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 On page 238 (of the unexpurgated version; Tom Fine on the AESCH-list has pointed out that this book is to be withdrawn and revised due to a court case filed by NAXOS) Lebrecht writes regarding the TELARC recording of Gustav Holst: Wind Suites with the Cleveland Symphonic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