OVERVIEW OF "ARTIFICIAL STEREO" TECHNIQUES
AFT
one must know about the early development of "true" stereo, and the
sonic experiences and tastes of the engineers who pioneered it for
home reproduction.
The perception of "stereo" is created in our auditory system by an
analysis in the brain (quite automatic and unconscious) of the neural
signals from our separate ears: differences in intensity of sound are
estimated (i. e. "is it louder from the left or right?"), and
differences of time delay are detected ("did the sound arrive sooner
on the left than the right?") Then the brain creates a complex and
sophisticated sensation of the position of the sounds generated in the
360-degree region all around the auditor. We can also tell if sounds
have emerged from the front or rear, since our hearing mechanism can
discern slight differences in frequency response caused by the shape
of our external ear canal receptors: sounds to the front are subtly
"brighter" than those behind us.
Stereo recording evolved from two paths that were divergent at the
outset (and are detailed in a series of articles in issues of ABSOLUTE
SOUND Magazine, written by the audio historian Michael Gray.) I am
summarizing below in a few short paragraphs the fascinating history of
early stereo as practiced by EMI, Decca, Mercury, and RCA engineers.
The EMI system, developed by Alan Dower Blumlein beginning in the
early 1930s, was a "point source" system that employed a special
electronic phase-summing network to combine the separate electrical
signals of two "figure 8" pattern microphones, mounted as close as
possible, to produce a "sum" and "difference" signal. The sum was
mono; the difference was the stereo information (known as L-R, or the
out of phase components that provided a record of the spatial
dimension.) The unique value of this system was that the final
judgment of the "width" of the stereo image could be significantly
altered in the mixdown process after the recording session, to change
the perspective of direct to reflected sound, and the "presence" of
the largely in-phase signal of the instrumental body.
During the forties, there were many experiments with binaural
reproduction: two mikes were positioned about as far apart as the ears
of a human being. The separate signals were amplified and sent to a
pair of headphones: thus all ambient and directional cues (including
the perception of sounds in front of or behind the listener) recreated
a remarkable simulation of aural reality. The owner of a classical
music station in San Francisco, whose early partner was an NBC
engineer in New York during the forties, told me once that there was
an experiment with binaural sound by RCA technicians during some NBC
symphony rehearsals. I was told that Toscanini heard it, and was
unable to perceive the effect; he was NOT amused. "I've-a got-a only
one-a HEAD!" Toscanini is said to have protested (I can't reallly
vouch for the absolute truth of this story, but it surely is a
delicious one!)
The simpler practical "loudspeaker" stereo system advocated by Bell
Labs and experimentally transmitted in the early 1930s over phone
lines, and used decades later by such famous audio engineers as Bob
Fine of Mercury and the Telarc team of Woods and Renner, was an
offshoot of binaural heaphone reproduction: using two or more mikes
with omni-directional patterns, the physical spacing of the pickup is
experimentally determined so that the blend of sound is consistent
over the wide virtual stereophonic sound plane produced by a typical
home stereo speaker setup. A third mike is almost always added to
"fill" the center: thus, many early recordings using this method were
made on 3-tr tape decks, enabling the mixdown engineers to have some
control over the presence of the center fill channel when creating the
2-channel disk transfer. This system requires extremely careful
judgment of mike positioning during the original recording session, or
the resultant stereo blend may seem amorphous and indistinct.
The British Decca "tree" of microphones with auxiliary side mikes for
ambience, and the RCA Victor "Living Stereo" techniques, were slightly
different methods of altering the "wide-spaced omni" system in order
to insure the presence high directionality and strong in-phase signals
from the main instrumental group, while preserving a wide frontal
plane and at least some of the pleasing "front to back depth" of EMI's
sum & difference system.
Stereo used in Hollywood movies emerged as a subset of the highly
advanced multiple channel mixing techniques of the late thirties and
forties. The famous 1940 movie "Fantasia" was not only recorded in
stereo, but also was an early experiment in "surround sound", using
rear and side channels. The method generally employed for stereo
during the early years of Cinemascope and other wide-screen techniques
was to record the dialogue monophonically, pan-potting it to left,
center, or right as actors moved about the scene, while mixing in a
plethora of pan-potted effects laid over a blend of more-or-less true
stereo background music. This jumble of sounds may have worked in a
huge theatre, but the results seem very artificial and peculiar when
the old films are restored for home reproduction, often necessitating
a complete remix (and re-equalization) from original separate
dialogue, effects, and music tracks.
So we have 3 types of stereo: the "natural" blended sound of EMI,
which tends to present a minimum of splashy directionality but
emphasizes the acoustical richness of the studio or hall venue; the
idealized stereo of Decca/RCA/Mercury with wide instrumental
separation and a virtual pin-point positioning of instruments at a
given locus in the "space" between the speakers or even beyond their
physical distance; and the totally artificial Hollywood pan-potted
multi-channel mixdown of essentially monaural signals, positioned at
various points across the proscenium by altering the relative
intensity of in-phase left and right channel signal levels (the "big"
record companies, especially Columbia, went crazy with multi-channel
recording techniques in the seventies.)
The next stage in the development (of little concern here) was
surround sound, in which the phase of the components of the stereo mix
would be altered to establish a virtual positioning of sources to the
far sides and rear of the auditor. This generally requires more than
two channels (at least in the recording or initial mastering stage)
and is not relevant to the topic to be covered, "artificial stereo
from mono recordings".
CAPITOL DUOPHONIC SOUND and its offshoots.
It became apparent in the early marketing of stereo records, at least
by 1960, that mono would not "sell": all the major labels soon dropped
much of their pre-stereo catalogue items, even if their artistic and
historic merit superceded the recent stereo issues. "With the advent
of stereo...monaural albums gradually disappeared from the catalogues
of major record companies. Carson Taylor, one of Hollywood's most
highly regarded sound engineers and member of the staff of Capitol
Records, became intrigued with the idea of recreating in stereo from
the original mono master tape certain of these past performances. By
careful research with then-modern technology, Taylor provided a new
stereo-type version quite acceptable to the medium." (Notes from the
reissue of old Capitol chamber music recordings with Ann Mason
Stockton, harp, and Felix Slatkin conducting, on Crystal Records
compact disk album No. CD171, published 1995.)
I have not researched any possible AES papers of Taylor detailing his
technique (if such exist) but I have done what I could to analyze his
efforts purely by their sound impressions direct from the LPs or CD
reissues.
First, a "bath" of spacious, true-stereo echo is created; I would
surmise that this was created acoustically, using "stairwell" echo
chamber methods, or with a large metal plate affixed with multiple
pickups. The monaural signal is fed into the echo system, and the
"stereo" echo is retrieved and then mixed back with the original
signal. Depending upon the particular issue investigated, there is
also a large amount of electrical noise introduced (this involved
multiple generations of non-Dolby tape dubbing, and most if not all of
the electronics had many vacuum tube stages, and would appear to be
much hissier than modern amplification systems.)
