Tom,

No not too late! And thanks. That sheds a lot of light on the topic. The
vinyl sounds excellent also.

Dave Lewis

On Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 7:23 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Following up on a previous thread here ...
>
> This album was definitely an early stereophonic pop-album recording, but it
> was not made in the early 50's. Ruppli lists one song, "A Gliss To Remember"
> (unless I'm remembering incorrectly) as recorded in 1956. The studio setup
> described would match a 1956-era stereo session with mono-compatibility
> built in via the mic techniques. Basically, the instruments were close-mic'd
> and somewhat isolated and then stereo "bridge" mics were hung above the
> ensemble to use room-tone and leakage to make a stereo field. There's still
> a somewhat weak center, but this worked well when done in a nice room like
> Universal Studios in Chicago and engineered by an expert like Bill Putnam.
>
> Ruppli also lists other songs recorded in 1957. The original 2-track reel
> has a different song sequence but the same songs as listed on the LP:
> http://microgroove.jp/mercury/**SR60001.shtml<http://microgroove.jp/mercury/SR60001.shtml>
>
> The later quarter-track reel has the same sequence as the LP.
>
> On LP, this was first released in mono, MG20281, may have had the same
> sequence as the early 2-track reel (I don't have a copy of MG20281 but the
> microgroove.jp website refers to a slightly different sequence on the mono
> LP.
>
> As noted on the page linked above, the original stereo LP was mastered at
> Fine Recording (the FR- tag in the deadwax) and pressed by RCA Indianapolis
> (the I in the deadwax). Mercury did this with most or all of their earliest
> pop and jazz titles, probably through 1959. These records were
> premium-priced and only an elite band of audiophiles had the newfangled
> stereo cartridges and two-channel playback systems, so Mercury wanted to
> offer an excellent-quality product, including premium pressings on RCA's
> quiet vinyl. Mercury Living Presence had used RCA for years, and continued
> to do so until Philips eliminated the practice in 1963.
>
> Sorry to post this late. I didn't have time to look into it deeply when the
> original thread was active. Today I dug out Ruppli and my stereo LP, 2-track
> reel and quarter-track reel to gather facts. I played the 2-track and it
> still sounded very good. Bill Putnam was a master engineer for these sorts
> of albums.
>
> -- Tom Fine