 Adventures
in Surround Sound, from 7.2 to Quad
(personal
and historical notes, basics, and acoustic realities often
forgotten)
= P
a r t 6 =
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Shoulders
To Stand On
(or:
"How Bert Whyte Turned Me On to Multichannel
Music")
Go
To Column One -- An Unusual
Concert
Go
To Column Two -- Irresistible Invitation
We
all have to get our start and the "flame of inspiration"
from somewhere, or it may never occur at all. And each of us
who creates anything, of large or small value, will be found
standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before us.
I find myself often looking back to those pioneers who set
the stage for my own life's work and contributions. I owe
them an unpayable debt. But as Robert Heinlein, the great SF
writer, once observed in replying to the question, "How can
I ever repay you?", "You can't. You pay forward." This has
been borrowed recently as: "Pay it Forward," so may already
be familiar to you. It's an insight not to forget.
Among those who got my
own wheels spinning in the direction of music making and
audio engineering is the writer of the next two sections
below. I was in grade school when the columns first appeared
in what was called: Radio and Television
News
(later: Radio/TV News).
It was a hybrid magazine of many related topics, which began
by aiming at those who built, repaired, and tinkered with
sound and video equipment. The magazine became much more
varied than its name might suggest. There were unusual
"do-it-yourself" construction projects (who "does it
themselves" these days?), reviews of the technology of the
day, early computer articles, theremins and music making
devices (yes), and even a monthly recorded music column
called the "Certified
Record Revue."
Wotta name! The reviewer was Bert
Whyte.
In the decades since
that column appeared, many folks have asked me just how I
got started, why did I pursue what then was once a nearly
unknown field? This webpage is a partial answer to those
queries, and I hope you will get a taste of the excitement
Bert so ably put into words, which captured and enthralled
me, even though I was only a kid. If the seeds of curiosity
in matters musical and scientific / technical were already
within you, this kind of gusto is seductive. Look how long
I've remembered these columns, and would have loved to see
them again somehow.
To cut to the chase, it
was on the ubiquitous eBay
web auction site
than I stumbled upon most of a year's worth of issues of
R/TV News around the summer of 2000. I'd discovered a few
other antique bits of nostalgia previously, and had bid on a
few bargains, sort of fun. This one was a shot in the dark,
I couldn't remember the exact year (it was 1956), and I
hadn't seen the original dusty old issues since starting
college and discarding a lot of stuff in my parent's cellar.
This time my gamble paid off, and in the first shot I hit
the target -- both reviews were in two of the issues
(June
and September) I'd
obtained -- BINGO!
I'd forgotten most of
the details by now, of course. And all the old ads -- how
quaint. But the first reading brought it all back, and still
seems worth a little adrenaline. Gee, there was a
take-it-for-granted interest back then in non-superficial
music (how sad the narrowed choices of the present -- devoid
of human expression, a dusty desert for heart and
intelligence). I don't know how many of you will share in my
feelings, but here goes nothing. Take a read below and see
what sparks are conjured. Think about how it would feel if
mono audio was all you ever heard. Oh, yes -- I did
eventually meet Bert Whyte and his wife, Ruth. That was at
the 1969 NYC AES show, when The
Well-Tempered Synthesizer
had just come out. Bert knew Mark Aubort, a master audio
expert who was then also the USA importer of the first
Dolby
A-301 units (we
were among the first studios to use a few on our multitrack
and mixing sessions), and we all were introduced.
"Oh,
BOY, am I happy to
meet you!", I greeted a cheery, rotund, pleasant looking man
somewhere in his middle years. Ruth was a little shyer, but
quickly Rachel and I learned that she had also been Bert's
collaborator for years, the assistant engineer to him on
those legendary Everest stereo recordings of the late 50's
and 60's. (Ya
gotta hear their recording of Respighi's "Roman Festivals"
on a big system! EVC 9018)
We chattered about a lot of things, made far too many jokes
and puns
(even spelled backwards, "a nup is a nup... "), but only
after playing mutual admiration society. I praised the
columns (and others later, like "Behind the Scenes" in Audio
magazine) for jazzing my interests in matters musical and
multichannel, and Bert and "Ruthie" praised S-OB and the
just released W-TS. We went out for a lunch together, and a
good industry friendship was kindled.
