Stereo Recording Techniques

The development of stereo recording techniques begins in the latter half of the 19th century and continues unabated to the present day. Thought today’s sophisticated technologies allows for the advent of some of the most realistic surround sound stereo recording systems ever known, the best of them still lack some level of realistic sound production when compared to the binaural stereo recording techniques that were developed at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, a process where the recording is made in such a fashion so as to reproduce the way our ears capture sounds and then play it back into the corresponding ears.

This analysis will cover the history of stereo recording techniques, focusing on the main developments from the late 19th century and those in the 20th century. Also included will be the close relationship between the development of stereo recording techniques in the film industry and for the home stereo industry. A conclusion will address the different kinds of developments that are taking place in stereo recording techniques that are meant to supplant today’s most sophisticated technique, Dolby Digital Surround 5.1.

The first recording of a human voice occurred in 1877, when Thomas Edison recorded “Mary had a l

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t in half to carry stereo information. Embedded in the stereo information were a center channel, and, most notably, a surround channel for ambiences and special effects” (From Mono 1). Dolby was also popular because it had a shelf life as long as a mono optical print and fidelity was heightened by the use of Dolby A-type noise reduction which diminished the amount of hissing and polling from optical soundtracks. When the Dolby Laboratories introduced the Dolby Surround home version of the Dolby Stereo that was used in theaters for Star Wars, home audio fidelity took a giant leap forward. In this arrangement, there were two speakers up front and two in the back in an effort to recreate realistic sound like experienced in a theater by filmgoers. Dolby Surround was soon replaced by Dolby Pro Logic. In this system, a front-center channel was added to the previously existing system in order to realistically reproduce dialogue. Dolby Pro Logic also included a new kind of technology known as “steering logic” that enabled the new system to direct the sounds to the appropriate speaker “Like Dolby Surround, the rear surround channel signal is sent to two speakers. It is, however, a mono signal. Dolby Pro Logic is now found on vir
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Approximate Word count = 2320
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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