Second, a crude re-positioning of the highs and lows is achieved,
probably with very rudimentary old Pultec equalizers. In effect, the
highs are boosted and fed to the left channel (at the same time, the
bass is cut on the left); and the lows are boosted and fed to the
right (with a cut in highs in the right channel feed.) This is done
ONLY on the stereo channels containing the original monaural source,
sans the "bath" of stereo echo.
The combined effects might be achieved today in a more subtle and
acceptable manner, but in the early sixties, the available technology
and the goals for disk reproduction apparently drove the engineers to
exaggerate the effects to the maximum that could be obtained. In
addition, the multiple tape generations caused a veil over the sound,
dulling the quality of the monaural originals. Thus, the result is
decidedly noisy, dull, over-resonant, and obviously artificial.
I remember my own intense disappointment with the Capitol "stereo" LP
issue of the famous (mono mastered) album "Duets with the Spanish
Guitar" with Laurindo Almeida and Salli Terri. The original monaural
issue was crisp and clean; the artificial "Duophonic" dub was mushy,
hissy, and indistinct (it sounds much better now, in the modern CD
transfer on EMI Angel Studio CDM 7 63256 2, which has only a modicum
of phony stereotizing, compared to the blowsiness of the Capitol
2-channel LP.) The Duophonic versions of the outstanding 'first set'
of Haydn Salomon symphony performances (93-98) by Beecham were
similarly inferior on the "stereo" LPs to the more solid monaural
originals.
Another example that is better on CD but is closer to the original
"stereo" vinyl release is the Ann Mason Stockton/Felix Slatkin
recording mentioned at the beginning of this section: in the Harl
McDonald Suite and Caplet Poe incidental music, one can hear most of
the original peculiar phasy and disembodied sound of Taylor's
Duophony. My impression is that when Capitol transferred these
stereotizings to LPs, they added even more electronic limiting than
was used in the original mono recording sessions; this extra limiting
is absent in the EMI and Crystal compact disk transfers, and much if
not all of the extra hiss on the LPs is missing.
I personally have the highest regard for Carson Taylor, a fine
gentleman who I had the privilege of meeting in the early seventies at
an AES convention in Los Angeles (I recall watching his intense
concentration at a demonstration of a new Ampex tape oxide, and his
critical detection of just the slightest bit of noise modulation: he
was a truly talented engineer!) Carson's work as a stereo recordist
on such sessions as the Stokowski performance of Loeffler's "A Pagan
Poem" (true stereo, Hollywood, July 1957, available on EMI Classics 5
65074 2) reveals his excellent comprehension of the european EMI
"Stereosonic" methods, as altered and enhanced for more "American"
tastes for directionality. If his "Duophonic" techniques were
ultimately unsuccessful in the opinion of purists, it would be because
of limitations of available technology, as well as the failings of LP
issues made from noisy tapes.
Columbia Records did little artificial stereotizing of its catalog, in
contrast to Capitol, though they altered some of their best-selling
Masterworks issues, such as the famous 1949 Broadway recording of
"South Pacific" and the best-selling recording containing the 1950
performance of the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 with Francescatti,
the Philadelphia, and Ormandy and the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No.
3 with the NYP under Mitropoulos (later they took the high road for CD
reissues, and presented us with the solid monaural original of the
Paganini on Sony Essential Classics, and the single-channel master of
the Saint-Saens, restored by Winner on Masterworks Heritage.) The
Columbia version of early artificial stereo sounded remarkably similar
to the Capitol Duophonic system: indeed, there were few techniques
available at the time, since audio processing gear was limited to
huge, vacuum tube rack-mounted devices by a few manufacturers like
Fairchild and Pultec, and all the studios had the same instruments.
RCA ELECTRONIC RE-CHANNELING
RCA Victor attempted in the early sixties to put a little more sales
life in its old Toscanini mono material by reissuing some of the
finer- sounding early fifties single channel tapes with their own
concept of "re-channeled" stereo. The used deeper, richer stereo echo
than the typical Capitol or Columbia efforts, and much of the same
kind of phase and frequency tweaking; plus what occasionally sounded
like manual pan-potting in the Red Seal reissues of Respighi's Pines
of Rome, the Bizet Carmen Suite, and other best-selling 'near pops'
material by the Maestro.
When the RCA Victrola budget label appeared in the late sixties, a few
Toscanini items were added over the next few years, in "dual
inventory": original mono and "re-channeled" or "electronic" stereo
(these issues are denoted by a small "e" suffix in the label release
number.) Here, the stereotizing was minimal: many had no traces of
the "bath" of background echo, but only appeared to be the slightest
bit "stereophonic" owing to a slight boost of highs on the left side,
and boost of bass on the right. Unfortunately, the tapes used for
these "re-channeled" issues were yet another generation dub, and
almost always sounded much noisier and less distinct than their mono
Victrola counterparts.
WESTMINSTER "Delay" ARTIFICIAL STEREO
When MCA acquired the Westminster catalogue, a similar project was
undertaken to produce the magic "stereo" listing in Schwann for at
least some of the best-selling monaural recordings that were still in
demand. For example, the first integral set by Erich Leinsdorf of the
canon of 41 symphonies of Mozart (including the spurious Second,
probably by Leopold M., the Third, by C. F. Abel, and No. 37, which
contains a short introduction by W. Mozart to a symphony by Michael
Haydn) had been recorded in true stereo only up to somewhere around
the late twenties; later numbered symphonies were taken down earlier
in mono, just before Westminster adopted stereo techniques. When the
disks were reissued in the sixties, the symphonies from around No. 30
on up to No. 41 were presented in a type of "stereo" that had an
altogether new and disconcerting quality, far cruder and more peculiar
than any of the previous issues by Victor, Columbia, or Capitol.
The earlier efforts of creating artificial stereo ADDED significant
components to the sound mix: the "bath" of stereophonic echo or
ambience was generated years later after the original monophonic
recording session. Unless the original tapes were "studio-bound" with
cramped, dry sound, this extra echo could confuse subtle inner voices
or cover detail in the lower midrange. The solidity of percussion and
lower brass was also altered or falsified. If the attempt to boost
the respective highs and lows on the left and right channel was
appreciable, then the recording could seem to be "clumped" in two
places in the artificial proscenium, according to the spectral
content.
The Westminster effort was quite different. I surmise that the tape
playback machine used for dubbing the original single channel tapes
had a second playback head, mounted an inch or two distant from the
first one. At 15 ips or 30 ips, the tape travel would create a delay
of a few tens of milliseconds between the first head and the second.
