Mercury Living Presence

Decca/London introduced Phase 4 Stereo in 1961. For classical music, the Phase 4 approach was based on miking every orchestra section individually, along with mics for selected instruments – up to a maximum of 20 channels, which were then mixed via a recording console. This resulted in a dynamic, in your face sound with relatively little hall ambience. The quality of the sound mostly depended on how skillfully the recording engineer balanced each channel – and the results were not always consistent. Thus, the Phase 4 sound was the antithesis of the minimally miked, “simplicity is wisdom” approach of the RCA’s early Living Stereo and Mercury’s Living Presence recordings, along with Telarc’s early digital recordings.

Decca/London introduced Phase 4 Stereo in 1961. For classical music, the Phase 4 approach was based on miking every orchestra section individually, along with mics for selected instruments – up to a maximum of 20 channels, which were then mixed via a recording console. This resulted in a dynamic, in your face sound with relatively little hall ambience. The quality of the sound mostly depended on how skillfully the recording engineer balanced each channel – and the results were not always consistent.