings of the same period were recorded in live performance in a concert hall from a more distant perspective, using minimal, true stereo microphone techniques.

Tvad: Yes.

Grant (Tvad),

I gather you must listen to a lot of Genesis, as well
as other bands with left-handed drummers.

He he he....

Tvad, know any renowned left handed drummers? Solo piano is commonly spread from the performer's perspective too, treble right, bass left. Symphonies seem to be displayed from the conductor's perspective, violins left, cellos right. In the good old days, so called full-featured preamps had channel reversal switches to flip the image 180 degrees.

Howard, I actually like Phil Collins a lot. His work with Brand X was amazing. But the reverse recorded drums on many discs really blows the illusion of watching (or listening) to a "live" band. And, the drums are often miked too closely, thus placing the listener on the drum throne instead of in the audience.

Black Light Syndrome is a recording that sonically places the listener behind the drums. Now, this may be intentional considering BLS was Terry Bozzio's project, and he wanted the drums to be prominent. But, the percussion is still oriented left to right. Is he left handed, too?