In this week of class, we looked into the history of stereo sound. Stereo recording was invented by Alan Blumlein in the early 1930’s. The first ever stereo music production was recorded at Abbey Road studios, though the technology was too ahead of its time for commercial use as there was no way for any consumer to hear the stereo playback. All media at that point in time was mono.
Alan came about this while at the cinema with his wife he became frustrated when a character on screen wasn’t following around with the audio. This inspired him to create what he described as “binaural sound”. He managed to create a system that could read two grooves on a record simultaneously to produce a stereo sound that was also able to work with previously produced mono records.
By the 1960s there was a rapid growth in technological advances, promoting experimentation and pushing equipment to their extremes. With the introduction of the 4 track tape recorder. The original idea for the equipment was to record an orchestra onto tracks 1 and 2 while leaving the others for vocal overdubs.
With the introduction of pop music these producers began utilising brand new techniques such as overdubbing sound effects, additional instruments and even double tracking, completely changing the sound of the music in that era.
In the early 70’s there was an increase with experimentation of additional speakers with what was called “quad format” or “surround sound” which added 2 more speakers to the rear of the listener. Sadly due to lack of public sales it had a very short lifespan. Pink Floyd used this technique on their album “Dark Side Of The Moon”.
Abbey Road. (n.d.). The History of Recorded Music has its roots firmly planted at No. 3 Abbey Road. [online] Available at: https://www.abbeyroad.com/news/the-history-of-recorded-music-has-its-roots-firmly-planted-at-no-3-abbey-road-2596#:~:text=years%20to%20follow.- [Accessed 8 Mar. 2024].
EMI Archive Trust (2019). Alan Blumlein and the invention of Stereo | EMI Archive Trust. [online] Emiarchivetrust.org. Available at: https://www.emiarchivetrust.org/alan-blumlein-and-the-invention-of-stereo/.