[78-L] EMI Admitted to Accidental Stereo (attn Brad Kay)!!!!

[Michael Biel]

At the 1986 ARSC conference, Anthony Griffith claimed that he had it on
the authority of an early HMV engineer that it was absolutely impossible
that the alternate cutting machines were ever at any time whatsoever
connected to a different microphone chain.  With a very nervous looking
Gerald Plano sitting next to him, Griffith sneered that the concept of
accidental stereo was "a crazy Californian idea".  As this was in
response to a question from me, after I stated that there is much
evidence that the Ellington Program Transcription WAS from two different
microphone chains, Plano agreed and said that there were probably
others, but both he and Griffith seemed reluctant to consider the idea
that RCA or EMI spend any time or money trying to find some or test them
out.

This week I got a copy of HMV RLS 713, a six-LP set "Elgar On Record:
Including all of Elgar's electrical recordings not previously issued on
LP" HLM 7056 thru 7061 (2XEA.5109 thru 5120.  It includes the book Elgar
on Record by Jerrold Northrop Moore and a contents booklet.  The booklet
does not include any notation on which take numbers were used, but the
book includes not only the take numbers, but the disposition decisions
made for each take and each additional master of each take.

On the back of the booklet there is "A Note on the 78 RPM Matrix
Numbers".  Despite the fact that the booklet does not include any take
info, it says: "The Roman Numeral at the end signifies the 'take'.  The
letter A following a take-numeral shows that the disc was recorded on a
second turntable (B for a third turntable, C for a fourth, and so on). 
These alternative turntables were often connected to differently placed
microphones."

YES, that's what it says: "These alternative turntables were often
connected to differently placed microphones."  I repeat, it says "These
alternative turntables were often connected to differently placed
microphones."  The inside of the booklet says that for this set
"Transfers by Anthony Griffith."

Now, I have no idea when this set was issued nor when those notes were
written.  There is absolutely no date anywhere on the set.  but the book
was copyright 1974 by Oxford Univ Press and noted that this edition was
published by EMI in 1974.  That would have been 12 years before the
confrontation.  The book itself does not make any statement like this,
but says something different.  On page 59 in a section discussing the
introduction of electrical recording and the wear tests by the Record
Testing Committee Moore wrote: "It was now possible to record on several
lathes simultaneously, with the sound for each one set at a different
dynamic level; the alternative discs were marked with an 'A' following
the take number."  He doesn't come out and say it, but the reasoning
would probably have been to allow for different wear test alternatives
since the louder ones or the ones with more complex wave forms tended to
wear out faster.  Could they also have tried having alternate mic
placements that could have provided alternative balances that might
present different wear test possibilities???  As you look thru the
discography you see that the blank and A master almost always have
WIDELY different disposition decisions.  For remote concerts there were
two pairs of machines and they have A and B alternating with C and D
masters which likewise widely different disposition decisions.  Page 65
notes "Obviously both would not be recorded at the same setting of the
controls; probably the recorders 'played safe' with one machine and set
the controls at a different degree of amplification with the other."  A
letter written to him dated 9 Jan 1974 is referenced, but he does not
say who WROTE the letter.

But there is that note on the booklet about different mic placements. 
The Ellington masters had different prefix letters indicating the use of
Western Electric equipment (including microphones) on one and RCA on the
other, so THAT one is definite.  But here is another possibility from
the press of EMI.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com