Early stereo recordings restored

By Martin Shankleman Archive Hour, Radio 4

Unique recordings by the inventor of stereo have been cleaned up so the public can hear them properly for the first time.

They include Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) at Abbey Road Studios in 1934.

The recordings were made by Alan Blumlein, an EMI research engineer, whose contribution to the invention of stereo sound is only now starting to be appreciated.

The early recordings have been re-engineered using digital technology so their true quality can be appreciated.

Sound engineer Roger Beardsley who was responsible for the digital transfers called the recordings "incredibly historic".

"They have never been properly reproduced, but we've recovered the original information that was there", he said.

Blumlein lodged the patent for "binaural "sound, in 1931, in a paper which patented stereo records, stereo films and also surround sound.

Alan Blumlein's life and career

He and his colleagues then made a series of experimental recordings and films to demonstrate the technology, and see if there was any commercial interest from the fledgling film and audio industry.

The tests included him walking and talking in a room to show how sound could move and recordings of multiple overlapping conversations to demonstrate how his techniques could "open up" the sound being recorded.

"If you put headphones on with those recordings you are right in the middle of the room, you hear the whole ambience", said Mr Beardsley.

In January 1934, Blumlein took his stereo-cutting equipment to the newly opened Abbey Studios and recorded Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the LPO, as it rehearsed Mozart's Jupiter Symphony.

Mr Beardsley used digital techniques to remove the crackles and hiss from the original 78 pressings, and says the recordings now sound as they were meant to.

"I think what we've got is what they were listening to at the time." he said.

Blumlein's work on stereo was shelved in 1934 because EMI concluded that it had no immediate commercial potential.

The cancellation forced Blumlein to switch to the development of TV, and later radar. He died during a top secret flight over Wales in 1942, aged 38, testing a prototype radar system.

During his working life he was granted 128 patents - about one every six weeks.

The Man Who Invented Stereo can be heard on BBC Radio 4 at 20.00 on Saturday 2 August 2008.

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