The output of this ensemble was fed to a separate stereo mix, and
thence to the record mastering process. In general, no significant
altering of highs or lows, and no addition of extra echo, was
utilized. The delay of the entire sound recording by milliseconds was
enough to create a phase effect in one's hearing mechanism: thus, the
ENTIRE recording spectrum was displaced across the wide stereo
proscenium, as though the orchestra was magically "widened". I recall
that the "Haffner" Symphony recording sounded like a kind of "super
stereo" though there were never any indications of instrumental
placement; rather, one heard a strange, disembodied dimensionality
that had no referential "center". If one's preamp was placed in L+R
mono mode, the quick delay became even more audible: each note of
music was "doubled" and repeated almost instantly. In mono mode, a
comb-filtering and cancellation of certain sound frequencies also
occurred. So one could not recover the original mono sound with any
playback technique, other than to wire either the left channel or the
right channel into both sides of the stereo circuit (not practical,
and not often available on most preamps.)
ELECTROLA "BREITKLANG"
About the same time, from Electrola in Europe came a not-very-bright
idea, "Breitklang" or "wide sound". An even longer discrete delay
between the two channels was employed, coupled with shifts of
frequency response AND a bath of background level real stereo
artificially-produced echo or ambience.
The falsification produced by this grotesque system was intolerable to
many sophisticated audiophiles, who continue to rail to this day about
the destruction of many fine monaural performances (one has only to
refer to Henry Fogel's recent review in FANFARE of the damage done to
the old '49 Furtwaengler Bruckner 8th, or to the Alan Sanders
annotations to the modern purist mono transfer on Testament SBT 1143,
to find examples of enthusiasts and critics who are still shuddering
from the awful fakery of the Breitklang desecrations.)
Electrola's competitor Deutsche Grammophon also flirted with a
Breitklang-clone technique of its own, and ruined such fine readings
as Furtwaengler's mid-forties Mozart Symphony No. 39 on Heliodor
repressings.
The old vinyl collector should be warned to avoid any of these
transfers, as the alterations of the original recording balances,
instrumental timbre, sonic blend, and acoustical environments are so
complete that in most cases, one has only a vague caricature of the
original, burdened by an accumulation of false "low fidelity"
artifacts (these are still being reissued: for example, I suspect that
the transfer of Mozart's K. 543 on Music & Arts' Furtwaengler "Best
Studio Recordings" 4-CD set is a dub of the original 'bad klang'
butchery.)
ORBAN "COMPATIBLE" STEREO
In the late sixties and very early seventies, the young American audio
genius Robert Orban was encountering examples of Duophonic and other
phony stereo recordings on LP issues, and was troubled by their
falseness. As an alternative technique, he investigated a system of
spreading out the instrumental spectrum between the two stereo
channels in a way that did not either ADD or SUBTRACT from the
contents of the original monaural recording.
His "comb filter compatible stereo synthesizer" was developed as a
commercial product, and first sold in nearly hand-wired limited
editions by around 1970, followed later by more sophisticated
rack-mounted mass produced units. The device was demonstrated to
Capitol engineers who, I seem to recall, were highly impressed. Soon
it became a "must-have" addition to any sophisticated sound processing
studio. A complex computer-designed "comb filter" is used to produce
a series of discrete bandwidth channels of the original mono source
signal; these are arrayed 'across' the stereo spectrum according to
the taste of the audio producer, who may adjust the width and spectral
divisions over a wide range. The remarkable aspect of the system was
that it was totally recoverable: if one placed the output stereo
channels into a "y-connected" L+R mono, the ORIGINAL full-bodied mono
signal could be recovered. It was almost impossible to hear ANY
difference in comparing that signal to the mono input to the device.
Thus the "purists" could recover the original mono by playing the
recording back in L+R mode; the "stereo enthusiasts" could hear the
spread by listening in 2-channel mode.
I owned the hand-wired prototype (employing 709 op amps and discrete
transistors) and used it for the next 15 years on many audio projects.
Examples of this "compatible" artificial stereo are to be found in a
sampling of the following historic CD transfers that I have obtained
recently: Beethoven's Violin Concerto played by Camilla Wicks with
Bruno Walter and the NYP in a broadcast of the fifties, issued on
One-Eleven Ltd., number EPR-50400; Brahms Sym 1 with the NBC and
Cantelli on Stradivarius STR 10007; and Brahms Sym 3 with Cantelli on
Stradivarius STR 13591. I am absolutely certain, based on two
decades' experience with the Orban device, that it was used for these
transfers.
In "stereo" the sound stage spread is notable, but there is no added
echo (this seems acceptable on speakers, but on headphones it is just
a bit "too much"!) If you sum the channels to L+R mono, you get a
monaural original with no delays, echoes, added ambience, or spurious
cancellations. I wish that the "big time" companies would simply use
this method rather than the more complex remixes, phase shifts, and
echo jumbles that continue to burden historical transfers.
DUTTONIZING
This is the name I have bestowed on the rather simple techniques that
seem to stem from some of the EMI transfers done by Michael Dutton in
the eighties. The original, single channel monaural signal is
"surrounded" by a highly sophisticated, realistic, and smooth stereo
echo/ambience platform, generated with digital circuitry, and
carefully tuned to resemble a real "hall tone". During the mid-'80s
the Yamaha company made a sound processor that had completely
adjustable parameters for generating such ambience: one had control
over the spectral content, delay rates, repetition of discrete echo
versus generalized reverb, stereo width, and so forth: I had one of
these remarkable devices in my own sound studio, and used it for radio
and TV commercials that I voiced, and also experimented with it to see
how it MIGHT be used to reprocess older mono records: I decided that
though the "bloom" was amazingly realistic, that it was a false
element not present in the original and thus was a "low-fidelity"
artifact.
But others disagree. Dutton released his reprocessing on EMI CDs of
Delius works recorded by Beecham, the famous 1951 Bayreuth
Furtwaengler Beethoven Ninth, and many other great old HMV masters
from the mono period, and then finally established his own record
company, Dutton Laboratories, and his own label.
While the Dutton-processed EMI's have little added ambient richness
(as noted in the subtle effects on the 1984 release of Beethoven's Op.
125 with Furtwaengler on the older 'Angel Great Recordings of the
Century' issue no. CDH 7 69801 2) the reprocessings now available on
his OWN label have much more of the added echo, plus a blanketing of
details caused by heavy use of the de-noising modules in the Cedar
audio processing software.
