Re: [ARSCLIST] Mercury Living Presence mono-only recordings

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim:

Just about anything up to MG50100 was recorded mono only. There were a couple of exceptions in the 
50090's but this is a good rule of thumb. Session dates cover just about everything from April 
23-24, 1951 (MG50000, Pictures at an Exhibition) to November 26, 1955 (MG50100, Beethoven 4/8 by 
Dorati). There were some 2-track stereo experiments made in 1955 but I don't think any were issued 
on LP. Mercury acquired a 3-track Ampex in late 1955 and there were definitely 3-track masters for 
the December 3-4, 1955 sessions in Detroit. All orchestral recordings from then onward up to 1967 in 
San Antonio were made in 3-track.

The MG40000's were re-catalogued in the late 50's as MG50073-MG50088. These are all the mono Hanson 
and Fennell records. One and part of another mono Fennell record were issued on CD. If I remember 
correctly, no Hanson mono records were issued on CD.

The MG80000's, the chamber music records, were re-catalogued as MG50089-MG50094. Note that some of 
the later chamber music, issued as MG50100+, was also recorded in mono only with a single mic. None 
of this series was issued on CD in the Living Presence reissues of the 1990's.

It's worth noting that, up into 1964, if you bought an MG (mono) release of a SR (stereo) album, the 
mono recording was still a single-mic pickup, not a mix-down from 3-track. Mercury continued to run 
a full-track mono master, fed from the center mic, and continued to set up the center mic as was 
always done, to cover the entire orchestra. The stereo 3-channel pickup was build off the original 
concept of single-mic mono, with the sides adding depth and width and height to the sonic image. The 
stereo LPs were cut directly from a 3-2 mixdown from the 3-track edited master, as were the reissue 
CD's.

When the stereo LP came along in 1958, Mercury as well as their major competitors were ready with 
dozens of stereo recordings, which aided a good take-off for stereo. But, up into the 1960's, mono 
LPs far outsold stereo LPs -- and indeed more than a few collectors who bought the Mercury CD's in 
the 90's wrote in to say they never owned the stereo LPs and were thrilled with this great new 
perspective on recordings they remembered fondly from their 1960's mono LPs. What finally killed 
mono, according to articles from the time and also according to recollections previously posted here 
by Bob O. and others, was retailer refusal to stock both stereo and mono versions of LPs. There was 
apparently enough mono playback equipment around in the mid and late 60's that Philips LPs made at 
the Mercury Richmond plant carried special text indicating they were "fully mono compatible". 
Decoding the marketing-speak, and listening to some of these albums in both stereo and summed mono, 
what they did was pay very careful attention to phase with the primary sound sources and made sure 
to center bass frequencies. Fairchild made a bass-frequency limiter specifically designed to kill 
out-of-center bass impulses to assure mono compatibility. The late John Eargle, who did mastering at 
both Mercury and RCA in the late 60's, wrote an AES article on stereo/mono playback compatibility:
http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=1588

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Long" <JJimLong@xxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2008 12:49 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Mercury Living Presence mono-only recordings


> Hi,
>
> In recent months, I have taken to enjoying Mercury Living Presence mono LP's.
> I am wondering if anyone in ARSC-land can (easily) tell me which issues were
> originally recorded in mono only?
>
> I have an LP inner sleeve that came with MG-50022 (MF7/MF5, with "groove
> guard," so probably not the first pressing) that lists a number of MG's and OL's
> that are, from my imperfect and incomplete recollection, mono-only recordings.
> It is probably a good start to answering my question:
>
> 1.  MG-50000 to MG-50070 (with no listing of MG-50013, 14, 31, 32, 40, 41,
> 43, 44, 49-54 and 59-63).  Can any of these blanks be filled in?  Also, I have
> five Rafael Druian/John Simms issues that between themselves and other listings
> on their jacket notes encompass mostly higher numbers: MG-50089-99, 109 and
> 110.  These are all chamber music except MG-50109 (Boardwalk Pipes, with Robert
> Elmore, organist) and MG-50099 (Strauss: Suite from "Der Rosenkavalier"; Till
> Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony
> Orchestra).
>
> 2.  OL-2-100, OL-2-101, OL-3-102 and OL-3-103.  The six highest numbers in
> the MG-50000 listings above are single-disc issues of OL-3-102 and OL-3-103.
>
> 3.  MG-40000 to MG-40015, which appears to be an American music series.  Were
> any of these reissued in the MG-50000 series?
>
> 4.  MG-80000 to MG-80004, which appears to be a chamber-music series.  From
> the Druian/Simms MG-50000 LP's I have, at appears that MG-50089-92 and MG-50094
> are reissues from the MG-80000 numbers listed above.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jim Long
> Bosch/EV
> Baroda, MI   </HTML>