So this is a pretty dumb question. I’ll get that out of the way right up front.
Whatever happened to stereo? Back when it was still a novelty, bands (or producers, I guess) were always playing around with “in-your-face” stereo effects. When I got my first car and a copy of “Revolver” to go with it, it took me a while to realize that no, I wasn’t hearing the special album-only lyrics-free version of “Taxman,” but that my right speaker was blown and all of George’s voice was going to that speaker. I’ve heard plenty of records that do stuff like this – put all the voice or an instrument into one channel only, or “slide” the track back and forth between the two channels.
And then around 1970 or so (my record collection isn’t all that extensive), it just kind of dried up. I can’t think of a single album I own recorded after 1970, that doesn’t have a fairly standard mix of everything split pretty evenly between both channels. So was “aggressive stereo” just a fad that went out of style as soon as it stopped being such a novelty? Or was it just a technical thing, where mixing equipment became advanced enough that people could be more subtle with the effects? Or am I just buying the wrong records?
What you need to do is check out some binaural recordings… These can be recorded with standard microphones in a special configuration, but more often than not are recorded with the Neumann KU-100 dummy head microphone, a microphone actually designed to mimic the human ears in terms of the way it records sound. If you listen to a binaural recording with headphones it will truly blow you away. You often find yourself looking behind you, above you, etc. without even thinking.
Anyway, IIRC here is the website with a lot of binaural recordings AND a pic of the head: http://www.binaural.com/
Yeah, that binaural stuff is interesting, I was just in LA and met a guy who has some new recording systems that go beyond binaural, but alas I have damage to my left ear and I have terrible spatial location ability for sound. I could hear it pan L/R but no 3d. But that’s how I always hear. Darn.
I think there’s been somewhat of a resurgence in highly crafted stereophonic material, but mostly this technology got sucked up by the movie industry and used for surround sound stereo. I’ve seen some computer systems that you can actually draw a the path of the sound’s position moving around the room over time. Just click and the sound is reprocessed and flys around in your designated path. The problem is that people just haven’t figured out how to use this stuff well.
Damn skippy. Try listening to Run Like Hell with only one speaker of a stereo system plugged in: “You’d better run all… night, and keep your dirty secrets…”
I can only give you possible consumer response answer as I am not a history of stereo maven. I heard a few recordings like this in the late 60’s and early 70’s and was generally more amused by the goofiness of the effect than engaged or otherwise entertained by the musicality of the performance.
I think the answer (for me) is that it was contrived and not particularly realistic sounding and the industry moved on to more natural soundstages at some point.
The answer to, ‘What happened to Stereo’ is that it matured. When a new technology like Stereo comes along, people play with it like a toy for a while. It’s ‘neat’ to hear a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth between the speakers and such.
But after the novelty wears off, people start using it for what it was intended for - to maximize the realism of musical recreation. That means no wild speaker effects, unless they are necessary to reproduce the ‘live’ experience.
The same thing is happening in multi-channel audio now. When Dolby Pro-Logic came out, people wanted to hear lots of jets flying overhead, cars driving towards you and behind, etc. Now the consensus is that diffuse rear speakers that create a ‘sound field’ rather than localized effects.
When I was in high school I littered every corner of my room with stacks and stacks of old speakers trying to fill the room with as much sound from as many directions as possible. I would “brown out” if I turned the volume dial above “3” until I bought an amplifier that could handle the draw. Great times. Won’t Get Fooled Again, by The Who is probably what got me hooked.
And of course, who can forget GooglePhonics, in which the stereo has the most number of speakers before infinity. It’ll sound like crap unless you get a moon-rock needle, though.
After the initial thrill of having sound come at you from all directions – well, left and right – many listeners and engineers admitted that sharp separation was unrealistic, and even hard to listen to for protracted times.
Same thing with Quad, times 2. Who, after all, sits in the middle of an orchestra except one of the musicians?
If you’re really drawn to such showoff stuff, the record labels are on the verge of trying to foist DVD audio on you – Quad (well, 6.1) in a digital format, incompatible with your existing DVD player. The idea is to get you to replace your record collection (and hardware) yet again. And the price ain’t going down!