The Spatial Race & the forgotten genius who invented stereo

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Design, Music, Music Commentary, Arts

4.9 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 1960s, stereo sound revolutionized the music industry. But it turns out, a pioneering engineer named Alan Blumlein had actually invented stereo a full three decades earlier. Due to tragic events in World War II, his innovations were forgotten for decades. In this episode, we worked with OnePlus to tell the story of how audio has evolved from mono, to stereo, to quadraphonic, to surround sound and beyond. Today, we even have immersive, three-dimensional systems that can simulate 128 speakers using just two. Featuring Alan Blumlein’s son Simon Blumlein, and sound engineer Robin Reumers from the Abbey Road Institute. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by ⁠Defacto Sound⁠. Subscribe on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see our video series. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mystery.20k.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Support the show and get ad-free episodes at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠20k.org/plus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Dallas on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠⁠, and⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our community on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reddit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Improve your personal sound world at oneplus.com. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/thespatialrace Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's June 1942, at the height of World War II.
0:12.0	A British bomber plane is flying over the south of England, but it isn't carrying weapons.
0:17.0	Instead, it's carrying a new radar system.
0:23.6	Several engineers are on board to test it, including a man named Alan Blumline.
0:29.6	Alan is just 38 years old, but he's already worked on tons of innovative projects,
0:34.6	and if this radar works, it could help the Allies win the war.
0:40.3	But this is one project that Alan won't complete, because an hour after takeoff, the plane crashes.
0:53.3	There are no survivors.
0:58.0	Prime Minister Winston Churchill says that Alan's death must be kept a secret.
1:03.0	The enemy cannot know that Britain has lost one of its best engineers.
1:07.0	Because of Churchill's orders, Alan's name is quickly forgotten.
1:11.7	And so are many of his inventions, including another revolutionary idea.
1:17.4	Stereo sound.
1:22.4	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.
1:26.3	Music listening to 20,000 Hertz.
1:40.9	Alan Blumline was born in London in 1903.
1:44.7	He went to different schools.
1:47.3	That's Simon Blumline, Alan's son.
1:51.1	Some of which were quite free schools and didn't press him to do work.
1:55.8	Despite not being pushed at school,
1:57.9	Alan quickly showed his engineering talent.
1:59.9	The doorbell on their house broke, and he repaired it at the age of seven.
	...

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