Hear the first stereo ever, Blumlein's original recordings from 80yrs ago
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- čas přidán 7. 08. 2024
- Hear some of the first ever stereo music put on disc over 80 years ago by Alan Blumlein at Abbey Road Studios, made famous by the Beatles 30 years later.
Birth of Stereo & Immersive: The 1st stereo recordings on disc
Blumlein's ideas and principles for stereo sound are still being used by engineers and musicians across the globe.
Look at the developments that 'the man who invented stereo' made to make stereo happen on the first playable stereo 78s and preparing the ground for immersive audio and see how the recordings were engineered.
The work is so important that the Grammy's gave Blumlein an special award in 2017.
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Thank you for keeping your videos viewable. Still relevant as they touch timeless subjects.
Absolutely terrific. Thanks for your historical notes.
Cheers Professor! Feel free to spread it around where you are.
Please consider including information about Audio Fidelity Records (founded by Sid Frey), which produced the first commercially available stereo record in 1957. (I am his daughter.) Because he released his vinyl BEFORE the major labels, he broke open the market for stereo in the US. He was known by the moniker Mr. Stereo. Artists included Louis Armstrong, the Dukes of Dixieland, Lionel Hampton, Don Shirley, Al Hirt, and Patachou. Andrea (Frey) Bass
Hi anderonia1,
While I've been an audiophile for many decades, I only recently began exploring the history of stereo recording. That led me to the Audio Fidelity discs, and I I found a near-mint copy of "Marching Along with the Dukes of Dixieland," AFSD-5881, just a week ago on discogs. I bought it mainly for its historical significance, but when I played it I was blown away. The sound quality was amazing, with a sharp, clear soundstage that put the instruments in the room. Rather than listening to it merely as an historical curiosity, it reminded me of why I became an audiophile in the first place. Kudos to your father for his part in bringing stereo the the public.
I have several classical L.P.s from the Audio Fidelity label. To be honest, the sound isn't the greatest: distorted, compressed. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean the original recordings were inferior in any way. I would love to see a proper restoration/remastering of these titles to CD. Not only are they "historic"; the interpretations are quite good.
Thanks for this important video! Alan Dower Blumlein was truly a genius and was incredibly prolific in his brief time on this Earth.
Wow wow wow, what a GREAT video. Thank you !
Great video!
Amazing video, looking forward to some more! :)
Cheers mate. More to come on audio over the next month or so.
Just got thru Jeff Emericks "Here There and Everywhere" about the Beatles sometimes angelic sometimes hellish art experience at EMI Abbey Road studio, during the 1960s.This vid completes what was missing in that book,a rationale of why the recording culture before that time had come to be the way it is depicted here for large formal orchestra, before electronics and multitracking.Thanks so much for the upload.
Thank you it was very informative.
One of your best.
Love this. Thank you
Like this history lesson. Very well presented. Subscribed. Hope you do more videos like this.
Thanks, I will be doing more along this lines
Most excellent video!
Thanks
This was really interesting. Beyond limitations in signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response in the preserved recording, it's really amazing how good this recording sounded. I wonder how good it could get with a little remastering, today.
That said, I remember a few decades ago, in the Edison Museum in Florida, seeing an Edison cylinder phonograph with a "polyphone" attachment. This was an early experiment with achieving a more dimension sound stage. It used two reproducers, each playing the same track, but separated slightly. Each reproducer used its own horn. The result was that the record played back with a bit of artificial reverb. Obviously, this wasn't true stereo. But it's interesting to me that the experiment was even conducted. I think those attachments were commercially available, but I'm not sure.
Thanks, this is interesting stuff.
😮Oh my! I really considered that it was magnetic tape that made stereo practical!
I must agree with nilseo that the Bell Labs experiments with Stokowski are actually the first stereo recordings on disc. As for Per Michaelsen
's comments about the Duke Ellington recordings, these were not experimental stereo recordings. The sessions happened to be recorded on two separate cutter/turntables from two different microphones just a backup, in case one cutter had a problem. Only in recent years did someone find the two different masters of those cuts and sync them up to create the stereo image.
This video will explain it better:
czcams.com/video/wGt9uXmTd8A/video.html
As Well as the Stokowski recording there is one of Elgar conducting his Cockaigne Overture in 1933, again using two discs. The BBC experimented with stereo in 1925 transmitting one channel on medium wave from the 2LO transmitter on the rood of Selfridges in regent /st and the other from the Daventry 5XX transmitter on long wave.
The song in the video appears to be Victor 24603 “The Sun Is Around The Corner” by Ray Noble and The New Mayfair Orchestra. I cannot find an audio file of it anywhere, but it does exist.
Then, there was RCA Victor's Living Stereo recordings, especially the classical recordings. Most, if not all, the highly prized ones to collectors were pressed in the Indianapolis plant.
It sounds impressive!
Alan Blumlein must have later invented the microphone arrangement that is two cardioid mics that are right next to each other at 90 degrees - this is named after him. The advantage it has over spaced omni mics is that a Blumlein array doesn't have bass cancellation.
Incredible
Brilliant
Liked it !
