[ARSCLIST] The first three U.S. commercial digital recordings

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry in advance for the cross-postings.

OK, I finally got the last pieces of first-hand knowledge from session participants. First, here is 
a list of the first three commercial digital recordings made in the U.S.

1. New York, 11/28/77, Archie Shepp "On Green Dolphin Street" recorded on Denon PCM equipment at 
Sound Ideas studio.

2. Cleveland, April 4-5, 1978, Fred Fennell and the Cleveland Winds record Holst's two Suites for 
Military Band and Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks for Telarc, using the Soundstream PCM 
recording system.

3. Minneapolis, June 1978, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra records works by Copland and Ives at 
Sound80 Studios. The session was intended to be direct-to-disk, but the release LP was mastered from 
a PCM master made on the prototype 3M recording system. The record went on to win a 1979 Grammy for 
best chamber music album.

Earlier confirmed/documented efforts that did not result in original-release masters:

1. New World Records' 1976 recording at the Santa Fe Opera, LP mastered from mixdown of 16-track 
tape. Soundstream's first prototype recorder captured a 2-track monitor mix, the recording of which 
Soundstream demonstrated at the next AES convention. As far as I know, the Soundstream recording was 
never used for a commercial release.

2. Virgil Fox's August 1977 session for Crystal Clear Records, original LPs were direct-to-disk. The 
Soundstream recorder -- my research indicates again the prototype recorder, not the 50khz/16-bit 
4-channel machine used in 1978 by Telarc -- also captured these sessions and the Soundstream tapes 
were used to master "The Digital Fox," released first in 1979. Some might count this as the first 
commercial digital recording in the U.S. but I would argue that the Soundstream recording was 
probably not intended for release but financial and maybe consumer-demand issues led to its release 
after the fact.

As far as I know, these are the facts. I am in progress writing up an article summarizing all this 
information, including references and some fleshed out quotes from various interviews and e-mail 
exchanges.

-- Tom Fine