[78-L] stereo, ca. 1932

[Michael Biel]

From: Dan Van Landingham <danvanlandingham at yahoo.com>
> Regarding RCA's 1932 stereo attempts;I had heard that a similar
> thing was done around 1940 involving the recordings that were
> used in the movie "Fantasia".

Well, you are commenting on an early posting in the thread and some of
your questions were answered later on, but the Fantasia soundtrack was
purposeful and was recorded on six or 8 tracks.  In addition to the
overall perspective recording of the orchestra, some of the tracks were
close-ups of individual instruments or sections of the orchestra. During
the screenings there was a live person in the theater raising and lower
these extra tracks and panning some of the tracks from side to side
following the action.  The only existing stereo soundtrack of the movie
was a 1956 recreation of this by one of the surviving Fantasound theatre
mixers with the last remaining Fantasound set-up.  They didn't make
archival safety prints of the original separate tracks.

> I had also read some years back regarding Edison's use of
> multiple cylinder recording machines that also achieved a
> stereo effect.

Early cylinder recording sessions in the late 1880s into the 1890s were
often "rounds" which meant recording into 10 or 20 machines at once over
and over and over.  If a pair of these extremely rare cylinders from a
single take could be found, they could yield stereo, but none have ever
been located.  It's tough enough finding ONE.


> What is the difference between stereo and binaural sound?

Generally the word stereophonic denotes a recording style that allows
for the effect to be heard on separated loudspeakers.  Mostly using
microphones a distance from each other, or doing overdubbing of separate
tracks and panning them to their positions in the mix.  In the early
years from the 1930s into the mid-50s this was considered
interchangeable with the term binaural.  But in the late 1950s a
different meaning was introduced, first differentiated in a book called
"Stereo 1960" published by Tab Books.  This now denoted a recording
style that required the use of headphones to hear the subtle differences
in the tracks, but which resulted in an extraordinarily natural sound
that was not only left-right, but up-down, and front-back.  One of the
recording techniques is to use a Dummy Head, with ear flaps, eye
depressions, a nose, etc. and put the two mics in the head's ears. 
Another technique is to actually wear the two mics, but if the person
turns their head it sounds like the whole room is spinning!!!!  This is
a very specialized technique that has practically a cult following,
especially in Europe. KunzKoph or something like it is the german word
for Dummy Head, and either Neumann or Senheiser or both make a very
expensive head unit -- about $4000.  But note that prior to the late
50s, binaural did not have that meaning.  In fact, the dual-band Cook
LPs were called Binaural and some of them have  
very.......wide......separation!     


From: lastofthebarons <lastofthebarons at mac.com>
>> There is, of course, the well known 3 Feb 1932 stereo recordings of   
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra by RCA Victor. What were previously  
thought to be two takes are in fact separate recordings of the same  
take, which provide the left and right channels. I don't know if the  
original intent was to produce a stereo  or whether the result was a  
lucky by-product of making two recordings in case one master was  
damaged. Whatever, the results speak for themselves.


Brian Rust's misguided theory of not including Victor prefixes in his
discographies has screwed up a lot of things, and this is one of them. 
Once the prefixes are included it becomes OBVIOUS what had been done. 
And because they did it in the two different recording sessions for this
disc prove that it was purposeful, although not for the reasons of
stereo.  It was for the reasons of comparison of the two different sets
of equipment, RCA and High Quality Western Electric, prefixed RC or SHQ,
later just S.  Here are the listings:

Feb 3, 1932  Medley #1   LBRC-71811-1   and  LBSHQ-71812-2

Feb 9, 1932  Medley #2   LBRC-71836-2   and  LBSHQ-71837-1

The L means Long Playing Program Transcription format, and the B means
10-inch.  The LBRC masters turn out to be the left channel and the LBSHQ
are the right channels.  The difference in take numbers are what
confused collectors who did not have access to the prefixes that Brian
Rust stupidly think are unimportant.  Brad Kay (who is sometimes on this
list) mentioned in the Everybody's LP liner notes that he has also found
stereo in the 1929 Stokowski Rite of Spring and the Elgar Cockaigne
Concert Overture with Elgar conducting the BBC Symphony Orch.  I think I
should post the videotape of the ARSC conference session where this was
discussed in a 1987 Q&A.  I've got the tape here, and I'll let you know
when I have it up.  

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com