Really really OT: Les Paul and multitrack

[TLarvenz]

Sorry for the really OT, but this forum gets such a wide ranger readership that I thought I'd have the best chance of getting clarity on this subject. I'm trying to figure out how Les Paul is the inventor of multitrack recording if Disney put out Fantasound for Fantasia in 1940 with 3 discrete tracks (the surround fills were derived from those 3 tracks). I've been reading interviews with him and he says that he developed the technology after Bing Crosby dropped off a captured German tape recorder after the war. Is this a case where history is crediting the wrong guy? Not to take anything away from Les Paul who was a pioneer (delay, reverb, phasing, solid body guitar, etc.) in recording regardless of being first or not with multitrack.

[trakbytes]

Film sound was all optical recording in the '40's. There was no possibility of overdubbing, although there was re-recording capability, using interlocked units recording to another optical recorder. Sprockets were essential, and there was no rewind capability. Not exactly practical for music overdubbing.

Les Paul is credited with the invention of the multi-track tape recorder. Magnetic recording was not really considered hi-fi until the concept of high-frequency bias was employed on early recorders invented by the Germans. I think the early recorders were made by AEG Telefunken (sp?). I have seen an early model on display at the Deutsches Museum, in Munich I think. Early tape was made by AGFA.

Hope I've got the history right. Here's a link to a chart of Film Sound formats, starting with Fantasound in 1940:

http://www.mtsu.edu/~smpte/table.html

rcm

[TLarvenz]

Thanks for the reply! None of the articles I found made a distinction between multitrack and multitrack tape...It seems like an important distinction. I know that some of the Bell Labs guys were messing around with stereo sound before Fantasia, which is where Disney got the idea. Thanks again for the reply....