"...and cause inter-modulation products in the audible range." AFAIK, this is true in acoustic environments under conditions as described in the original post.
There are no inter-modulation products in the sense rplst8 expects. The interaction of waves of 1000Hz and 1001Hz doesn't produce 1Hz waves in linear media.
Even if it did produce some new frequencies through some non-linearity (which is negligible in most environments afaik), the recording equipment would capture the low frequency waves produced by those interactions. So the only question is whether there are significant non-linearities in our hearing system, and the overwhelming evidence is no again afaik.
The recording equipment won't necessarily pick it up. If the microphones are place very close the instruments relative to the other instruments creating the interaction.
If no recording equipment would pick it up, no human would pick it up either.
Quoting xiphmont
> Once you're driving air so hard it becomes nonlinear, thus introducing intermodulation distortion in the air, that distortion produces actual audible-range distortion products. And because the distortion you're hearing is in the audible range, a recording will sample and reproduce it accurately.
> You're hearing the audible _result_ of IMD, you're not somehow listening to the distortion curve itself.
> If no recording equipment would pick it up, no human would pick it up either.
Have you been to a concert? There's no recording/playback technology that can reproduce anything close to the sound of a full orchestra. It's all lossy.
That's an entirely different discussion having nothing to do with intermodulation products.
Have you read the article/quantization discussion on what is meant by lossy? If your recording equipment is good and your reproduction equipment is good, 16/44 is enough to reproduce the concert sound perfectly (as far as human hearing goes). What you do not experience is everything else but the sound -- the vibration of the super loud bass on your skin, the energy of the public, the beauty of the venue.
Even if it did produce some new frequencies through some non-linearity (which is negligible in most environments afaik), the recording equipment would capture the low frequency waves produced by those interactions. So the only question is whether there are significant non-linearities in our hearing system, and the overwhelming evidence is no again afaik.