Rachel and I drove out
to see the Whytes several times during the 70's, to their
home plunk in the middle of Long Island (a town aptly
called: Centereach), filled with so many cool "toys." Then
Bert and Ruth came to have offbeat dinners with us, long
visits at Rachel's brownstone, where soon after we
relocated
the studio. Tapes
were brought by the visitors either way, to enjoy together
on our big systems. Music of all kinds was discussed, played
and dissected, from Carly Simon and Dave Brubeck, to Eugene
Goossens conducting the LSO playing Rachmaninoff. We didn't
get together so often in the 80's for the usual reasons,
when you're not living in the same town (or even when you
are...). By the early 90's Bert investigated and wrote about
another versatile surround sound idea: Ambisonics.
Sadly, it has never gotten its day in the sun, either. I'll
add more about it on these pages soon. Then just as all
their ultra hi-fi Everest recordings were being released for
the first time on CD around 1993, Bert became sick and died.
He did see the initial tests of the audio transfers and new
graphics for the first few, I'm pleased to note. Ruthie and
I continue to speak on the phone every few months; we love
to chatter with one another about music and audio and
life.
I do believe Bert would
get quite a kick out of seeing these particular two columns
appear on this website, a concept he never got to explore.
You'll discover in reading below, perhaps, that the "push"
to get multichannel sound is nothing new. Here it was for
true three channel stereophony. Two decades later a fourth
track was added, and quad got run up the flagpole. And now
25 years beyond that we're about to add yet a fifth track
(and ".1 of a track," for the subwoofers!). Have things
changed so much? I hope one thing HAS
changed. Both three channel and quad went nowhere (you heard
it here first *wink*).
Bert's barely contained excitement and "news" below turned
out not to be prophetic (at least basic stereo came out two
years later). Quad was messed up by ignorance and record
company greed. Sound familiar? I wonder if in another three
to five years we'll look back on 5.1 plus Surround Sound as
merely the most recent failure to move past two tracks (need
it or no)...?
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Column
I -- An Unusual Concert
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A
FEW months ago, a
very interesting and significant hi-fi sound demonstration
was presented in San Francisco. Picture this scene if you
can . . . you are sitting in a great concert hall and the
San Francisco Symphony is about to perform the Overture to
the "Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart . . . conductor Enrique
Jorda raises his baton, gives the downbeat and the first
bars of the familiar music reaches you. As you listen, you
note the precision of the first violins, they are all bowing
together in near perfect unison; observing the woodwind
section you focus your attention on the flautist and the
pure sound of his instrument comes to you from the middle of
the orchestra where he is sitting. Your eyes and ears move
back to the right where several contrabassists are busily
sawing away at their ponderous instruments. As the score
develops, you are aware of the constant activity of the
instrumentalists.
Now we are about two-thirds of the way through the work and
at the beginning of a crescendo, suddenly you can't believe
your eyes! The musicians have stopped playing and have laid
down their instruments, but the music
continues to its triumphant
conclusion! You are
as bewildered as everyone around you, when three floodlights
illuminate three huge theater-type speakers placed at equal
intervals across the back of the stage, and another flood
shines down upon the familiar heads, reels, and tape of an
Ampex tape machine and you realize you have been hearing a
three-channel
stereophonic recording
of the work that has just been "played"!
A moment later a narrator assured everyone that this is in
fact, the truth . . . that right from the very beginning of
the Overture the musicians were merely pantomiming their
playing in concert with the tape which had previously been
recorded! "Oh come now," says the True Audio-doubter, ...
"do you mean to say the realism was so great that everyone
was fooled ? You must have had some inkling that the
reproduction didn't sound 'quite right' and that it had a
mechanical quality."
Now friends, this situation actually existed at that
demonstration, and in subsequent numbers, other stereophonic
trickery was shown. Now whether the same sense of realism
was perceived after the audience knew there was stereophonic
reproducing equipment on the stage, I don't know. However it
is well known that there is an interrelationship between the
eyes and the ears when both senses are used simultaneously
as in listening and looking at a live concert. The eyes and
the ears can easily deceive you. With the musicians going
through their motions in perfect synchronization with the
stereotape, if there were differences, the mind was not
psychologically prepared to accept these differences.
With three-channel stereo the highest pinnacle of the audio
art to date and with the demonstration under absolutely
ideal conditions, the difference between live and recorded
was of a very small order at any rate and the mind of the
individual listener, having preconditioned itself to the
fact that it was going to hear live music, accepted what it
heard and saw without question. To further the deception so
that even the most astute music lover or knowledgeable hi-fi
fan in the audience would find nothing amiss, very special
machines and recording techniques were utilized. The Ampex
machines were special three-channel Model 300 units,
modified to use half-inch wide tape, instead of the
one-quarter-inch standard width. This eliminates what was
one of the problems with the original one-quarter-inch three
channel machine, the deterioration of the signal-to-noise
ratio. With less than 45 dB signal-to-noise ratio in the
standard machine, at high levels some sharp-eared hi-fi fan
would have heard the tape hiss, and even in a preconditioned
state, he would ultimately realize that he was not hearing
live music.