In comparing the marvelous shellac recordings of the Handel-Beecham
suites (dated 1933 through 1945, many of which I owned in Victor 78
rpm albums) from my transfers, as presented on Dutton CDAX 8018, and
as issued on "Beecham Conducts Handel", VAI Audio VAIA 1045, one notes
that my own tape dubs sound very close to the mono-only VAI purist
issue, which contains not only plenty of the original ticks and pops
of the 78 rpm disks, but also all of the high frequencies and details;
Dutton's dub is severely over-sanitized, with muddy definition, mushy
highs, and a blowsy, billowy low end, muddled by the heavy bath of
stereo ambience. All other Dutton reissues that I have tried have
similar qualities; finally I resolved to stop acquiring them and look
instead for the "purist" monaural transfers by such engineers as Mark
Obert-Thorn and Ward Marston for Biddulph or Pearl.
Even EMI have now apparently decided to abandon Duttonizing: the
recent "Abbey Road Technology" remasterings of monophonic material are
in pure single-channel with NO added echo, and little if none of the
Cedaring favored by Dutton: the 1997 publication of Beethoven's Op.
125 by Furtwaengler/Bayreuth (EMI Classics 5 66218 2) sounds much
crisper (and drier) than the Dutton-produced 1984 compact disk
release.
However, one is very sorry to have to note that the Capitol engineers
in Hollywood, in their "infinite wisdom", have apparently accepted
Duttonizing with open arms: the reissues of old mono Capitol classical
tapes from the fifties are generally afflicted by a bath of digitized
stereo ambience. Owners of the crisp original LPs may be disappointed
at the slight falsification (which makes the reissue of Beethoven's
Fifth and Sixth by Steinberg on CDM 7243 5 66553 2 sound strange on
'phones, with a mono orchestra nicely arrayed in a fine slice 'right
between the eyes' and a billowing stereo echo spilling out in both
directions to the left and right.) Since at least some of the
digitized added echo contains out-of-phase components, I have found
that quite a bit of it cancels out and disappears when one plays these
reissues back with the preamp set to L+R mono.
BMG TOSCANINI COLLECTION and Historic Transfers
Most of the nearly 100 CDs in the RCA/BMG authorized reissues in the
"Toscanini Collector" are in purist single-channel mono; however, a
few have been "Duttonized" according to RCA's production tastes (for
example, Vol. 24 containing the New World Symphony and the Moldau, on
60279-2-RG.)
A more extreme example is to be found in sampling a few of the Heifetz
issues: in the "Heifetz Showpieces" Gold Seal disk (09026-61753-2) the
original single-channel recordings from 1951-2 have been subjected to
a very aggressive widening and ambient modification. On 'phones it is
disconcerting, though I find that many listeners report that the
spaciousness is not offensive over their speaker systems. However,
most of the other issues in the "Heifetz Collection" CD sets are in
true, original mono, transferred by the highly-competent "purist" Jon
Samuels.
RCA has been extraordinarily inconsistent in the amount of such
processing, as well as its frequency of use. Some of the Ward Marston
purist disk-to-tape transfers are in real mono; others (like the
Koussevitzky Prokofiev Fifth) have the RCA brand of "Duttonizing"
applied by in-house technicians as an add-on to Marston's or Samuels'
monaural disk transfers.
Yet none of the reissues, no matter how "wide" the aritificial ambient
effects, are unlistenable or reach the level of falsification that
would cause me to shout from the rooftops. I WISH they wouldn't do
it...I am sure that many at RCA itself would agree, but somehow the
technique just pokes its head up here and there, and we must accept it
and live with it. Yet, I confess to a certain worry about the future
of the Toscanini legacy if the purists lose the fight!
CHEAP EUROPEAN BOOTLEG FAKE STEREO BUTCHERY.
Finally, one must note the lamentable tendency of many of the cheesy,
cheaply-produced central European CD transfers to introduce the
all-time worst fake stereo in resissues of some of the most
transcendant performances ever taken down by such esteemed artists as
Furtwaengler, Toscanini, Boehm, Rubinstein, Cortot, etc.
I have spilled thousands of words here on the newsgroup describing
certain specific releases, both to discourage a repetition of the
audio destruction in future, and to warn potential customers of the
rip-off they will suffer if they spend good money on such shoddy
merchandise.
All of the above-described artificial stereotizing techniques may be
employed, in varying proportions (but usually "to the max") with the
addition of yet another artifact: a strange unstable phase-wobble, at
a frequency of 3 or 4 Hz, that continually rotates the audio phase of
the stereo signal (I use the accurate technical description of this
effect, since I have failed to be able come up with an explanation of
it in "common" non-technical terminology.)
There is at least one audio processing instrument, made by UREI in Los
Angeles, that can generate such a phase-shifted signal: it was
designed to introduce certain spatial effects for film production
audio or bizarrre "spacy" techniques in mixing rock music or voices; I
have no doubt that its originators never expected it to be used on
serious recordings of great classical music!
Those of our readers who have ever played a certain old electronic
organ may remember the "rotating speakers" that produced a funny,
wavery, spatial character to the sound. Well, this particular phase
processing introduces just such an effect, and if it is applied on top
of all the other phase and frequency shifts, discrete delay echoes,
stereo ambience, and mushy Cedar de-noising filter artifacts, the
result is so painful to the ear that only someone with NO audio
sophistication or experience with properly reproduced monaural
recordings could tolerate it.
The worst examples I know are the Grammofono 2000 transfer of the
superb 1943 broadcast by Toscanini of the Brahms German Requiem, and
the Iron Needle reissue of the 1938 performance by the same artists of
Haydn's Symphony No. 31 (I won't mention the disk numbers, as I do not
want to encourage anyone to buy them.) Many other issues on
Grammofono, Iron Needle, Sirio, and other substandard small labels
from Europe employ such processing. Sadly, many of the poorest
feature "unauthorized" aircheck recordings that are highly prized by
collectors, and may be otherwise unavailable.
In "stereo" mode, such processing causes an artificially wide sound
stage; yet no actual instrumental placement can ever be achieved,
since all directional cues in the hall were lost when the monaural
recording master was made. The addition of the blowsy echoes, and the
loss of detail and fidelity from the equalization and computerized
filter, create a jumble that cannot be untangled by almost any means
of fiddling with tone controls or preamp settings.
Since many of the original recordings contain little high frequency
information above, say, 6 kHz, the addition of MORE filtering reduces
the sound to a dim roar.
Furthermore, the overall sound damage is so great that one cannot
recover the solid monaural original by placing the preamp in L+R mono
mode.
CONCLUSION.
Artificial stereo may be attempted, but it CAN NEVER reproduce the
spatial-ambience-phase-intensity cues of true multi-channel recording.
Any phony stereo that can NOT be completely cancelled back to mono by
the consumer is a "low fidelity" artifact that is ADDED to an original
recording.
The true "purist" audio enthusiast who has heard original
single-channel high quality recordings played back properly seldom
opts for the "stereo reprocessed" versions (unless they contain other
virtues, such as corrections of noise and distortion that are not
available by any other means.)
