@Guy Bacos said:
I think there is a false assumption here. I agree "some" room noise is important, but you could simply end up with a piece that has a bit of ambience but that doesn't sound any better. I think it's better to invest in the ambience of each instrument and naturally their expression. I've heard people put room noise and it didn't do a single thing for me, on the contrary it even gave a bad effect. I think you have to be very careful in not trying to compensate something else by room noise. And having noises of chairs and such is pretty ridiculous. The problem I see is that the ambience added is too unrelated to what's going on or doesn't seem to have any connection, this is why it doesn't really work, at least in my opinion.
Guy, I think that the room noise thing really depends on what sort of piece you are writing. If it is all bells and whistles, there is absolutely no point, because it would be at such a low level that you wouldn't hear it anyway. However, if there are moments of silence, having nothing is really distracting and cold, whereas a bit of room tone really helps. Of course if your reverb tails are so long that they cover up the gap totally, it is again a waste of effort.
DG