The half-inch wide tape allows each of the three channels a
much wider area with subsequent improvement of the
signal-to-noise ratio. The tapes made before the performance
had to resort to special microphone techniques. No
omnidirectional pickup here . . . all recording had to be
very close-up and as non-reverberant as possible, otherwise
you run into double acoustics, in other words, in a normal
recording session you want some of the hall reverb in your
recording to lend "liveness" to the sound. If that had been
done at this demonstration, it would have spoiled the
illusion desired since you would be playing back the
recording in the same hall and you would have produced
double reverberation.
The speakers used were the Cinemascope type developed by
Ampex in conjunction with Jim Lansing and have extremely
broad coverage. With their exceptionally high efficiency, it
was found that 30 watts of power was sufficient to cover the
audience of over 3000 people. Now the crux of this whole
thing is this, among those 3000 people were many hi-fi fans
who no doubt were vastly impressed, to say nothing of the
many people who had never heard real hi-fi sound let alone
three-channel stereo! Undoubtedly many of these people,
affluent or otherwise, will want to know if there is
anything available that will give them this three-channel
sound in their homes. The answer of course, is yes, but you
must be prepared to pay roughly 2900 dollars for a standard
Ampex three-channel machine, and set up three amplifiers and
three speakers as well. Assuming some millionaire indulges
himself in one of these rigs, do you know what will be
available to him on three-channel recorded tape? Just one
reel of some organ music. There may be one or two others
somewhere but I have no knowledge of anything outside this
one commercially-made tape.
I'm a lucky guy. I'm one of the few people who have had a
three-channel Ampex stereo machine in his home. And Ampex
supplied me with not one but four or five different tapes. I
lived with that machine and it was one of the biggest
thrills I've ever had in audio, but even the fabulous sound
of three-channel stereo begins to pall a little when you
hear the same music continuously. The lesson to be learned
from this demonstration is this . . . stereo whether two or
three channels is here to stay. The public is impressed and
the public likes it and will buy it if a way can be found to
get the cost of the equipment down to an approachable level.
The Ampex 612 was, of course, a big step in the right
direction and if the production rate and availability of
two-channel stereotapes can be stepped up, they will enjoy a
brisk market. But going one step further, why not take the
final plunge and try to produce a marketable three-channel
system. Two-channel stereo is great, but nonetheless there
are many people who have difficulty in perceiving its depth
and directional qualities. With a three-channel unit the
fact that you have something different,
something that sounds incredibly alive and natural is
immediately apparent even to the most untrained ear. It is
well known that a two-channel stereo system using very
modest amplifiers and speakers, will sound better than some
of the most expensive and elaborate monaural systems. With
three-channel stereo you can literally, "get away with
murder" in the matter of speakers and amplifiers and even
with units no better than are found in today's inexpensive
tape recorders! Knowing a bit about the economics of
producing tape recorders, I say that the logical step up to
three channels is neither technically difficult nor
financially unfeasible.
The big problem to overcome is the matter of the recorded
tape. But that was the problem of two-channel recorded tape
and it has been largely overcome and the situation will be
well in hand by the end of this year. Many people, some of
them placed very high in the music and audio fields, feel
that monaural tape is now merely a transitional thing, and
that stereo will be the medium used for music on recorded
tapes. I'm inclined to agree, but why stop there ? Why not
start beating the drums for three-channel stereo, which
believe it or not, I feel has a larger sales potential than
anything in the field of home music entertainment. The fact
that three-channel sound is so startlingly better than
conventional sound, leaves open avenues for some smart
manufacturer to produce a complete packaged system at a
price the public can afford. I sincerely feel that
three-channel stereo is in much the same position as was
television some years back. It's new, it's different, it's
good and, like television, I think there are plenty of
people who would be willing to pay the initially higher
costs for the privilege of hearing it before it reaches the
price level of the masses. As to the music . . . well you
just see how fast the big record companies will produce
three-channel stereo, when they smell a new market.
As a matter of fact there is an even easier way of getting
the necessary music. I don't have to tell you about the
success of the various record clubs . . . it's an
accomplished fact and they are growing bigger all the time.
