The Bell Labs LP pair I borrowed had been beautifully kept by the owner,
who understood their value from Day 1. He had played them once, to tape,
and the second playing was by me, to 96/24 digital files on the computer
(and I couldn't resist running a 2-track tape at the same time). They
are fascinating.
I started doing some digging about getting them reissued under the
auspices of the AES or the Smithsonian but apparently there was a very
complex deal made at the time between the Smithsonian, Bell Labs (AT&T)
and the Stokowski heirs. I also asked the original mastering engineer
about going back to sources since the 1930's Bell Labs disks are now
presumably public property since Bell Labs donated them to the
Smithsonian. I was told the master tape was made by some very detailed
and painstaking playback and editing. The whereabouts of the master
tapes from which the LPs were cut is unknown. I hope I'm not spreading a
bunch of myths, I'm just recounting e-mails with some of the
participants in the Bell Labs LP project.
If the disks are at the Smithsonian, my hope is that the raw material
will be transferred to digital and made available to the public either
via buying CD's or downloading files. I think the magic and value-add of
the Bell Labs LPs is that Ward Marston edited together whole pieces so
the records were not just examples of the recording technologies but
also of the music and the orchestra.
By the way, Dr. Keller did an AES presentation around the time the Bell
Labs albums came out:
http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=3656
There are some good details about the processes and technologies.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Early Stereo 1881 and 1931 (Was - Dynadoodoo
The Bell LPs were also nearly impossible to find. I transferred them
to tape years ago from copies at the CBC library, but it took until
last year before I was able to acquire both LPs for myself. They turn
up, but at very high prices on auction lists.
dl
Steve Abrams wrote:
I specified one commonly used player for the Mac that can handle Flac
- VLC. You will find a list of players and decoders for the Mac,
Solaris, Unix and even the Amiga on the Sourceforge site:
http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html
Your remark that nearly every classical LP collector owns the Bell
LPs is arrogant and stupid. They were never released commercially.
SA
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger and Allison Kulp"
<thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Early Stereo 1881 and 1931 (Was - Dynadoodoo
I had read about the 1881 system,but have never actually heard
anything about it.
Oh,BTW,your file won't play on a Mac.
I would assume the Bell Labs stuff,is from those 1979-80 Lps,that
nearly every classical Lp collector owns.
Don't forget that Edison supposedly had some expensive,and
cumbersome system,that involved three channel/three horn
playback.Perhaps someone could give me more detail.
Roger
Steve Abrams <steve.abrams@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: I have uploaded two
files to Mediafire
One file, Bell Labs Keller, has two brief programmes on BBC Radio 3
c. 1981
about the Bell Labs experiments in the early 30s and includes a an
extract
in stereo. I am afraid that Arther Keller does not confirm my story
about
the Black Box. (74MB)
http://www.mediafire.com/?111zkxoddxz
The other file, 1881 Stereo, is a brief Radio 3 broadcast in 1981
about the
1881 stereo transmissions from the Paris Opera, and demonstrates the
sound
characteristic using reconstructed microphones on the stage of Covent
Garden. (27MB)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dfg1lwgi9aj
The files are in Flac format. They can be played directly in
Winamp, VLC
Media Player, Super (c) etc. They can be converted to Wave using
Flac Front
End, Goldwave etc.
The files are taken from a Scotch Metafine tape with Dolby C. The
original
recordings were made by me but the tape I used may be a dubbing.
However,
the sound quality is acceptable.
Steve Abrams
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