Khora

The overtones blend differently the further from the bell you get.

When you listen to an orchestra live from the house, you get a blend of sounds which have already merged before they get to your ears. You hear the whole orchestra as one sound source. If there is one mic, near the conductor, you get a good approximation of this.

When the mics are right in front of each player or section, the blend is manipulated by the engineer, not by the natural acoustics of the space. Also, the mic will pick up a different set of overtones up close than far away, so the material the engineer is working with is also less blended.

Think about a pointilist painting. If you see it from across the room, you see the whole picture. If you stand up close, you see a bunch of dots. If you put on colored glasses to filter out certain colors, you lose both the picture and the nuances. A mic in the bell is acting like a filter. The engineer then gets to reconstruct the picture the way he/she wants - which might have nothing to do with the original.

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Sandy