[Note: I would like to thank Michael Gray for supplying his articles
about early stereo; Robert Orban for many years of friendship and
collaboration; and Carson Taylor for the courtesy he paid to a young
unknown audio engineer many years ago!]
A Fanatical Toscaniniphile
Cathy and Kip
I first noticed 'fake stereo' in some Spike Jones reissues. Sounded like
someone was just randomly swinging a balance control back and forth,
plus some lousy echo effects.
My favorite reprocessed stereo LP, however, is of English folk songs,
sung by countertenor R. Leavitt, and accompanied by (jazz guitarist
playing it straight) Charles Byrd and an unidentified flutist in some
cuts. The recording is nice and clear, and through the use, I suppose,
of RC networks, they have completely separated the vocalist from the
guitar.
In the annals of 'bad stereo,' let us give a top prize to the Disney
Corporation. After they put the fakey, echoey effects in on all their
soundtrack albums, they decided they didn't need all the original junk,
and threw it out. Now everybody hates the sound, but they're stuck with
what they have. They do the same thing with their movies, first trimming
the top and bottom off to make widescreen, later restoring to the
original ratio by cutting off the sides.
--Kip Williams
--
[we're fooling the spammers today--delete CAPS from address to reply]
Takashi Kikuchi
AFT (Fictitiou...@LIVESPAMFREEJuno.com) wrote:
: ELECTROLA "BREITKLANG"
:
: The falsification produced by this grotesque system was intolerable to
: many sophisticated audiophiles, who continue to rail to this day about
: the destruction of many fine monaural performances (one has only to
: refer to Henry Fogel's recent review in FANFARE of the damage done to
: the old '49 Furtwaengler Bruckner 8th...
I should definately check the review, and listen to the copy I have again.
: RCA has been extraordinarily inconsistent in the amount of such
: processing, as well as its frequency of use. Some of the Ward Marston
: purist disk-to-tape transfers are in real mono; others (like the
: Koussevitzky Prokofiev Fifth) have the RCA brand of "Duttonizing"
: applied by in-house technicians as an add-on to Marston's or Samuels'
: monaural disk transfers.
That may be the reason I can never bath myself into the Koussevitzky's
interpretation... It sounds so foreign to me that have caused me not to
listen to other Prokoviev fifth.
: CHEAP EUROPEAN BOOTLEG FAKE STEREO BUTCHERY.
I have Walter/(various) Haydn symphonies from Reference (or whatever that
name), and Military is so contaminated that I decided to sell. Only to
know later that none of people in this newsgroup wants to buy even with $3
with mentioning "Warning: fake stereo with bad balance"!
Thank you for your effort to write this.
Takashi M. Kikuchi
Mr. Mike
>In the annals of 'bad stereo,' let us give a top prize to the Disney
>Corporation. After they put the fakey, echoey effects in on all their
>soundtrack albums, they decided they didn't need all the original junk,
>and threw it out. Now everybody hates the sound, but they're stuck with
>what they have.
As well, they have reissued some of their old (like 40 years) movies in Dolby
Stereo!! Reminds me of that reissue of Gone with the Wind in the 60's.
VanSkybar
>Date: 10/24/98 2:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <363217f7...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>
>
>To understand something about the development of "artificial stereo" etc.
[much fascinating material snipped]<
Do you have, like, manic phases when you post all these lengthy, brilliant
overviews and then depressive ones when you get offended by someone, leave in a
huff, only to return with a different name and untraceable address a few
months later?
Not that I'm complaining... it keeps things from getting too samey...
Peter Van Skyler
MWKluge
In article <363217f7...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
Fictitiou...@LIVESPAMFREEJuno.com (AFT) writes:
> I suspect that
>the transfer of Mozart's K. 543 on Music & Arts' Furtwaengler "Best
>Studio Recordings" 4-CD set is a dub of the original 'bad klang'
>butchery.)
Hah! It's even worse than that - the M&A release is Lowell Cross's modern
stereoized revamping of the *original* mono recording. Which just shows how
far we've come in thirty years.....
>Dutton's dub is severely over-sanitized, with muddy definition, mushy
>highs, and a blowsy, billowy low end, muddled by the heavy bath of
>stereo ambience. All other Dutton reissues that I have tried have
>similar qualities
Yes indeed! See my previous posting on the Duttonizing of Barbirolli's VW
Fifth (in the "Tallis Fantasia" thread).
Mark K.
MWKluge
>When MCA acquired the Westminster catalogue, a similar project was
>undertaken to produce the magic "stereo" listing in Schwann for at
>least some of the best-selling monaural recordings that were still in
>demand.
I believe these issues actually date from the ABC days. Althoguh I don't think
Westminster ever used it, I also recall that conductor Hermann Scherchen
developed a device called the "Stereophoner" around 1960. I knew someone who
owned one of these. As I recall, it was a small box with input and output
wires, containing a fairly simple circuit of the frequency-dividing type, but
notable because it was sold commercially for use by home enthusiasts. Those
were the days.
Mark K.
A. F. T.
Kikuchi) wrote:
>:..the old '49 Furtwaengler Bruckner 8th...
>I should definately check the review, and listen to the copy I have again.
2-LP set, NOT the Testament transfer (which has no 'breitklang'
processing!)
>: Some of the Ward Marston
>: purist disk-to-tape transfers are in real mono; others (like the
>: Koussevitzky Prokofiev Fifth) have the RCA brand of "Duttonizing"
>That may be the reason I can never bath myself into the Koussevitzky's
>interpretation... It sounds so foreign to me that have caused me not to
>listen to other Prokoviev fifth.
The addition of a SMALL amount of background stereo ambience by
Joaquin Lopes to the historic Feb. '46 performance of the Fifth by
Koussy and the BSO, transferred from disk to tape by Marston, does not
ruin the performance or the general sound! No, not at all...it is
subtle and noticeable more on 'phones than on speakers, depending on
how one sits in the listening room (if you position yourself right in
the middle you can detect the stereo ambience as a widened "bloom"; on
headphones it is more obvious.) I did not mean to imply that this
ruined the recording or even falsified it enough to diminish the
musical impact. No, RCA never seems to go that far. But Iron Needle,
Grammofono, Sirio, and other labels DO go that far!! Many of their
transfers have so much echo that one has it shoved down's one's throat
and soon begins to concentrate on the artifacts and not the artistry.
>: CHEAP EUROPEAN BOOTLEG FAKE STEREO BUTCHERY.
>I have Walter/(various) Haydn symphonies from Reference (or whatever that
>name), and Military is so contaminated that I decided to sell.
I have not heard a "Reference" transfer (do you mean EMI 'References'
series?) Please post the exact label and disk catalog number, as I am
in the process of reviewing all the Bruno Walters for the Prentiss
website.
