RCA Intoduces "Living Stereo"

[a440]

This is a great into video from RCA for the development of "Living Stereo".
As a record collector, I think "Living Stereo" albums and pre-recorded reel to reel tapes were some of the best and most powerful recordings ever made.
Following companies were Mercury "Living Presence", and many others. You have to give the applause to RCA to being the first.
Brent

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[charbee]

Thanks for that...some of my prize LPs are original "Living Stereo" issues.

 

[whirlcool]

We have a copy of "Victory At Sea" in RCA Living Stereo. The platter is VERY heavy! They certainly used a high quality vinyl for their records.

 

[jasonl]

My parents had Elvis' His Hand In Mine on RCA Victor Living Stereo. I remember the stereo separation was very wide and had a warm sweet sound to it. Like you were sitting in a studio.

I just picked up a copy of Blue Hawaii on RCA Victor but it's a mono release. Still sounds great.

 

[charbee]

In the 50s, RCA was known for the high quality of the vinyl they used as well as their "Living Stereo" process. Their mono issues were just as successful as their stereo ones, I've got an original pressing of Fritz Reiner's mono recording of Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben" and it's one of my faves.

One of the biggest things about the Living Stereo series was the TUBE equipment they pushed the signal through...that's what gives these records that "warm glow". You can really tell that when you play one of them on a tube amp now. Makes any recordings made in the 60s or later sound so very flat and thin!

 

[a440]

So True about the Tubed Amps Charbee!

When RCA started releasing their original RCA Living Stereo recordings on CD, they actually had all of the original Tubed Amps, and Ampex Reel to Reel players rebuilt to transfer the original masters to CD. It was a very smart thing to do because the sound of these CD's are fantastic.
I would love to go through RCA's library of tapes. There was so much recorded in the 50's and 60's that never made it to the public.
Brent

 

[jasonl]

I listen to Blue Hawaii on my 1968 Astro-Sonic which is SS but it has that warm fuzzy sound. Sounds almost like Elvis is standing in the room.

 

[fonografmaniac]

Sounds in Space

I have the RCA Victor Living Stereo "Sounds in Space" demo Lp 1958.

 

[tolivac]

"Sounds in Space" excellent stereo demo recording!Makes me think back when I was little and my dad took me to various Hi-fi "salons" and we heard records like this played over the really FANTASTIC and REASONABLY priced hi-fi components of that time-and they were tube.Now I need to look for a copy of "sounds in space"would be great on SACD--Why?On the SACD format they can recreate the original 3 channel mix that All "Living Stereo" master tapes were recorded.RCA used custom 3 channel TUBE consoles for these-and those consoles are still in use today-they were restored and used for the SACD recordings.I have listened to other "living Stereo" recordings on SACD thru my sorround system and you get incredible sound-you just hear thru the FRONT speakers-Left,Center,right.At the same time want the LP record-they just sound so good anyway-even if its 2 ch stereo.and RCA like many other studios of that time used Ampex 300,350 tubed RR tape machines with tubed Rec-PB electronics.I have had the pleasure of working on these-Great equipment-I even have an Ampex 300 of my very own!Its in the "Washing machine" cabinet.The transports were also rack mounted.and mine is full track mono with the orig tube Rec-pb amplifier.Just haven't had a chance to hook it up since I have moved.Oh yes-that portable record player used in the video link sounds really good-esp for a portable machine.

 

[tolivac]

"Makes any recordings made in the 60's and later sound so very flat and thin!"
You can give thanks to that for the following--CRAPPY early Solid state mixing consoles starting to be used at that time-and 2nd--multi track recording methods introduced than and remixed down thru the crappy SS console to 2ch and mono.the multitracking started with 4 tracks then went up to as many as 48!imagine the mixdown from 48 ch to stereo!that is why many later recordings sounded SO BAD!!The mixdowns took the "Life" out of the instruments and performers.The 3 ch system RCA used sounded so much better because of simpler mixdowns.and the microphones were picking up the performers and instruments more naturally-not just added track by track-and EQ'd by the producer.