According to producer John Pfeiffer in the booklet to the 1996 CD 'The Age of Living Stereo: A Tribute to John Pfeiffer' "In 1953 RCA had two-track professional equipment and was designing a console to accept multiple inputs. The engineers felt three-microphone input channels for each track were sufficient and incorporated provisions for splitting a microphone signal between the two." In other words, up to six microphones could be used, mixed to two-track tape. This leaves open the question of how many mikes they actually used, but it may have been more than two. Even before stereo & tape multiple mikes were used for recordings, mixed to mono for disc cutting.
First listen to "Sanctus: Meditation for the Soul" on Archiv. Performed by: Pomerium/Alexander Blachly Pro Cantione Antiqua/Bruno Turner Gabrieli Consort & Players/Paul McCreesh Works by Victoria, Du Fay, Palestrina, Byrd, Busnois, Morales, Desprez and Monteverdi.
I am not on fire for him as well. He sounds a little light at times. In fact, I am not a huge violin concerto fan. I know it flies in the face of what I post here but I can go weeks without listening to violin concertos.
The most I have spent on an LP so far is $ 25 CAD plus $ 10 CAD shipping from Germany for a recording I needed to have and found still sealed on Discogs.
When I was busy going through my Facebook page the other night, DG let people know that there is a CD coming out of Martha Argerich & Sergei Babayan called Prokofiev For Two. It is due on March 23rd.
Just got a bunch of huge boxes - the 3rd "Golden Age of" Living Stereo box as well as the NY Philharmonic at 175. EUR 70 and 55 respectively from Germany. Now all I need to do is listen.
Go for it RRB! I have lost count of the number of Beethoven 9th's I have. It is quite a few more than the number of Beethoven cycles I have ...
I know!! Very lucky indeed with many of the LPs I found. For example, my original Dutch first pressings of Ashkenazy playing Chopin. Mint condition!! They are worth much more money, some of them are not even available for sale. But here, people don't know and don't care...thankfully.
I hope you will not bump into that guy that bought up all the LP's indiscriminately last summer. It is a shame when you have to compete with someone who does not even know what he is buying ...
Just completed listening to the following CD that arrived a few hours ago. It is used and OOP but in reasonably good condition ...
Now on the TT... J.C.Bach Sinfonias played by the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, David Zinman conducting. These are very lively performances and beautifully recorded by Philips. Released in 1976. Cover illustration: "Group of music-makers" by Nicolas Aertmann (1713-1793)
Interesting. I was under the impression that the two-mic technique (a few feet apart) was the cause for the (in)famous “hole in the middle” you can hear on many of the early recordings.