If one of the big ones, like the "Record of the Month Club"
were really on the ball, they would get themselves three
channel tape recorders and record everything they do in the
stereo medium as well as on monaural tape and offer the
resultant tapes on their usual subscription plans. I'd join
instantly and so would thousands of others.
These big clubs have the money, they have no restrictions on
what they record and actually this would be the ideal time
for them to start, since they are slowly recording the
standard repertoire. This would make a more easily
assimilable choice of music available on stereotape. This is
when they are recording the Dvorak 5th, and the Tchaikovsky
6th, etc. For the most part, the big record companies would
be reluctant to record these warhorses again due to the
plethora already in the catalogue and while no one wants to
discourage them from recording their current repertoire, you
can readily understand that it would be easier for them to
sell, say, a Beethoven 5th, rather than a "Mathis der Maler"
by Hindemith, if-- they could justify the cost of recording
a new Beethoven 5th just to have it on stereo. Since most of
them would probably not change their recording plans, (at
least not initially) due to the cost factor, the logical
method of supplying the "warhorse repertoire" on stereo tape
would be through the clubs.
Well, it's a fascinating subject but I'm running out of
space. I'll conclude with this. If a club comes out with a
subscription plan which would guarantee the release of a
certain number of three-channel stereotapes each month, and
someone puts out a three-channel stereo system for around a
thousand dollars (and I think it can be done for far less)
this I'd like to sell, and given proper demonstration
facilities, I'd have writer's cramp taking the orders!
Equipment used this month: Pickering "Fluxvalve"
cartridge, Pickering arm, Components Corp. turntable,
Marantz "Audio Consolette," two 60-watt McIntosh amplifiers,
Jensen "Imperial" speaker, Electro-Voice " Georgian," and
Ampex tape equipment.
KHATCHATURIAN
GAYNE BALLET SUITE
MASQUERADE SUITE
Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Aram
Khatchaturian.
Angel 35277. RIAA curve. Price $4.98.
This is the fourth performance of the "Gayne Suite" to
appear in the LP catalogue, and is by all odds the best. For
a starter, the composer himself is conducting, and while it
is true that some composers make awful botches of conducting
their own scores, such is decidedly not the case here.
Rather, Khatchaturian adds a new dimension to the work, in
an interpretation entirely different ;n concept from that of
the other conductors. To my ears at least, there seems to be
a great deal more material in the score than my previous
experience with the work would indicate. I would say that
Khatchaturian, secure in his grasp of the work, manages to
imbue his colorful score with considerably more power and
vigor than the other conductors could summon.
(continues,
including several more reviews...)
-------------
The
opinions expressed in this column are those of the reviewer
and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the
editors or the publishers of this
magazine.
RADIO & TELEVISION NEWS
©
Copyright 1956 Radio TV News -- All Rights Reserved.
Transcription and HTML version ©
Copyright 2001 Wendy Carlos
Comment:
for many year we tried to get an orchestra excited to pull
off a new version of a similar stunt as Bert describes here.
This time we wanted to have an ensemble of about eight
synthesists on stage at the rear, actually replicating a big
symphonic work. And then the musicians would put down the
instruments, but the sound would continue. It would be
provided by us, of course, and would show how far the
technology and performance mastery of it by good musicians
had come, to replicate and surprise an audience into
thinking it was "the real thing." But no one seemed
interested. I still think it would create a smashing stunt
and make a genuine statement. Bert was also ahead of his
time. Three track stereo never got much past the stage he
describes above, and what continues below, from a few months
later.
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Column
II -- Irresistible Invitation
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I
DON'T know
quite how to begin this month's column. Regular readers will
recall that in the past two issues I have been promising
some sensational news concerning three-channel stereophonic
sound. This "scoop" was promised for this, the September
issue. Fortunately, the news will be presented this month,
but unfortunately it will be nowhere near as detailed a
report as I had hoped to bring to you. As I have said in
previous issues . . . writing a column two months in advance
has its drawbacks and in this case there was many a slip
'twixt the cup and the lip. Don't get me wrong! This will
still be one of the most sensational, provocative and
industry-shaking announcements in the brief, but
spectacular, history of high fidelity! However, I know that
if I were not bound by certain restrictions, this report
would have had twice the impact. Perhaps, remembering the
obstacles and frustrations I encountered during the
labor-pains and birth of binaural and two channel stereo, I
have tried to go too far too fast, in an effort to
circumvent these difficulties. I guess I'm just a hot-headed
Irishman, boiling with enthusiasm for hi-fi in general and
stereophonic sound in particular, with a burning desire to
help bring this fabulous sound to fruition and make stereo
available to everyone! Well, restrictions notwithstanding .
