The great conversion from mono to stereo was traumatic. In 1958 all AM stations were still
mono as were FMs. But in just a few years, home stereo systems were switching over to stereo even without a clear technical standard. The reason was that radio was feeling a little peer pressure in the stereo cabinet.LPs were going stereo. Western Electric had pioneered the Westrex process called 45/45, a single groove stereophonic system. The important part is that existing monophonic equipment could still play the Lps ensuring instant consumer acceptance. It worked. Western Electric was the manufacturing arm of AT&T for the better part of a century. They started out in the 1850s making typewriters.
In the 1970s, the now flat-sounding mono records were commonly rereleased with "enhanced" sound. this was also called "Duophonic" sound after the Capitol records process. These were marketed as stereo versions of the original releases. But the monophonic master tapes had no stereo separation. So they had to fake it. The stereo effect was created through a couple remarkably simple techniques. Some audio filtering was used to separate out certain sounds to pan them. This usually produced noticeable audio artifacts. Also common were slight adjustments in EQ and phase which is what RCa seemed to focus on. An offset of 20 and 50 milliseconds was another very rudimentary change that mimicked the stereo effect.
Worse yet was over-dubbing. A small trio would be brought into the studio to overdub minor parts to add stereo sound to the mono recording. There is an abominable Roy Orbison LP out there with a dubbed in accordion track that is a testament to the general badness of this idea. Also interesting is that as Stereo picked up, these old mono recordings went out of print. It left both radio and record collectors forced to either play the new clunky "enhanced monophonic" Lps or move on. Mono was essentially dead by 1978, but enhanced mono dragged out straight through the 1970s. Some Labels carried Mono, ST (Stereo) and DT (Duophonic) notations, but the collections were usually a mix of all three regardless of labling. 
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4 comments:
Hi! Very interesting article. I came here via the Wikipedia article on "Duophonic", as many readers probably do.
"This usually produced noticeable audio artifacts."
This was the only line I didn't understand: What are "artifacts"?
Question: Why is "fake stereo" so universally disliked? (Or is it? Are there fans of the duophonic sound?)
Once I turned one of my four-track home demos into fake stereo by mixing it through a stereo digital delay pedal applied to the instrumental MIDI background. (I believe there was one guitar track, and the vocals were in true stereo. I may have applied the delay to the guitar, as well.) The result: It still had the claustrophobic sound of mono, but with an "overwhelming" feeling, not unlike the "Wall of Sound". The delay was actually timed in eighth-notes to the drum beat, which was, in its raw state, very simple. The feedback level was very low, less than 25%. I wouldn't do this on a regular basis, but as a one-off I really liked it.
well, the hatred of fake-stereo is pretty generational. When real stereo debuted, Duophonic sound was really perceived as a ham-handed knockoff. It's been a few decads and I now kind of like it for it's kitchy flair, and awkward overdubs. The 365 days project posted a Roy Orbison Duophonic track where they overdubbed accordion! It's terrible. But also amusing. http://www.wfmu.org/365/2003/301.shtml
Artifacts are just errors, dropouts, or any inadvertent alterations of the audio. In those early days of clunky studio hardware making mistakes was even easier.
I grew up with mono in the 60s so when Duophonic came out it was an acceptable improvement. At least you retain the original 'mix' intended by the producer and you get a better soundstage in many situations....but not all. I'm finding it hard to improve on the Four Seasons mono mix of 'I've Cried Before'( 'B' side of 'Sherry')when I create a Duo mix.
... you can't preserve the original mix when you overdub accordion onto a Roy Orbison single. If the original mix was mono, then by adding a 2nd channel, you are either remixing, OR preserving the artists intentions. If you duplicate the mono channel into two identical stereo channels.. that's still monophonic from my perspective. there are two channels but no "stereo data."
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