Hey everyone - When I found out about the Haas effect and how utilizing it can help stereo-ize recordings without needing to add reverb, I immediately thought of pianist William Kapell. Kapell is probably one of the finest 20th century pianists with his incredible sensitivity, whose life was cut short by a tragic plane accident in 1953. He would’ve been able to record in stereo if he were to survive a few years longer as stereo recording became popular from 1956 onwards. As I explained in my previous post - the Haas effect (1949) states that when one sound is followed by another with a delay of approximately 40 ms or less (below humans’ echo threshold), the two are perceived as a single sound. In the audio mixing sense, this provides a great opportunity to turn mono audio into stereo without any editing (reverb, EQ, etc) in the conversion process. The result of this is one of the most natural stereo sound rendering of an originally mono recording, as is shown here with Kapell’s rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55 No. 2 shortly before his passing. I’ll let the music speak for itself, hope you all enjoy this beautiful playing of Chopin by William Kapell 😊
Hey everyone - When I found out about the Haas effect and how utilizing it can help stereo-ize recordings without needing to add reverb, I immediately thought of pianist William Kapell. Kapell is probably one of the finest 20th century pianists with his incredible sensitivity, whose life was cut short by a tragic plane accident in 1953. He would’ve been able to record in stereo if he were to survive a few years longer as stereo recording became popular from 1956 onwards.
As I explained in my previous post - the Haas effect (1949) states that when one sound is followed by another with a delay of approximately 40 ms or less (below humans’ echo threshold), the two are perceived as a single sound. In the audio mixing sense, this provides a great opportunity to turn mono audio into stereo without any editing (reverb, EQ, etc) in the conversion process. The result of this is one of the most natural stereo sound rendering of an originally mono recording, as is shown here with Kapell’s rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55 No. 2 shortly before his passing.
I’ll let the music speak for itself, hope you all enjoy this beautiful playing of Chopin by William Kapell 😊