[Gary Eickmeier]

Hello again AE -

Without re-quoting all that, I think we are talking past each other here.

I sure don't need a lecture on what stereo is or means. But your comments
inspire some back to basics dialog. I think we all know the difference
between a track and a channel. All I was saying (or trying to) was that the
Marty Paich recording I was talking about was recorded in 1957, before the
popular stereo LP was released, and it said that it was released on LP,
which meant that I expected it to be a mono recording because that was what
all LPs were in 1957. Therefore, since this re-release is real stereo, it
must have been recorded in stereo or with several tracks which were then
combined into the mix for the mono release, but then later could be used to
remake a stereo master. The stereo era was already roaring on tape well
before the stereo disc came out, but I don't know if this recording was
purposely done in careful stereo sound.

But your comments imply that you think they had to use one channel per
microphone, there were no multitrack recorders, so all recordings must have
been made with no more than three microphones. Obviously, you can combine
any number of microphones into fewer channels using a mixer. Well, I don't
know the history of
multitrack recorders, but I would hope they had more than three tracks by
the time this album was recorded.

I understand your sentiments about "real" stereo recordings, but I would
interject that a recording is a new work of art, and can be created, or
produced, in a number of ways, all of which are classified "stereo." A
recording can be an attempt at the realistic reproduction of an existing
auditory perspective, or it can be a totally artificial in-studio creation
by the engineer. You can have a purist recording with one of the classic
microphone configurations, or you can combine that with some highlight or
ambience mikes, or you can mike each instrument on a separate track and
place it in the mix and even add some artificial acoustics or distance to
it. This will still result in a three dimensional recreation of a piece of
performance because it will be played back on loudspeakers placed in a real
room in front of you.

You might consider that the recording art is a continuum somewhere between a
multi-miked artificial production placed in front of you (more like "they
are here"), and a purist "picture" of another acoustic space, captured by
your microphones and reconstructed in your listening room in an attempt to
transport you to the recorded space. Both ends of the continuum of
possibilities are "stereo," or in more precise language "stereophonic
sound," meaning an impression of a solid (stereo) auditory perspective
reproduced on loudspeakers (phonic) in a real acoustic space. It can be two
channel, three, four, or five channel or any number you want. The additional
channel systems have their own names such as surround sound, or simply 5.1
or 7.1 or Ambisonics or Ambiophonics and beyond, but they all fall under the
classic definition of "stereo."

Gary Eickmeier