. . what I've got is great and a big step forward, so here
goes . . .!
You will recall I reported on the 3-channel Ampex
demonstration with the San Francisco Symphony, and then got
up on my soapbox and blithely asked why not 3-channel sound
for the home? I acknowledged the multitude of difficulties
such an undertaking would entail, daydreamed a little . . .
and then got down to the brass tacks of what would be
necessary to bring 3-channel stereo to commercial reality.
In summation it was concluded that even if there were large
numbers of people who could afford the great expense of
existing 3-channel tape machines, or even if a relatively
inexpensive 3-channel tape playback machine became
available, they would all be quite useless without a source
of recorded 3-channel stereophonic tapes. Yessir, we were
right back at the old bug-a-boo . . . without a continuous
source of good recorded tapes the stereo balloon would never
get off the ground. I use the words "continuous" and "good"
advisedly . . . drawing on the experience with binaural and
two channel stereo, where a good many enthusiasts of the
early days rushed out to buy the necessary equipment to play
stereo and then were subjected to the frustration of having
only the most sporadic trickle of tapes released, and even
these were generally of very indifferent quality. Some of
the most inane, rankly "gimmick" type repertoire was thrust
upon these poor souls with the excuse that it was "stereo"
which made everything "all right"! I must insist that this
is a ridiculous attitude.
Generally, if a person thinks highly enough of his hi-fi to
indulge himself in stereo equipment, he is usually a few
cuts above the average in musical discrimination and stereo
or not . . . he wants either good classical or good jazz
material . . . sensibly chosen repertoire, performed
reasonably well by professional executants of known
reputation, and it goes without saying, the highest degree
of technical excellence in the tape he buys. Happily, the
days of the "gimmick" releases is about over with 2-channel
stereo since the advent of the stereo tapes by RCA Victor
and other forward looking companies. I think a lot of people
have learned a lesson and the buyer of 3-channel stereo will
be a more cautious fellow than his 2-channel predecessor,
and the same can be said of the recording companies who, as
you shall see, will offer tapes of genuine musical substance
with the added plus of 3-channel stereo, rather than issue
tapes where the stereo "effect" is the thing and the music
merely subsidiary.
So, realizing the problem confronting three channel stereo
for the home was largely a question of recorded tape
availability, I decided (without much hope of success I
admit) to sniff around the recording companies and ferret
out as much information as I could on the possibilities of
their producing 3-channel stereophonic tapes. Being a
reviewer one naturally gets to know a lot of people in the
recording industry, so at least I had the advantage that I
wasn't approaching this thing "cold turkey"! My first
inquiries were treated about as I expected.... Boy, you
should have seen the raised eyebrows! I guess most of them
figured I had flipped my lid, and I could see the prevailing
attitude was that I was strictly for the birds! Not that I
blame them very much. While most outfits have been recording
2-channel stereo for some time, few had released any as yet
and here I was madly yakking about 3 channels! I must admit
things were more than a bit discouraging and I was about to
concede that 3-channel stereo was still quite a few years
away, when I got the first faint flickering of hope! One of
the big record clubs had been recording 3-channel stereo for
some time . . . but
not for the purposes of issuing the results in the form of
recorded tapes!
They were using a technique which was fairly common with
2-channel machines in making monaural tape masters for
subsequent disc transfer . . . that of post-mixing. In other
words after the actual recording session, the engineers
would play back the 3-channel tape and then, mixing whatever
percentage of each channel they wanted, they obtained the
desired monaural signal which was recorded on a standard
monaural tape machine. It is not my purpose here to debate
the pros and cons of this technique, but one fact is of
course quite obvious . . . here is a source of 3-channel
stereo tape, since there is no law that says one has to
post-mix and use the 3-channel master for no other
purpose!
While this certainly was encouraging, it didn't help too
much as I drew a blank as far as being able to determine if
the release of any 3-channel material was ever contemplated.
I would have pursued the matter further (even though my
contacts with the clubs are second and third person since I
do not review their products), when I got a phone call that
changed everything. "Would you care to hear some white
labels (test pressings) of some new material tonight?"
inquired the feminine voice with the soft Texas drawl....
Would I! This is tantamount to offering a man dying of
thirst a bucket of ice cold spring water! Naturally, I like
to avail myself of every opportunity to observe and hear the
work of the professional recordist in his native habitat.
