[78-L] stereo ca 1932

[Dan Van Landingham]

Getting back to RCA's stereo attempts from the earlier thirties,I bought an album of what I
thought were 10" 78s.They weren't.They were Electrical Transcripts.Some of the records
had recordings I know were issued many years earlier such as the one that had selections
from "The Mikado" which I had on some early Victor recordings.The record I had of "The
Mikado" had the words "Victor" and "Record" on opposite sides and the "his master's vo-
ice" logo in gold ink.The logo took up the entire upper top of the label.Some of the other ETs I found dated from around 1933;Fred Astaire sings "We're In the Money" and bandlearder Glen Gray took of one of the sides with his "Casa Loma Orchestra".The band
was playing charts from the old Jean Goldkette band when BIx Beiderbecke was in the 
band.In closing,just what was the make up of the plastic used?I remember hearing of a 
substance called "vitrolac".

--- On Wed, 7/8/09, DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com> wrote:


From: DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com>
Subject: [78-L] stereo ca 1932
To: 78-L at 78online.com
Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 4:56 PM


Reams have been written about these RCA sessions - apparently they were
testing new mikes and recording equipment while running two recording
lathes.  The stereo effect achieved from laboriously synching up the two
records was a lucky by-product of having the two mikes far enough apart to
produce stereo.  

Dave W. 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If these tests actually took place, (I'm not saying they didn't, I just don't know), it seems probabable that the two mikes would either be placed one behind the other in the centre of the sound stage or one above the other.  If they're comparing the two mikes for sound quality, the comparison is only useful if the mikes are in the same position as closely as possible.  Playing the outputs of these two mikes, (or recordings made there-from), to a left and right speaker may give a spacial sound but it won't be stereo.  There has been lots of talk about Toscanini broadcasts being done simultaneously from two different interests using their own mikes, equipment and recorders.  Many have claimed to take these two recordings, allign them and produce a stereo version of the concert.  I haven't heard any of these attempts so I don't know from my own knowledge how successful they've been, but particularly with a Toscanini performance there's an easy way to
tell if your listening to genuine stereo.  AT always had his 1st violins on the left and his 2nd violins on the right.  If this configuration is evident in the recording than you do indeed have stereo, but I know of no pseudo-stereo procedure which will retain this configuration.

A record collecting friend of mine once gave me a copy of a Bruno Walter recording which he said was stereo created from two different mikes, (I forget where he said the two feeds came from).  When I loaded this recording into my computer I discovered that the two channels were 20 miliseconds separated from each other.  When I alligned the two signals in the computer the sound was pure mono.  I don't know what method was used to combine these two sources but I was impressed that they were able to get the two channels even withing 20 ms.

db
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