I thought it might be a good idea to start a list of recordings made in “true stereo” mode. That is, only two mics in X-Y, Spaced Pair, ORTF, or NOS arrangements. I know NAIM did a bunch of recordings like this, but in terms of let’s say music available for download, what’s out there?
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I’m not near my music right now, but many Mapleshade and Wyndham Hill recordings probably meet those criteria.
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To me the Mercury Living Presence series are pretty good stereo recordings.
I gleaned this from an Audiokarma post.
A little bit on Mercury’s recording techniques from wikipedia:
“Under the direction of C. Robert Fine, Mercury Records initiated a minimalist single microphone monaural recording technique in 1951. The first record, Kubelik/Chicago’s performance of “Pictures at an Exhibition” was described as “being in the living presence of the orchestra” by The New York Times music critic. The series of records was then named “Mercury Living Presence”. In 1955 Mercury began three-channel stereo recordings, still based on the principle of the single microphone. The center (single) microphone was of paramount importance, with the two side mics adding depth and space. Record masters were cut directly from a three-track to two-track mixdown console, with all editing of the master tapes done on the original three-tracks. In 1961 Mercury enhanced this technique with three-microphone stereo recordings using 35-mm magnetic film instead of half-inch tape for recording. The greater thickness and width of 35mm magnetic film prevented tape layer print-through and pre-echo and gained extended frequency range and transient response. The Mercury Living Presence recordings were remastered to CD in the 1990s by the original producer, using the same method of 3-to-2 mix directly to the master recorder.”
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It occurred to me the one-mic recordings on Sound Liaison also count, as they were done with a Josephson C700S, which is a single, three capsule microphone.
I haven’t looked but doesn’t Chesky do this?
Not sure. I know they do that binaural recording technique, but that isn’t quite exactly the same.
Yes, I just went to his site. Binaural seems to be his thing.
Check out Nimbus, Opus3 and Harmonia Mundi recordings.
Kavi Alexander, Water Lily, is known for natural sounding simple mic’d recordings. Worth investigating. Also, a tube based recording system.
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