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

[David Lennick]

I've been pointing to this for years and citing Moore as the source.

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> 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
> 
> _____________________________________________