[2] Cook is sometimes said [citation needed] to have intended only to show the quality of his recording and molding process at an audio fair, with the added feature of binaural (i.e., stereophonic) sound to get attention.
Cook's sound was achieved by putting the output from two separate microphones on two independent monaural tracks on the same side of a record.
The V-groove or Westrex stereo LP and cartridge that would become standard, which could play each wall of the groove as a separate track, were not released until 1957.
In order to play back binaural disks, a listener would need two separate pick-ups (LP cartridges), both of them monaural.
And like the Clip-On, the tonearm also allowed for calibration of the position of the stylus within the groove so that the two tracks would play in synch and proper phase.
While this preamp did not allow for the manual setting of turnover and rolloff of other manufacturers' disks, it did work for Cook-type binaural records.
Their superiority was due to the superb quality of his recording techniques and his mastering which allowed for greater dynamic range and low noise levels, but also to the fact that, by 1955, they were manufactured by a special pressing process he developed.
This process — which he named "Microfusion" — used cold vinyl powder sprayed into a metal mold (which looked somewhat like a round waffle iron), each one of which was then placed into a hot stamping press, the heat and pressure of which would melt the particles of plastic, and fuse them together while simultaneously imprinting the surface of each side of the record them with a negative image of the positive image of the record grooves that had been molded onto each side of the metal mold (the two sides were hinged together, which increased the waffle-iron resemblance.
Cook's 1956 binaural record of decades-old steam-driven "Calliope and Carousels" is amusing not only for their tunes, but for hearing the audible struggles the machines had to go through just to produce a sound, and play anything even approximately in tune, all lovingly captured and preserved in their sour-note glory while the original 19th century machines could still function at all.
Though an audio artist and engineer, Cook covered himself by having musicians he recorded along the road sign pieces of paper giving him permission to market their performances, showcasing that he was also a businessman.
A marching band on a stereo recording or a train, such as on Cook's Rail Dynamics, will run from left to right or vice versa.
Emory and Martha Cook donated the US branch of their record company, master tapes, patents, and papers to the Smithsonian Institution in 1990.
There are a number of Trinidad-only releases (mostly singles) that Smithsonian is unable to reissue because their master tapes belong to the owners of the Trinidad branch.