&gt; To make a truly “natural” live recording, it might be necessary to use two microphones mounted on opposite sides of a roundish, human-head-sized, sound-dampening object.<p>Not exactly, you will want 3d-modeled earlobes as only the reflections, delays and echos caused by them allow proper omnidirectional (front-behind) hearing.<p>edit: also, sound-dampening the head, e.g. making it out of foam, will diminish a natural reception as a part of our sound reception is that soundwaves from one ear get transmitted by our head bones and &quot;material&quot;, as well as through vibration via the ground and the bones of the legs. A truly natural recording is very difficult.