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Weekend Reading 6/13/2008


jtkinney

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In my read, there is not so much that the author should disagree with.

It seems he is pointing out that many of the two track recordings of the day made with two widely spaced microphones do not have phase information; it was random. Therefore, the polarity of play back channels and even a center channel does not matter.

I can only guess that PWK found what we all have from time to time. Gee, I wired one of the speakers backwards but things work pretty well on some recordings.

He does seem to admit that some recordings of the day did have phase information, particularly those with a three microphone to two channel mix-down.

What had changed (if he has to disagree with the author) was that stereo recordings in years following the article did have similar phase information, or at least mono information. Because of multi track tapes, mixing boards, and multiple microphones, bass was mono, and the prime singer was mono -- center stage.

PWK's analysis was not that phase in playback does not matter. It was just that it doesn't matter when there is no strong phase information to decode in the first place. That is what he was showing.

Gil

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In my read, there is not so much that the author should disagree with.

It seems he is pointing out that many of the two track recordings of the day made with two widely spaced microphones do not have phase information; it was random. Therefore, the polarity of play back channels and even a center channel does not matter.

I can only guess that PWK found what we all have from time to time. Gee, I wired one of the speakers backwards but things work pretty well on some recordings.

He does seem to admit that some recordings of the day did have phase information, particularly those with a three microphone to two channel mix-down.

What had changed (if he has to disagree with the author) was that stereo recordings in years following the article did have similar phase information, or at least mono information. Because of multi track tapes, mixing boards, and multiple microphones, bass was mono, and the prime singer was mono -- center stage.

PWK's analysis was not that phase in playback does not matter. It was just that it doesn't matter when there is no strong phase information to decode in the first place. That is what he was showing.

Gil

Good reading, indeed. It has come to me, from reading on this forum that, what was intended to account for playback, from what is actually on a recording is, not always what is heard. How profound is that? Like, lesson 1. A 2channel is adequate for most older or newer cuts, but, that midrange (center) if there, is where I want to go to for now. Sometimes the mids/range/expanse, are just not there.
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