Carpenters 45's & The Haeco CSG Processing

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

What exactly is HAECO CSG Processing and why was it used on certain Carpenters 45's? Why do some have it marked on the label & others don't? Some have it on both side & some don't. Even though some of the labels don't have it listed you can still tell it has this processing by looking at the 45 closely in the light.

I have found this Processing on the following 45's:

It's on the Calling Occupants (Edited Version 3:59) On Promo 45 Only, The other side is the longer version of Calling Occupants & does not have this Haeco processing.

It's on the Promo of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town on the Stereo Side only, The other side is Mono & does not have this Haeco Processing.

It's on the Merry Christmas Darling #1236-S has the Haeco processing & the flip side is Mr Guder and also has the processing.

Are there other Carpenters 45's that have this Haeco Processing too?

I have to admit that it is wild to hear these w/ headphones on, it's like the sound is coming from all around. What I also noticed while listening to these w this processing is they seem louder to me than the non ones, especially of Santa Clause & Calling Occupants ones. Also on the Calling Occupants Haeco side, when the electric piano starts, it's like jumping from ear to ear & bouncing around, it's really wild w/ my headphones on

 

[Harry]

From an old post:

The CSG system has to do with the way stereo recordings will fold down INTO mono, particularly for radio purposes. Without getting too technical, what used to happen is a stereo track would be reduced at a radio station to mono, but their tape heads wouldn't be in perfect alignment, resulting in any common audio (like the vocal track) to "phase" against itself. This would give the vocal track a less-than-perfect sound, with high frequencies like 'S' sounds becoming muffled. The more out of phase, the worse it sounded.

CSG was designed to compensate for that phenomenon. It threw portions of the recording far enough out of phase to begin with that there would be none of that cancellation effect. The idea was that with this system in place on stereo recordings, special mono mixes wouldn't be necessary for radio, thus the phrases "compatible", and "playable either stereophonically or monophonically".

If you listen to a CSG recording through headphones, you'll hear that the lead vocal track, which sounds centered in your head on a standard stereo recording, sounds indistinct, like it's coming from everywhere.

The best (worst?) example of this processing in the Carpenters' canon is the original 45 of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town."

Harry
...reviving old data, online...

 

[Rudy]

I once asked about the processing, and apparently it is on the actual mixed-down master tapes and can't be undone. In technical terms, it's half out of phase (the channels are 90 degrees out of phase).

HAECO was an acronym for the company that developed it, and CSG was Compatible Stereo Generator. An abomination at best.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Thanks for digging that info back up I don't remember reading through that.

So does that mean that a 45 with this processing would sound different being played in a DJ radio station on "their" equipment vs me playing it on my technics turntable through my stereo system?

The companies that made these 45's with this Haeco processing, did it cost more money to make these? vs the 45's without it?

 

[W.B.]

The companies that made these 45's with this Haeco processing, did it cost more money to make these? vs the 45's without it?

Aside from A&M, I noticed at least two other companies which used HAECO-CSG for some time. One, of course, was Atlantic (just as some A&M HAECO collectors assumed that the "HA" stood for Herb Alpert, a few those who had Atlantic HAECO records in their collection probably thought the "AE" stood for Ahmet Ertegun); another was MGM Records. I have an early 1968 Cowsills 45 in CSG stereo in which it was clearly noted as such in the wax (only, MGM called their stereo 45's "Saturation Sound," and such releases had an "-SS" suffix).

However, insofar as Atlantic is concerned, some copies of their 45's (and those of their subsidiaries such as Atco) from 1966-69 were pressed by Columbia -- whose New York studios (then at East 52nd Street) cut their own lacquers for Atlantic for such pressings, and to my knowledge, Columbia did not have any CSG-processing or -processed equipment. And of course, forget about RCA (which had their infamous "Dynagroove" setup).

But it did appear that HAECO-CSG was something of an experimental thing.

For those who missed it, the Columbia-pressed 45 label of "Merry Christmas Darling" looked something like this:

. . . and I.M.H.O., is probably the better-looking of all the label variations thereof.

 

[Harry]

So does that mean that a 45 with this processing would sound different being played in a DJ radio station on "their" equipment vs me playing it on my technics turntable through my stereo system?

No, it would likely sound about the same, after you factor out the radio stations own processing.

Think of it this way. Records are fragile. Most radio stations didn't directly play records on the air - they'd transfer them to tape back in those days. Most used a format not unlike an 8-track, where a loop of tape would contain the audio, and after playing, off the air, would continue looping back to the starting point and stop when it encountered an inaudible cue-tone. Then that 'cart' was ready for the next playing.

This saved wear and tear on the vinyl, but now forced the stereo audio to have to pass by two sets of heads - the recording heads that made the cart, and the playback heads used on the air. If either of these were slightly skewed in position from 'normal' or each other, phasing could occur for those listeners with mono radios. Stereo listeners wouldn't hear much strange, but mono listeners might hear a very muffled-sounding vocal or percussion track. Whatever was in the center of the stereo recording was most in danger of this phasing effect (the same phenomenon where one can totally eliminate a center channel vocal with total reverse phasing and combining of two channels).

Since stereo radio was still a new phenomenon, the industry was still catering to the vast majority of listeners with mono radios - just like today, though a few might have HDTV, everyone is still concerned about how things look to the vast majority of regular TV viewers.

The record industry developed the CSG system to try to help the radio stations out. They could now provide "phase-proof" audio so that they wouldn't have to worry so much about their tape head alignment. After a while, the record companies realized that mucking up the sound of the record wasn't the greatest idea in the world, so they simply went back to normal stereo signals on their product and let the radio stations' engineers worry about aligning their heads properly.

Harry
...waiting for the mythical January thaw, online...