The caller was the very charming and talented administrative
director of Mercury Records, Miss Wilma Cozart. I was to
meet her and Mr. Bob Fine, chief engineer of Mercury in
Studio C in the 5th Avenue, New York headquarters of Mercury
Records.
That night, I had no sooner stepped through the thick
soundproof door of the studio and was shaking hands all
around when my eyes riveted themselves on the familiar sight
of an Ampex 300 tape console with the most unfamiliar
addition of oversize tape guides, tape gate, and capstan and
capstan roller designed to accommodate the half-inch tape
that was threaded through the machine. A wild thought ran
through my head and I looked at my hosts who by now were
both wearing big grins. "Could this be a 3-channel stereo
setup?", I inquired rather warily of Mr. Fine. Both he and
Miss Cozart laughed and said that knowing of my interest in
stereophonic sound they had rigged up a demonstration that I
might find entertaining. By Gadfrey if that wasn't the
understatement of the century! Studio C is a room about 35
ft. wide by roughly 60 feet deep and with a nice 20 foot
ceiling. Near the entrance is the glass enclosed control
booth and at the far end a big curved projection screen that
receives its images from the projection booth high in the
back end of the room. Behind the screen are three monster
Jim Lansing theater speaker systems, driven by three 60 watt
McIntosh amplifiers! This studio is ordinarily used to score
movie films for various types of multi-channel sound,
including Mr. Fine's own "Perspecta" sound process. Being
obviously all set up and prepared for me, Mr. Fine punched
the start button on the Ampex and the big reel of half-inch
tape began to feed through the tape gate. In a few seconds a
slight increase in tape noise over the normal background
told me we had reached the "live" portion of the tape and an
instant later my astonished ears heard the purest, cleanest,
most fabulous sound I have ever encountered as the speakers
gave forth with the striking opening bars of "Tabuh
Tabuhan," an exotic work by Colin McPhee . . . a new Mercury
release featuring the Rochester Symphony Orchestra conducted
by Howard Hanson.
The disc is reviewed later in these pages and it is an
outstanding recording in every respect . . . but good as it
is, it was pallid in comparison to the incredible realism of
the 3-channel stereo. I am sincere when I say I was
literally stunned with what I was hearing. It was hard to
believe the Rochester Symphony Orchestra wasn't there before
me on the stage. No, that isn't quite correct really,
because in many ways this was far better than the real
thing! I mean it . . . it would be a rare seat in a rarer
concert hall where all that I heard on this stereo tape
could be heard equally as well. The most startling aspect,
of course, was the infinitely greater sharpness and
delineation of the inner orchestral details. This was quite
unbelievable and I heard things on the tape that were but
tenuous hints on the discs. String tone? You've never heard
anything like this! Even in the highest registers of the
first violins there was no screech, no eardrum piercing
edginess, rather there was a smoothness only previously
encountered in the confines of the concert hall. The
richness of the second strings, the mellow throb of the
cell), the dark sonority of the contrabass), all were
vibrantly alive with realism. The contrabassi were
especially spectacular. Ordinarily even on good records and
through good hi-fi equipment, the bass viols have a sort of
"voom-voom" sound . . . low enough in frequency to be sure,
but without much character. Here on the 3-channel stereo,
you can begin to appreciate the throbbing power they
generate, and you can perceive the individual tones and
timbres of each string, you can feel the deep resonance,
hear the higher harmonics, detect subtleties and nuances of
bowing and fingering impossible to hear on a disc.
With 3-channel stereo, brass sonorities are breathtaking.
Trumpets have a clean brightness equaled only by the real
thing. And with this brightness there is a roundness and
fullness of tone, a sense of swelling power not found on
discs or on regular tape either. In staccato and other rapid
passages, there is no blurring or fuzziness whatever . . .
all is sharp and incisive. Trombones have their
characteristic blare, but again with a rounder, fuller tone,
and when they are guttural and growl "way down in the low
frequencies," you can still perceive the timbre of the
instrument . . . it isn't lost in muddy distortion as on so
many discs. The woodwinds are quite extraordinary. The
stereo probes extremes of the various instruments in a
fashion almost totally alien to discs and monaural tapes.
The characteristic breathiness of the flute and piccolo is
almost palpable in its liveness and realism. Vibrato is
noted to a much greater extent than on the other media. The
clarinet, bassoon, oboe, English horn, are heard with
exceptional purity of tone.