The Jan 1938 recording of the Military with the VPO under Walter
sounded mediocre on my old shellac set (not in any way really superior
to the '29 PSNY recording of the Clock Sym. by Toscanini.) The Bruno
Walter Society LP transfer of Walter's 86, 92, and 100, issued by
Music&Arts in the sixties, was a rather tinny and noisy reprocessing,
without any spurious "engineering additions". The Grammofono 2000
issue (AB 78629) appears to be a copy of the old BWS LP: there is a
tell-tale shaved off note in a side change in one of the 3 Haydn syms.
on the BWS LP that is EXACTLY replicated on the CD; I did a transfer
from shellacs for my own private collection c.1982, and can report
that this defect is NOT in the original disks. I am certain that the
MO-T transfer would not contain the "shaved" note, though I haven't
heard it. The Gr. issue has the same very thin quality (the shellacs,
especially the 86th Sym, sounded very much richer on my own equipment)
and also has appreciable spectral-division fake stereo, though not any
added echo that I could detect (the highs are ALL the way to far left,
the lows to far right, very disconcerting on headphones.)
Furthermore, the "vinyl grind" of the BWS LP is also present, in
"stereo", no less: apparently the Gr. producer used a stereo
cartridge/audio chain to play the monaural disk, picking up the L-R
groove junk which was not cancelled by 'monoing' the signal.
The real gem of these 3 Walter Haydn sym. performances is the Oxford,
No. 92: he never did it again, and the performance (though using an
old edition of the score) has seldom been matched by a modern
conductor. The 86th sym. is another delightful Walter artifact, and
is a vigorous London interpretation with lots of wit and good humor.
The Military, however, is a very "soft-grained" performance, with
little bite or excitement, and VERY recessed and indistinct
percussion. So you may find that you simply cannot obtain any kind of
satisfaction from this particular recording in ANY dub: try the
slightly slower but infinitely more grand and powerful stereo Walter
recording of the Military.
AFT
A. F. T.
>> I suspect that
>>the transfer of Mozart's K. 543 on Music & Arts' Furtwaengler "Best
>>Studio Recordings" 4-CD set is a dub of the original 'bad klang'
>>butchery.)
>stereoized revamping of the *original* mono recording. Which just shows how
>far we've come in thirty years.....
of the transfer engineer, as Mark indicates.
However, my ears tell me something different.
ALL OTHER tracks of the 4 disks, except for the K. 543, have the same
basic sound quality: there is a very SLIGHT amount of added ambience,
a phase shift that is not severe, and some amount of noise-filtering
that is not nearly as steep as in the same engineer's transfer of
Toscanini's French music broadcasts of the 30s, 40s, and 50s for M&A.
However, the K. 543 tracks (4-7, disk 3) sound TOTALLY DIFFERENT.
There is a heavy hollow echo that occupies a "spacial dimension" on
headphones that seems actually to "hover" slightly *above* the
listener (I am not kidding: that's what it seems like to me!) In
addition, there is a totally different frequency response balance, and
the absense of the shellac hiss on all the other tracks. There is
ALSO the unmistakable evidence that one channel of the stereo
perspective has been delayed about 30 to 50 milliseconds with respect
to the other: I suspect that the left is first, followed by the right,
but it's hard to judge that. This is the 'sonic signature' of the
"Breitkland" type reprocessing.
I had an original DG LP transfer, issued in a deluxe 5-disk set about
1961, with pure single-channel mono, and the basic "Magnetophon"
sound. Then, c. 1963 or 4, Heliodor (DG's classical budget label)
brought out a dual-inventory reissue in both mono and fake stereo of
the K.543, coupled (I seem to recall) with either the Schumann 4th or
the Haydn 88th. A friend purchased the "stereo" disk, and we got
together to compare records. The Heliodor had the exact same
"Breitklang" type sound of the Furtwaengler Electrolas (which I think
I obtained on the Odeon label, with stickers affixed over the German
trademarks.) I suspect that Electrola and DG just used the same
simple means of simulating stereo (delay one channel about 30-50 ms,
and add some extra echo, while boosting the highs on the left, and
boosting bass on the right, to simulate the "violins vs. cello/bass"
layout of a modern orchestra.)
The M&A transfer sounds exactly like that old Heliodor.
It also sounds completely different from any other transfers I have
from M&A of material attributed to that engineer in Iowa. I no longer
have access to the Heliodor for confirmation, and I have erred in the
past, so consider this a speculation, but one based on solid
experience.
AFT
>
>>Dutton's dub is severely over-sanitized, with muddy definition, mushy
>>highs, and a blowsy, billowy low end, muddled by the heavy bath of
>>stereo ambience. All other Dutton reissues that I have tried have
>>similar qualities
>
A. F. T.
article. I post that, and usually get caught up in a few days of
postings until my own business interests draw me away.
On one occasion I did depart after certain critical comments were
addressed to my wife and were received over her commercial email
address that she uses for her business activities. When I felt that I
had some more original matters to contribute, I returned, hoping that
in future I could avoid making the mistakes that I made in the past,
and with the intention of staying out of many controversies that have
no "right" or "wong" and can never be resolved by extended bickering
and ad hominem attacks.
A. F. T.
Fictitious_Address@##NOSPAM##Juno.com (A. F. T.) wrote:
> controversies that have
>no "right" or "wong"
Sorry, I mis-typed
I meant to print "wight" or "wong".
AFT
Martin J Haller
> Artificial stereo may be attempted, but it CAN NEVER reproduce the
> spatial-ambience-phase-intensity cues of true multi-channel recording.
>
> Any phony stereo that can NOT be completely cancelled back to mono by
> the consumer is a "low fidelity" artifact that is ADDED to an original
> recording.
>
> The true "purist" audio enthusiast who has heard original
> single-channel high quality recordings played back properly seldom
> opts for the "stereo reprocessed" versions (unless they contain other
> virtues, such as corrections of noise and distortion that are not
> available by any other means.)
>
> A Fanatical Toscaniniphile
While I am what may be regarded as a "casual" historic recording
collector, AFT has expressed my sentiments exactly. The human ear is
capable of weeding out a remarkable amount of auditory garbage so why must
more be added to make a recording "marketable". Certainly, it doesn't
make it any more marketable to me. Case in point: In a previous thread
on the Tallis Fantasia, I asked someone to respond comparing the sound of
Dutton's issue of Barbirolli's RVW Fifth Symphony with the HMV originals.
Mark Kluge was kind enough to do this, and now I am questioning whether I
should even bother trying to obtain any of Barbirolli's PSONY or early
Halle recordings since Dutton's processing has so altered them.
