[overkill]

I remember a while back someone mentioned that there is a left hand channel bias in a lot of old (60's and early 70's) stereo recordings. I've been recording a lot of LP's for the wife from that period, and I've noticed that while there is often a slight bias one way or the other, it's most marked on albums from that period. I thought it was the cartridge at first, but then I tested a couple of CD's and they showed the same imbalance. One CD (Little Feat) quite markedly.

Does anyone know:-

a) why this is?
b) in English, how you can alter the balance with a recorded wave.

I did read somewhere it happened during the mixdown as the old equipment was really still recording in mono and when the tracks where put into stereo it bled off to the left. Whether this is true or not I don't know?

[karkus30]

Originally Posted by overkill

I remember a while back someone mentioned that there is a left hand channel bias in a lot of old (60's and early 70's) stereo recordings. I've been recording a lot of LP's for the wife from that period, and I've noticed that while there is often a slight bias one way or the other, it's most marked on albums from that period. I thought it was the cartridge at first, but then I tested a couple of CD's and they showed the same imbalance. One CD (Little Feat) quite markedly.

Does anyone know:-

a) why this is?
b) in English, how you can alter the balance with a recorded wave.

I did read somewhere it happened during the mixdown as the old equipment was really still recording in mono and when the tracks where put into stereo it bled off to the left. Whether this is true or not I don't know?

Overkill, what set up are you using to do these recordings ? Is this software based onto WAV ? or straight to CD ?

http://www.pcabusers.com/vinyllp/vinyllp.htm

Has a reasonable description of balancing in WAV recording.

[overkill]

Originally Posted by karkus30

Overkill, what set up are you using to do these recordings ? Is this software based onto WAV ? or straight to CD ?

http://www.pcabusers.com/vinyllp/vinyllp.htm

Has a reasonable description of balancing in WAV recording.

Hi Karkus. Actually I've stopped using Sonic Foundry to record, I'm now using Nero's wave editor for that and then editing with SF afterwards. For some reason SF doesn't like my sound card. Every time I tried to record, hideous crackles and pops would come up every 15 seconds or so. With Nero you get none of that. Don't know why?

Tbh I'm a bit further on than his guide. I've been making 24/96 recordings using SF and Nero for a while (all stored on DVD-R) and I can now burn them to a proper DVD-A. SF can pretty much shape the wave however you want.

Looking at his peak level, mine are easily within an average range if he thinks that's the norm! The difference in most recordings (at average peak) is much less than two bars. However, some recordings are quite obviously biased to the L/H channel - and it's in playback you can tell this.

[overkill]

Back on this again, I noticed in a review of some Elvis stuff, the reviewer mentioned the 'poor early stereo master that had that awful left hand bias and muffled sound to it. The re-master is now in spatial stereo'. So maybe I'm not going nuts. Or deaf.

Well, maybe.......