Re: [ARSCLIST] Dawn of digital -- more info provided and more needed

[George Brock-Nannestad <pattac@xxxxxxxx>]

From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Hello,

Tom Fine is doing a fine job of researching the sources for digital recording 
(althought the distribution format was converted to analog for LP). I thought 
I would add a bit that has not been aired on this list yet, after quoting 
Tom:

> 
> Virgil Fox "The Digital Fox" was made from Soundstream test recordings made
> at the same time as the 
> Crystal Clear direct-to-disk recordings made in 1977. I don't count it as
> the first U.S. commercial 
> digital recording because those Soundstream tapes were a test recording and
> the recording's intended 
> and original release medium was direct-to-disk (the digital version was
> released a couple of years 
> later). I do count the 3M digital recording of the St. Paul Chamber
> Orchestra as an early but 
> probably not the first U.S. commercial digital recording because the 3M
> tapes ended up being used as 
> the master for the LP due to malfunction of the direct-to-disk recording.
> This information from one 
> of the engineers and one of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra people present at
> the recording. The LP 
> jacket is confusing because it is flagged "direct to disc" but mentions the
> 3M digital system in the 
> credits.
> 

Norman Lebrecht in his recent book "Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness. The 
Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry", Allen Lane, 
London 2007 has a discussion of "100 Milestones of the Recorded Century". On 
page 238 (of the unexpurgated version; Tom Fine on the AESCH-list has pointed 
out that this book is to be withdrawn and revised due to a court case filed 
by NAXOS) Lebrecht writes regarding the TELARC recording of Gustav Holst: 
Wind Suites with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds/Frederic Fennell [4-5 April 
1978]:

"Two Clevelanders, Jack Renner and Robert Woods, asked to borrow it [i.e. the 
Soundstream machine invented by Thomas Stockham] for their first professional 
recording and then had the affrontery to to ask the professor to adapt it to 
their needs. Stockham cheerfully obliged and the device was tried out on the 
reeds, brass, and percussion sections of the Cleveland orchestra. .......... 
The Cleveland musicians played with silky smoothness and the dynamic span 
from soft to loud was delicately calibrated, astonishing ears that had grown 
used to LP compression. This was the first digital release on LP, an amuse-
gueule for what was about to be served up. Reviewers marvelled at the 
reduction of hiss and crackle and manufacturers cracked ahead with digital 
research."

So it seems that this recording would fulfill all criteria of intention, but 
obviously I am not certain about claims of priority.

Kind regards,

George