Even more infuriating are the reviews in Gramofone and the Penguin
Guide (note that I do not normally bash these publications - I consider
them good resource material, unlike the ARG) that greet the issue of these
recordings praising the sound. (Yes, the Gramophone did call the sound of
the RVW Fifth "papery in the upper violins", but that's not what I would
say. Sounds more like heavy filtering to me especially when the Cedar
processing unlimits the high frequencies in the climaxes and one can hear
some of what's missing.) This seems quite misleading to me. One can only
wonder about the true novice who buys one of these reprocessed items and
comes away with a totally false impression of what may be a truly great
performance simply because they couldn't hear the music hiding under the
sound.
Marty
Martin J. Haller (mjha...@acsu.buffalo.edu)
"As you gain experience, you'll realize that all logical questions are
considered insubordination." - Dilbert
A. F. T.
<mjha...@acsu.buffalo.edu> wrote:
>the Gramophone did call the sound of
>the RVW Fifth "papery in the upper violins"
What an exquisite example of fanciful, subjective, non-referencial
idiocy! I suppose this would be a comparison to violins played with a
rolled up newspaper instead of a bow; or violins whose strings are
wrapped in paper; or violins MADE of paper; or violins with STRINGS
made of paper, or...well, what?
Perhaps the British critic is not using a modern dynamic speaker made
out of a kind of paper, but is playing back the recording on an old
'Morning Glory' metal horn gramophone.
By contrast, old Haggin observing that "the recording needs a step of
bass" reads like one of Euclid's proofs.
AFT
Alrod
recordings.
1) Use a mono switch. This is not as easy as it sounds, as fewer and
fewer preamps reach the market these days with a mono switch.
2) Use a surround system with passive ambiance extraction (no
steering). This will send the out of phase information to the rear,
which reduces the muddiness up front. You can ignore what comes out of
the rear speakers, or if you are still offended, you can turn them
off.
Alrod
Brendan R. Wehrung
Although I wish there were a news group
name alt.music.classical.personal-attacks we could exile some threads to
once the information-confering part of the thread was exhausted.
Brendan
Brendan R. Wehrung
Wasn't that a re-recording of the music track, not "stereoizing" of a mono
original?
Brendan
MWKluge
In article <Pine.GSO.3.96.981025...@joxer.acsu.buffalo.edu>,
Martin J Haller <mjha...@acsu.buffalo.edu> writes:
>I am questioning whether I
>should even bother trying to obtain any of Barbirolli's PSONY or early
>Halle recordings since Dutton's processing has so altered them.
Here's the curious thing: Dutton's transfers of tape origin material for the
Barbirolli Society series are quite fine. I have some of the early HMV and Pye
LPs of this material, and the CDs sound essentially identical. In some cases
there is very slight added ambience, nothing objectionable. Dutton apparently
saves his heavy processing for 78s. Unfortunately, some of the PSONY material
is available nowhere else.
Mark K.
Paul Penna
(Brendan R. Wehrung) wrote:
I believe that in those cases where separate music/effects and voice tracks
still exist (and they were created that way in order to make foreign
language versions), they've stereo/surroundized the (originally mono) music
and center-channelled the voice to come up with a quasi-Dolby Stereo mix.
They may have even re-foleyed some effects; in the opening scenes of Bambi,
for example, you can hear a chirping bird fly from the back to the front.
The deluxe laserdisc of the digitally-"restored" Snow White has the
original mono mix on the analog tracks.
Paul Penna
Martin J Haller
>
> Here's the curious thing: Dutton's transfers of tape origin material for the
> Barbirolli Society series are quite fine. I have some of the early HMV and Pye
> LPs of this material, and the CDs sound essentially identical. In some cases
> there is very slight added ambience, nothing objectionable. Dutton apparently
> saves his heavy processing for 78s. Unfortunately, some of the PSONY material
> is available nowhere else.
>
> Mark K.
>
Thanks Mark for the further info. I had hoped that this might be the case
based on the Dutton tranfers of Pye material for the EMI Phoenixa series.
I guess I'll have to take my chances with the 78 material.
A. F. T.
>I believe these [Westminster fake stereos] actually date from the ABC days.
>Mark K.
Just a brief note to confirm Mark's correction and to thank him for
it.
I no longer have the vinyl set of the individual disks of the
Leinsdorf Mozart Syms., but a friend has some of the disks from it and
the ones in artificial stereo are indeed ABC and not MCA product.
Since the stereotizing occurred in the late sixties and/or very early
seventies, before bucket-brigade delay lines, or modern digital stereo
ambience synthesizers, the discrete delay surely was created with
spaced tape playback heads; a modern re-hearing confirms my report,
based on recollections from the late eighties when I last audited the
"Haffner". I now have only the TRUE stereo recordings from the series
of early Mozart performances from this cycle, as reissued on CD by
MCA.
Today (or at least a few years ago, when they were in print and were
in general distribution) MCA is a bit clumsy in handling their old
catalog of 'historical' classical tapes from the fifties and sixties.
For example, in the set of Brahms chamber music (MCAD2-99843-2) both
of the disks, and all tracks thereon, play back in pure, single
channel mono (the recordings date from '53 to '55) but the jewel case
liner says "STEREO"! There is NO attempt to 'rechannel' or reprocess
these recordings; they sound just like my old mono copies on
Westminster blue-label or orange-label. I have on or two of the disks
from the series of complete Hungarian Rhapsodies by Farnadi; the
originals are monaural, the CD transfers are monaural, and NOW the
jewel case liner says "MONAURAL". So watch this label and do not
necessarily believe what it says: some may be incorrectly labelled
with regard to recording mode.
The vast majority of titles of the old Westminsters reissued by MCA
were stereo recordings, anyway. Personally, I don't care HOW they are
labelled, as long as the transfers are honest (and most appear to be
quite straightforward and recall the precise sound of the old vinyl
originals, minus the horrible Westminster-ABC surface noise.)
AFT
Takashi Kikuchi
: On 24 Oct 1998 22:58:41 GMT, ez04...@catbert.ucdavis.edu (Takashi
: Kikuchi) wrote:
: >:..the old '49 Furtwaengler Bruckner 8th...
: >I should definately check the review, and listen to the copy I have again.
: Remember, the review and the annotations condemn the old Electrola
: 2-LP set, NOT the Testament transfer (which has no 'breitklang'
: processing!)
I have the Toshiba EMI Grandmaster copy that has the breitklang, and I
hear many things you described on the origical post.
: >That may be the reason I can never bath myself into the Koussevitzky's
: >interpretation... It sounds so foreign to me that have caused me not to
: >listen to other Prokoviev fifth.
: The addition of a SMALL amount of background stereo ambience by
: Joaquin Lopes to the historic Feb. '46 performance of the Fifth by
: Koussy and the BSO, transferred from disk to tape by Marston, does not
: ruin the performance or the general sound!
