AFAIK the Telarc recording of the Cincinnati Pops was the only one ever made where such care was taken to reproduce the sounds of the cannon and church bells. They recorded each of these sounds separately and digitally mixed them later. The big problem with the cannon was was the EXTREME dynamic range. They actually avoided flat topping of the cannon blasts. (Real cannon do produce a different kind of distortion caused by 'flat topping' in the 'either' itself as the exhaust products of the gunpowder in the cannon can leave the gun in faster than the speed of sound!)