Why is earlier Beatles material in Stereo separated terribly?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by BryanA-HTX, Mar 1, 2015.

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  1. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    Why is earlier Beatles material in Stereo separated terribly?

    Terribly?
    Bliss Baby Bliss...LOL!
     
    Aftermath likes this.
  2. rockledge

    rockledge Forum Resident

    Location:
    right here
    I think everyone is forgetting how this stuff was recorded. They didn't have a gazillion tracks to work with, if they had 8 track machines for that early stuff chances are there would have been better mixes, but they didn't have that technology. Do some web searches and see if you can find a picture of a mixing desk from 1965.
    I suspect the reason the stuff was panned that way is because it is the only option they had using the technology they had.
    And it was all relatively new, they were still experimenting with how to do stereo well.
     
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  3. carrolls

    carrolls Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin
    Try telling that to my headphones.
    With vocals on one side and instrumentation on the other, its a very uncomfortable listen via headphones.
    One of my early Walkman's had an "ambient" setting which somewhat mixed the two channels, making it a little more comfortable to listen to.
     
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  4. Murphy13

    Murphy13 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland
    IMO, the Elvis post Army sessions (Elvis is Back, Little Sister, etc), are some of the best stereo recordings EVER made (along with Brubecks Time Out).
     
  5. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    England had this thing called the 'class system' and only upper class twits had anything better than a portable record player with a tone arm that weighed about half a ton. No way a working class hero like John Lennon was going to give the old rich better SQ than the great British battler.
     
  6. Kim Olesen

    Kim Olesen Gently weeping guitarist.

    Location:
    Odense Denmark.
    I have simply narrowed the stereo on all their "hole in the middle" mixes.
     
  7. Murphy13

    Murphy13 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland
    The stereo panning was so bad due to overdubbing Bernard Purdie's drum Tracks. I believe Carol kaye overdubbed some bass parts as well
     
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  8. sixtiesstereo

    sixtiesstereo Senior Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Other than Steve and a few other posts in this thread, I don't know if I've ever seen a thread with so much
    misinformation/conjecture and silly observations regarding early stereo. I started buying ONLY stereo
    releases in 1960. True stereo was around (in the US) starting in 1958. It's common knowledge the UK was
    years behind the US when it came to stereo, and people were simply not tuned in to what was being done in
    the US and didn't (seemingly) really care (i.e. GM).
    But some of the most beautiful true stereo R&R in my collection is from 1959 and 1960.
    I think people need to google "binaural", what it is and why it was done. I mean, even Elvis sessions in
    1957 were recorded in binaural, but were never intended to be released. Thank goodness we now have all
    of those primitive two track recordings by him in pristine Binaural sound. True stereo? Of course not,
    but fidelity wise they are much cleaner than the mono releases. Just listen to the "Stereo 57" release and you'll hear what I mean.
    Also, as one person did mention, Beatles For Sale/Beatles 65 was (and is) in beautiful true stereo and
    that was recorded in 1964.
     
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  9. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    But they went from the 'beautiful' stereo of BFS to the 'muddy' stereo of Help! and the 'ping pong' stereo of RS.
     
  10. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    Its not going to work with headphones. Isnt the same effect.
     
  11. ManFromCouv

    ManFromCouv Employee #3541

    That's the part I never understood. They nailed one, then went back to slumming it.
     
  12. davenav

    davenav High Plains Grifter

    Location:
    Louisville, KY USA
    The Beatles didn't even have headphones until late in the game, after the wonky mixes.

    Until I learned why the early stereo mixes are the way they are, I thought maybe they set up their speakers front and back, rather than side by side.
     
  13. DocCasualty

    DocCasualty Active Member

    Location:
    Northern Michigan
    I've never listened to any of The Beatles mono mixes, so pardon my naive question. Just exactly how different is listening to one of the mono mixes from listening to a stereo mix played through "mono" on my receiver? Is there something lost from the original mono mix?
     
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  14. Hamhead

    Hamhead The Bear From Delaware

    One of my favorite Hollies albums met the same fate as Rubber Soul with the same crappy mix.
    [​IMG]

    Every re-issue of it by EMI has been in mono, BGO did it in stereo but was labeled mono.

    What were they thinking?
     
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  15. rednoise

    rednoise Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    You should listen yourself to really know. Basically, they are separately-created mixes with subtle differences in instrumental and vocal balance, and in some cases slightly different instrumental and vocal parts. None of them are hugely different, they just alter the listening experience a bit. Both are fun to listen to and essential for the completist, but neither will, in of itself, make or break the song. The basic magic is there in all mixes.
     
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  16. DocCasualty

    DocCasualty Active Member

    Location:
    Northern Michigan
    Thanks, I appreciate the reply. I've been wondering about the mono mixes, so perhaps I might just do that.
     
  17. vinylman

    vinylman Senior Member

    Location:
    Leeds, U.K.

    A lot of the differences are far from subtle.
     
  18. rednoise

    rednoise Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    I'm well aware of the differences, and outside of a very few cases, I consider them to be subtle and not crucial to the end effect.
     
  19. Bob Simmons

    Bob Simmons Active Member

    And this is where GM should be called out publicly for criticizing the release of the early lps in much the same manner, but no one ever does.
     
  20. Bob Simmons

    Bob Simmons Active Member

    Precisely.
     
  21. Larry Geller

    Larry Geller Surround sound lunatic

    Location:
    Bayside, NY
    The UK EMI digipak has it in stereo & mono.
     
  22. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member


    Because that's how live music sounded in those days. Just look at any surviving video of bands performing and you'll see what I mean. The Beach Boys, for example. You'll always see Mike Love at far right from front and Brian Wilson second from right, where they function as the primary vocalists, whereas the rest of the band are on the left playing their instruments. That's just how it sounds on their early records.

    With Dylan, he'd hold his guitar way out to his left where it was stool-mic'd, and he'd lean right for the stand-up mic.

    Standard practice until the eight-track cartridge era when users of car audio systems demanded a better balanced sound because of all the audio accidents caused by drivers always veering toward the vocal side. I hit the gravel shoulder many a time heading toward Lennon in those days.
     
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  23. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    That album was only issued in mono when originally released in 1965. I think the first release of the stereo mix was for a budget (UK Starline IIRC) label in 1969 or 1979. I think most or maybe all the Hollies stereo mixes '63 ~ '67 are like that, though the stereo mix of the Butterfly LP has a much better balanced mix with vocals centered as I recall. You still get drums in one channel and the like, however.
     
  24. analogmaniac

    analogmaniac Senior Member

    Location:
    California
    There are lots of 60s music that was like the stereo Beatles. I think it's great. Brings back a lot of good memories. I still think the Beatles stereo LPs had a liveliness to them that is missing from the mono LPs.
     
    mikee likes this.
  25. Marc Bessette

    Marc Bessette The King of Somewhere Cold

    It was my understanding that Zeppo Wilson, the mysterious and oft forgotten Wilson brother sabotaged the early Beatles stereo mixes.
     
    spindly likes this.
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