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I produced a music TV show during the 1990s.
I recorded performances 'live on tape' as the saying goes - VHS videotape.
The original audio was monoaural as well as all the linear editing equipment to produce the broadcast program.
The edit system provided two audio tracks, but they were not meant to mean that one could do true stereo, but rather to allow mixing from two audio sources. The end product was always mono.
Ditching around, I discovered that I could lay down the first audio track then lay down the second audio track one or two frames different to create a sense of stereo.
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Time machine !
i need a link to this song that played before he started talking
From 1932 there exists recordings by the Duke Ellington orchestra in stereo: «At two sessions early in 1932, Ellington
recorded a pair of medleys, each almost eight minutes long. These sessions were
made using an experimental recording technology, and were not intended for
commercial release. Whether intentionally or accidentally, these sessions were
also recorded in stereo. BMG, which owns the original masters, has never
acknowledged the stereophonic nature of these recordings, and has never
released them in that form. However, they occasionally surface on imported
releases, such as the French On The Air (MNR 31000), which is filled out with
NBC radio broadcasts from 1940.»czcams.com/video/wGt9uXmTd8A/video.html
The Ellington recordings were NOT experimental stereo. They're considered to be "accidental" stereo because there was no intent at the time to produce a final two-channel playback. Due to the sometimes primitive state of recording equipment back then it was common practice to make two simultaneous copies of a performance with one serving as a backup in the event of problems. If the two copies used different microphone placements they in effect became separate channels. Modern technology allows the two channels to be synchronized, reproducing the original sound separation.
What became of the sessions recorded by Beecham? It is quite a tease to say Sir Thomas put some tracks down without mentioning whether the discs survived..
The masters survived and were pressed on vinyl by EMI in the 80s on their Historic Masters label. I have two, they are 10" stampers onto 12" vinyl. Being sum and difference stereo I had to build a special pre amplifier to decode them. Pretty sure they made it on to CD
Tim my dear, would it be possible for you to do the commentary before the music, as your incessant vocal meanderings negate the function of this video. (and please use a pop shield in future) I want to hear the recording and you, but not at the same time
Just to ask an important question - The Blumlein stereo cutting process you quote as being one channel being lateral cut motion and the other channel vertical cut motion - Is this a mistake, as I thought that Stereo sound on a record is diagonal cuts at 45 degrees with left channel being left groove wall and right channel being right grove wall, or was this a seperate method to the modern vinyl LP stereo recording system we know about today, and if so could both be played through the same equipment successfully? (abit like the subtle but entirely plausible difference between variable density and variable area sound-on-film recording methods - where both could be played through the same audio projector equipment)
Hi thanks for the thoughtful question. The Blumlein cutter was Horizontal/Vertical - Im guessing it was probably easier to place these rather large coils that way . Also there was no need to consider mono compatibility. The 45/45 degree groove came out with the commercial stereo LP. The way the groves work means that with a stereo cartridge you get stereo, but if you had a mono pickup head (picking up horizontal movements only) the 45/45 will still deliver L+R.
I guess if you had an original Blumlein disc, you would use a modern stereo cartridge to pick up the signal but then you'd need to do a wee bit of matrixing to decode it into true left and right
I had always understood that Blumlein used 45/45 recording and that 45/45 was detailed in one of his patents (possibly 394,325).
djfmitv try visualizing the horizontal and vertical cutting of the groove as the left and right signals then turn that image a few degrees and you have 45/45 stereo the same thing
Stereo is modulated horizontal for the mid signal and vertical for the side signal. This is then added to mid+side-3dB for left channel and mid-side-3dB for the right channel. So what is mentioned at 2:25 is not correct.
Sum and difference stereo, the phasing is different. The same arrangement for the microphone technique known as the Blumlein pair.
Where can you find these recordings in full, no commentary?
What is the dance songs called?
Nico Im afraid I dont know that
If only that plane hadn't crashed.A smashing video!!!
Too true
So many great talents were lost to plane crashes in the days before modern safety standards. Carole Lombard, Buddy Holly & co., Glenn Miller, Will Rogers, and others. What they could have done had they lived.
Hopefully not being too picky here on what is a very interesting video but the picture showing Studio1 at Abbey Road does not resemble anything like the pictures I know of the studio around this time (1930's), the one shown looks too small a room and has windows, also the Beatles shot does show them in Studio 2.
whats music in background, whats link to it, is it first stereo rec?
How come many of Beatles songs were still recorded in mono format?
For their singles releases (and overseas markets). 45rpm singles were all mono until well into the 70s in the UK being teenager dansette-fodder. The mono mixes are better IMHO
Most pop recordings were released in mono (while simultaneously being recorded in stereo) because 'teenagers wouldn't care about that technical stuff; they just wanted to buy the records' (from what I've read about the practice).
ten years pater buddy rich the american drummer cut sound and color film of a ww2 hit ,,it is definitly HIFI not stereo ,but still sounds and looks like it was cut a few months ago
Blumlein’s patents you have not consulted. They are easily found. His cutter was 45/45 your film erroneous.
Shut up and let's hear them!
isnt this binaural?whats that?