A former Soundstream employee finally set the record straight on this. Philips' first all-digital
release on LP was John Williams "Pops In Space," 1980. The original LP has a banner across it
stating "FIRST Philips Digital Recording." Philips' engineers wanted to use a digital recorder they
had developed, according to this person. But the record's producer, George Korngold, had used
Soundstream the previous year to record the soundtrack to "Kings Row" and requested Soundstream be
used on the Philips session.
Soon after the Boston Pops sessions, in June 1980, Philips used Soundstream to record the BSO/Ozawa
doing Mahler's 8th, according to the former Soundstream employee.
I have reason to trust this person's information, mainly that everything else he's told me has been
factually correct and verifiable. I wish I had this information earlier!
-- Tom Fine
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