Returning for a moment to the brass, that most difficult of
instruments to record&emdash;the French horn is heard on
stereo as a very clean, full-bodied and richly resonant
sound. Its heroic sound, embellished by the spaciousness of
stereo is a thing of unearthly beauty. Percussion on
3-channel stereo is best described as awesome. On bass drum
not just the whump and the thud is heard, but the tone as
well. More than this, you can feel the tremendous power as
the sound envelope hits you. Tympani are super clean, crisp,
and precise, and you can feel the tautness of the stretched
drumskin. It is also a great deal easier to discern whether
the tympanist is using hard or soft mallets or bare sticks.
Snares, whether gut or wire, are easily distinguished,
cymbals, gongs, bells, triangles, xylophones . . . the whole
percussion battery can be heard with a cleanness and
articulation not possible in anything but 3-channel
stereo.
The directionality of the 3-channel stuff I heard was
fantastic and actually I was surprised at the degree of
superiority over two channel stereo. With tri-stereo, it was
not necessary to stay in a more or less circumscribed spot,
to obtain the maximum directional effect. Positioning
oneself right or left of the center line naturally threw
into focus the instruments which prevail on one or the other
side of the orchestra, yet there was little difficulty in
perceiving the interplay between the various choirs. Best of
all . . . the "hole"
(in the middle --ed.)
which is more or less
apparent in many bi-stereo tapes, was no longer evident. In
fact this elimination of the center "hole" with the third or
middle speaker seems to have much more significance than I
would have believed. With the three channels no matter where
you stand or how uneducated your ear, it is completely and
instantly obvious that you are listening to stereophonic
sound. Probably the most important aspect of the third
channel, however, is not the increased "right-to-left"
directionality that it affords, but that it adds the new
dimensions of "front-to-back." This is truly the crux of the
case for 3-channel stereo . . . the attainment of depth for
a true three dimensional sound. The third channel is
cumulative in its effects, and the totality adds up to the
fact that when it is combined with two other channels, it is
markedly superior to the two channels alone. The addition of
the depth makes the illusion of presence complete and unless
you hear tri-stereo, you won't believe the fantastic
difference that third channel makes in terms of musical
realism.
"Tabuh-Tabuhan" came to its triumphant conclusion and I was
sitting with mouth agape when I suddenly woke up and started
firing questions. IS there any more . . . Is this just
experimental . . . etc., etc., ad infinitum! Well good
people, here
is the thing that is going to stagger
you! Mercury has
been recording 3-channel stereo since the beginning of the
year and already has built up an impressive backlog! This is
a continuing program and everything Mercury now records for
disc is also recorded in tri-stereo! WHY is Mercury doing
this? They are recording 3-channel stereo
with
the intent and purpose of releasing recorded tapes for
public consumption!
No, I'm not kidding you . . . it's a fact ! ! !
What repertoire is now available you ask? Sad to relate my
friends but, at the moment, nothing is available. Oh yes,
like I said, they have tapes all right . . . that same
evening I was treated to parts of many works. Dorati and the
Minneapolis doing the Brahms "Third," reviewed in these
pages last month, the same conductor and orchestra doing
Tchaikovsky's "Cappricio Italien" which I reviewed two
months ago, Paul Paray and the Detroit Orchestra doing
Debussy's "Iberia," the same conductor and orchestra in new
items like Chausson's "Symphony in B Flat," and some
Wagnerian works, Dorati again with Richard Strauss' "Till
Eulenspiegel" and there are many others. As you can see, I
was literally drowned in gorgeous tristereo and I can tell
you that this was the hi-fi experience of a lifetime. It was
simply an overwhelming thing and I hope that before too long
others will be able to experience the same thrills. I said
nothing was available at the moment and here are the whys
and wherefores. Remember, I told you this material was all
on special half-inch tape instead of the standard
quarter-inch. Reason for this, of course, is that the wider
tape and the extra width of the gap in the three special
heads will afford a better signal-to-noise ratio which is
important if quiet tape dubs are to result. So that's the
first reason . . . non-standard tape width. I suppose that
if some millionaire were to indulge himself with a
tri-stereo Ampex 300 modified for half-inch he might be able
to get a stereo tape dub from Mercury.
Quite obviously, if Mercury is to release this 3-channel
stereo, the economics of the matter dictate that 3-channel
quarter-inch
tape will be the medium. Now here is the rub . . . the
number of 3-channel quarter-inch Ampex units that have been
produced is quite minute. To my knowledge there is but one
unit on the whole East Coast! Again it is obvious that
although Mercury could dub its half-inch stuff down to
one-quarter, this machine-to-machine at regular tape speed
hardly constitutes a method of quantity production. So the
problem is really one of duplication.
