Stereophonic recording?, L/R balance Options

[HTS]

What does stereo recording achieve? I noticed that the left and right channels of some stereo samples don't sound the same, and loaded them into audacity. The program confirms my suspicion that the sounds vary greatly in characteristics. For a vibrato filled note, most often only one of the channels displays the wavy pattern induced by the vibrato. Is this what stereo recording is supposed to do? So the sounds mixed into your music will have certain instruments placed to the L/R side of the listener?

[skexu]

I don't know how for classical, but in popular music, it's just part of the music. That's why we invented stereo. The band/sound engineer/whoever wanted to use two channels for listening pleasure, and most people like it.

However, one can't just make two separate tracks with different content, because it's just confusing. I personally don't like The Beatles' albums in stereo because I feel weird when listening.

edit: ^ that's what I was thinking about
^^ that's also what I was thinking about


This post has been edited by skexu: Jun 6 2011, 15:01

[dc2bluelight]

I don't know how for classical, but in popular music, it's just part of the music. That's why we invented stereo. The band/sound engineer/whoever wanted to use two channels for listening pleasure, and most people like it.

Experiments done in the early 1930s by Bell Labs involved researching a method of reproducing the orchestra concert experience. Initial experiments involved a multitude of mics, channels, speakers, but engineers concluded that the minimum channel count necessary to reproduce that experience was three, L, C, and R. However, the speakers were in a large concert venue, so replicating the acoustics using surround speakers wasn't considered. The channel count was reduced to two for practical reasons, mainly the release of music on record, and later transmission by radio.

A historic 3 channel live demo was done in 1933, with the live concert at the Academy of Music in Philadephia, and the 3 channel demo system at the Constitution Hall in Washington DC. The speakers were behind an acoustically transparent scrim, and the performance involved an orchestra and singers that moved around on the stage. Obviously, all channels were handled simultaneously.

Meanwhile in Great Britain, Alan Blumlein worked on two channel stereo using crossed figure 8 microphones. I believe his program material was actors on a stage.

However, one can't just make two separate tracks with different content, because it's just confusing. I personally don't like The Beatles' albums in stereo because I feel weird when listening.

Much of the early Beatles music was never intended for stereo, but rather recorded on a two channel tape machine so the vocal and band mix could be done later. The stereo release is simply the two track master, band on one side, vocals on the other, but never really meant for a stereo release. The stereo release was driven by a new market for stereo records, and the view probably was that anything done in two channels, real stereo or not, was marketable. We have to remember that real home stereo systems weren't all that common in the early 1960s, most listening, certainly all pop music radio, was mono. I believe the mono/stereo mix issue is documented in Geoff Emerick's book, "Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles". I don't have it in hand to confirm that, but it's a great read regardless.

We had a lot of "Ping Pong" stereo in the early years of stereo because it made for a dramatic demo when compared to mono, though hardly true streophony.