Well, not knowing enough about the music itself (this is the first disk I
bought for Prokovief 5th) might have given me a mystified idea about the
piece. I usually listen to classical music on headphone: Tanheiser (sp?)
340 or some economical one. So if there is any wabbling or shifting of
sound from left to right and so on, it gets annoying to me. I haven't
detected such stuff in Koussivitzky's, and it's been a while since I heard
that disk seriously. I probably have to find a stereo version to accustom
myself to the music first, I guess...
: >: CHEAP EUROPEAN BOOTLEG FAKE STEREO BUTCHERY.
: >I have Walter/(various) Haydn symphonies from Reference (or whatever that
: >name), and Military is so contaminated that I decided to sell.
: I have not heard a "Reference" transfer (do you mean EMI 'References'
: series?) Please post the exact label and disk catalog number, as I am
: in the process of reviewing all the Bruno Walters for the Prentiss
: website.
The disk is Historical Performer (HP 20) Walter Collection 5. It comes
with Military (with VPO), No 86 (with LSO) and Oxford (with Orch. du Cons.
de Paris). They are all 1938 recordings.
: ... can report
: that this defect is NOT in the original disks. I am certain that the
: MO-T transfer would not contain the "shaved" note, though I haven't
: heard it.
That's what I assume. I've gotten to know this recording from a
recommendation written by Koho Uno (a famous Japanese classical music
critic; advocate to Asahina; himself a conductor, too!). It is (or was)
released from Toshiba EMI in Japan. So there is a chance that bleitklang
was implemented, and Historical Performers issues is simply the copy of
that disk (or other CD or LP recordings with bleitklang).
He commented that after he heard the 1938 performance, he now felt that
later stereo remake is heard with many orchestral problems. Since I agree
with many of his recommendations, I trusted him on that issue (I'm yet to
get into Haydn deeply). Of course, I should now give a stereo remake a try
since the mono one would not be easily available (if available, probably
with _bad_ results from bleitklang!).
: The real gem of these 3 Walter Haydn sym. performances is the Oxford,
: No. 92: he never did it again, and the performance (though using an
: old edition of the score) has seldom been matched by a modern
: conductor. The 86th sym. is another delightful Walter artifact, and
: is a vigorous London interpretation with lots of wit and good humor.
I guess I should give that disk an another try (though I'm not familiar
with either symphony).
Takashi M. Kikuchi
A. F. T.
Kikuchi) wrote:
>:I have Walter/(various) Haydn symphonies from Reference (or whatever that
>: >name), and Military is so contaminated that I decided to sell.
AFT inquired:
>: I have not heard a "Reference" transfer (do you mean EMI 'References'
>: series?) Please post the exact label and disk catalog number...
>The disk is Historical Performer (HP 20) Walter Collection 5. It comes
>with Military (with VPO), No 86 (with LSO) and Oxford (with Orch. du Cons.
>de Paris). They are all 1938 recordings.
HP series disks vary all over the map; I have several of their Walter
and Furtwaengler recordings.
The HP transfer of the Walter/Serkin Beethoven Emperor is in bad fake
stereo, with clipping distortion on peaks of one channel, much extra
echo, dull highs, and constant HF dropouts on the left; the original
source might have been a copy of the old Odyssey or original ancient
Masterworks LP, "Butchered for Stereo"® (how's that for a trademark?)
The HP of the Walter Bruckner 8th is identical or close in general
sound quality (mono 'base' with fake stereo echo) to the Iron Needle
(which has probably added even MORE ambience), and has the same screwy
mistake: the finale movement occurs about 24 minutes into the track
for the "third" movement! When you go to track 4 for the finale, you
start about 5' in! This EXACT mistake, to the second, is on the later
IN (guess who copied who!) The original Music&Arts vinyl set had, I
recall, the first & second on s. 1, the third on s.2, and the finale
on s.3, with the Walter/PSNY La Mer on the fourth side, and I believe
that the movements of the Bruckner were broken up properly? Anybody
able to corroborate this? So WHY did HP and IN get it so fouled up?
I suppose we will shortly be "treated" to a Grammofono, a Sirio, and a
Myto which has the same botch-up...
The HP release of the 2 Mozart Concerti with Walter and Hess is in OK
aircheck quality, in very simple fake stereo with highs on left and
lows on right, and probably came from the M&A or vice-versa. The HP
of the '42 Beethoven Ninth with Furtwaengler is in just as bad a sound
quality as most if not all the other transfers of same, and is in true
RRG "Nazi-mono"®.
So I cannot vouch for the HP of the Haydns, but I will just BET you
that it is an identical copy of the Music & Arts' produced Bruno
Walter Society LP that I bought back in the sixties in a very plain
white jacket with a photo of Walter and really rudimentary layout and
printing: now, M&A uses nice graphics, good pictures, and gets real
experts and authorities to do their annotations, so they have much
improved professionalism in those aspects of their productions (if not
always all others.)
If your HP is a copy of the BWS LP, or is in any way similar sounding
to the Grammofono, then I would suggest looking for a Mark Obert-Thorn
transfer if he has done these for Biddulph or Pearl (I'm pretty sure
he must have!) My own copy of the shellac sets of 92 & 86 sounded
just wonderful, played back with proper curves with a GE
variable-reluctance cartridge: they were extremely smooth pre-war
pressings and had lots of body, good presence, a fine and solid low
end, and reasonable high frequency response up to about 6 kHz or so,
typical for standard material on Victor at the time.
M-OT, or Ward Marston, would go to town with stuff like that!
>there is a chance that bleitklang was implemented, and Historical Performers
>issues is simply the copy of that disk (or other CD or LP recordings with bleitklang).
If we are being precise, Breitklang was Electrola's name for their
electronic stereo, and it has specific characteristics: a fixed delay
between the repetition of the signal (I would estimate ~40 ms) as well
as phase/frequency shifting and a bit of electronic echo. This is a
somewhat complicated process to create (or was in the analogue days),
and was not found in the cheaper "electronic stereo" (which was
simpler and often sounded better!) I do not imagine that there has
been an official Electrola Breitklang edition of the Victor 78s of
those Walters (but there may have been one I missed.)
If you use "Breitklang" as a generic term for fake stereo, you might
be misleading; it is specific to Electrola's technique (for all I
know, they may have trademarked it as Breitklang®).
AFT
TransfrGuy
>If your HP is a copy of the BWS LP, or is in any way similar sounding
>to the Grammofono, then I would suggest looking for a Mark Obert-Thorn
>transfer if he has done these for Biddulph or Pearl (I'm pretty sure
>he must have!)
Nope, never did. (I *do* have nice prewar Victor pressings of them, though, if
anyone's interested in having me transfer them . . .)
Mark O-T