Electronically processed stereo

The general view and it must be said my experience suggests that it stinks - sounding weird, out of phase, echoey, unfocussed or downright bad.

However, I have a question - what did they do right when it works? Was just listening to a Hank Williams greatest hits compo - specifically the track "Lost Highway".

I was thinking that it sounded rather good considering it must have been recorded well over fifty years ago ... then I realised it was in stereo. Checked the sleeve and yup "electronically processed stereo" it says. So what did they do right on this occasion that they got wrong on most of the other occasions - anyone here know about such things?

 

On a compilation some tracks would surely have been recorded in stereo - at least on the master tape. It may have been mastered in multitrack format with different instruments on different channels - in which case it's easy peasy. 50 years is perfectly possible [eg ampex recorder 1949]:

http://recordist.com/ampex/docs/apxbrochures/ag300/ag300_1.jpg

People were experimenting with multitrack [ie not mono] at least 70 years back that I have heard of.

 

Mebbe, but the sleeve notes definitely state that this track is electronically processed stereo. A google suggests it was recorded in early March 1949.