I have been given to understand that Mercury is trying to
work out a feasible method of quantity production and if
they are successful, they hope to be able to release some
tri-stereo this fall or winter. I might add here, that like
any new development, initial costs will probably be fairly
high although every effort will be made to keep the tapes as
reasonable as possible.
By now the thought has probably occurred to you that even if
the Mercury tapes were ten cents each and plentiful as
potatoes, they wouldn't be much use to you without a tape
playback machine which could handle 3-channel stereo. And so
we have come full circle and we are back at the other end of
the problem. I think everyone will agree that the prime
problem with 3-channel stereo is tape availability. Now that
we know at least one company is doing something about it, it
is safe to assume that other companies will soon follow
suit. So having gotten a good start on the tape problem,
there is now the question of the tape playback and who makes
it and for how much? I wish I could give you more
information about this. . . for the affluent there is of
course, Ampex. For "Joe Doakes, music lover," I cannot give
much encouragement beyond this . . . one company, well known
for its inexpensive "component-type" tape machines has gone
so far as to build prototype 3-channel, 1/4th-inch heads. If
successful, and there is every reason to believe they will
be, these heads would be available with their regular
production tape mechanisms and as a replacement or addition
to heads in existing units. What will these units cost? I
have no way of knowing but the fantastic figure of "under
$200" has been bandied about and if this were to be true, it
means that with three of the most modest amplifiers and
three small but reasonable quality speakers a 3-channel
stereo system could be had for about 400 to 500 dollars.
This still isn't chicken feed I'll admit, but I will
guarantee to you that it will sound better from a musical
standpoint than the most expensive and elaborate
single-channel system. So there you have it friends.
We are on the threshold of fabulous 3-channel stereosound,
years earlier than we had any right to expect. That there
are still problems to be solved with both tapes and machines
is evident, but at least a start has been made and if the
hi-fi public will get behind the idea and show the various
manufacturers that they are really interested . . . you'll
see the problems cleaned up in short order. I will watch the
progress on this matter and try to keep you well
informed.
As you can see, this important report was quite lengthy, but
I certainly think it was worthwhile. In consequence of its
length, we won't have much space for reviews so I'll make up
for it next month with literally no introductory yak and as
many reviews as we can squeeze in the column.
Equipment used this month. Components Corp. turntable;
New Weathers viscous damped arm, cartridge, and oscillator;
Marantz audio consolette; 2-60 watt Mclntosh amplifiers;
Jensen "Imperial" speaker; Electro-Voice "Georgian" speaker;
and Ampex tape equipment.
MOZART
CONCERTO # 13 FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA
CONCERTO # 20 FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA
Julius Katchen, pianist with New Symphony Orchestra of
London conducted by Peter Mang. London LL1357. RIAA curve.
Price $3.98.
Another London contribution to this Mozart year, this
recording is especially welcome for the fine version of the
"13th Concerto " which is not heard very often. Katchen is
in fine form here with vigorous and well paced readings. His
phrasing and dynamic shading seem much improved over some of
his recent work. His tone is quite big, but fortunately he
avoids excesses like percussive harshness. His reading of
the "13th Concerto" certainly is the best that is presently
available. (continues,
including several more reviews...)
-------------
The
opinions expressed in this column are those of the reviewer
and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the
editors or the publishers of this
magazine.
RADIO & TELEVISION NEWS
©
Copyright 1956 Radio TV News -- All Rights Reserved.
Transcription and HTML version ©
Copyright 2001 Wendy Carlos
Comment:
And this seems to be as far as three-tracks ever went. I
never learned why Mercury and the other companies mentioned
never took this to the next stage. We can assume that two
track stereo provided enough problems for listeners less
than two years after these columns were written. Bert wrote
a second column for the same magazine starting a year later,
called "Sound on Tape." It reviewed the newest stereo
prerecorded tape medium, which actually could sound very
good. Tapes continued for many years, giving rise to
prerecorded cassettes and good old eight-track cartridges.
But stereo LP's became the major release medium for stereo,
and it couldn't provide three distinct channels in any
direct fashion. The center channel, by the way, has remained
ignored until the newest 5.1 surround disks appeared, DTS,
Dolby Digital, and now DVD-A's. Used well the C channel
fills the front of the soundfield nicely, and is a worthy
addition that has been waiting in the wings for only half a
century!
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