Where does this come from, and can I check it?

His patent covered coincident microphone pairs and the mid-side technique. The figure is taken from EMI Archive Trust, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a music fact?

Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Alan Blumlein patented stereo recording in 1931

His patent covered coincident microphone pairs and the mid-side technique Blumlein, an EMI engineer, filed a patent in 1931 describing how two channels could place sounds across a room. It set out the coincident pair, where two directional microphones share a single point, and mid-side recording, which stores sum and difference signals. EMI cut a demonstration disc in 1933. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

EMI Archive Trust

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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More facts like this

Early Beatles stereo mixes were made without the bandThe group sat in on the mono mixes and left the stereo versions to engineers Stereo was patented in 1931Alan Blumlein described two channel recording years before anyone sold it The stereo LP arrived in shops in 1958The major labels moved from one channel to two within a single year The Shure SM58 became the standard stage microphoneThe cardioid dynamic mic arrived in 1966 and has barely changed since The Neumann U47 set the sound of the studioThe German valve microphone appeared in 1947 and defined the vocal sound Microphones are chosen for two different jobsCondensers are sensitive and detailed, dynamics are rugged and forgiving

Tags: stereo, blumlein, microphones

Alan Blumlein patented stereo recording in 1931: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: His patent covered coincident microphone pairs and the mid-side technique. The figure is taken from EMI Archive Trust, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.