First stereo sound recordingThis page was last revised on 2009-11-03. NB Full references to printed sources may be found at the foot of this page.
|
|||
First stereo sound recording |
|||
|
According to a poster on the Both Sides Now Stereo chat board, stereo was first patented in the 1890s but no usable recordings were made. In the 1920s some experimental stereo recordings were made using two needles and two grooves on one record. None of the details or recordings survived because it was too impractical and expensive at the time. In the early 30s Bell Labs created the first working stereo recordings, but none have survived. Duke Ellington and his Orchestra made some accidental stereo recordings ("Mood Indigo, Hot and Bothered, Creole Love Call" and "East St Louis Toodle-o, Lot o' Fingers, Black and Tan Fantasy" - it is not clear which was recorded first), on 3 February 1932 for RCA-Victor. It was standard practice at that time to record using more than one microphone and disc cutter, allowing for backups in case something happened to the original. Although the records are fairly rare, a collector had both versions and noticed that while they appeared to be the same performance, the sound mix was different on each (although the microphones were close together). When the two recordings were synchronized, it became acceptable stereo. The resulting recordings are available on disc 6 of the 24 CD set The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition. Several stereophonic test recordings, using two microphones connected to two styluses cutting two separate grooves on the same wax disc, were made with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music in March 1932. The first, made on 12 March 1932, of Scriabin’s Poeme du feu Op. 60, is the earliest surviving stereo recording that was heard as such at the time. [Copeland (1991), p24; Stokowski] The two tracks recorded on this date are downloadable from Stokowski. Quadrophonic sound (4.0 stereo): Although multi-channel sound had been experimented with both for audio and in movies since at least the 1930s, it wasn't until 1969 that technology and the audio industry were ready to commercialize it. At the Audio Engineering Society meeting in 1969 Vanguard records demonstrated discrete four-channel sound on a four-channel reel to reel deck. Heads turned, production geared up and the first home quad recordings on open reel tape were released in 1970. ["Quad" Bob] Discrete reproduction is the only real quadrophonic system. As its name suggests, with discrete formats the original four audio channels are passed through a four-channel transmission medium, presented to a four-channel reproduction system, and fed to four speakers. This is defined as a 4-4-4 system. Surround sound: The first documented use of surround sound was in 1940, for the Disney studio's animated film Fantasia. Its multichannel audio application was called Fantasound, and comprised three audio channels and speakers. The sound was diffused throughout the cinema, initially by an engineer using some 54 loudspeakers. The surround sound was achieved using the sum and the difference of the phase of the sound. In the 1950s Karlheinz Stockhausen experimented with and produced ground-breaking electronic compositions such as Gesang der Jünglinge (1955-6, originally in five-channel sound) and Kontakte (1958-60), the latter using fully discrete and rotating quadrophonic sounds generated with industrial electronic equipment in Herbert Eimert's studio at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). Aurophonic sound: Aurophonic sound attempts to recreate the true three-dimensionality of the recording space along all three spatial axes (most surround sound systems don't include height channels) On 20 September 2002, Dolby premiered a master of the movie We Were Soldiers which featured a Sonic Whole Overhead Sound soundtrack, developed by Randall Wallace. This mix included a new ceiling-mounted height channel. Aurophonie currently lists six aurophonic systems, though one (Imax) is not fully aurophonic, as it has a single mono height channel. Three are proprietary Aurophonic systems of different degrees of complexity, one is Dolby Digital Plus, the fifth being Hamasaki 22.2. Binaural sound: The recording of binaural sound replicates the human listening experience directly, with microphones placed at left and right ears of a dummy head. Though giving the most accurate directionality, its drawback is that playback requires the use of headphones. Possibly the first true binaural recording (as opposed to earlier recordings which were described by this term, but actually used what is now described as stereophony) was The Binaural Demonstration Record put out by Stereo Review in 1970. It used a home-made sculpted head known the Blue Max, and was a compilation of music (Side Two) and sound effects, including Street Corner, Children, Voice, Binaural Street Tour, Chanting, Basketball Game, Steel Workers, and Street Parade (Side One). [Binaural, Vinyl.com]
|
|||
First stereo recording of the human voice |
|||
|
The Curtis Institute Chorus sing in the Stokowski recording of Scriabin's Poeme du feu, referred to above. The Chorus is presumed to have included members of both sexes.
|
|||
Earliest-born person whose voice was recorded in stereo |
|||
|
No definitive information yet located. In Alan Blumlein's second experimental film, dated 12 July 1935, and known as 'Stick Trick', Frank 'Felix' Runcorn Trott (1911-2002) is the only participant who speaks on camera. [Alexander]
|
|||
|
|||
© 2009 Benjamin S. Beck |
If you know of any suitable examples, please contact me.
|
||