[78-L] Fake stereo

[Michael Shoshani]

On 03/01/2013 10:56 AM, Cary Ginell wrote:
>
> Seems to me that whenever you saw that dreaded "(e)" alongside an RCA Victor catalog number, Ethel Gabriel's name was somewhere on the record.
>

Technically, the (e) stood for electronically reprocessed, but yes. The 
phrase "Reissue produced by Ethel Gabriel" strikes fear in the hearts of 
collectors to this day. She was particularly fond of fake stereo with 
added reverb.

This led to some bizarre effects; the 'Moonlight Serenade' track on the 
album "Glenn Miller: Pure Gold" has what sounds like soft, gentle muted 
brass accents over the reeds when the reeds play the long notes in the 
first section of the song. It wasn't until I acquired and played the 
original Bluebird 78 that I discovered those gentle muted brass accents 
weren't really there! It was all spurious resonances and harmonic 
distortion caused by the reverb and fake stereo delays.


MS