An instructional message for the folks at EMI...

....Mono means the same sound is coming out of **both** speakers.

Stereo is when you have entirely different sounds coming out of **each** speaker.

Do not buy the CD referred to in the thread below if you want a **MONO** disc-- it is 100% STEREO!!!

In spite of the disc and packaging saying "mono" in four different places....

And what's worse: the stereo "How Do You Like It" master does the very same wonky thing that the Repertoire version from 1994 does... fades to mono for the instrumental breaks, and then back to stereo when the vocal starts back up!!

I'm sort of glad the "Ferry Cross the Mersey" soundtrack is stereo, but I wouldn't have minded the mono version, either.

And if the ICE "CD Watchdog" folks want to use this in their column, they can go right ahead!

-Kevin

The thread containing a picture of this disc is at:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?threadid=5475

 

Well, the "How Do You Like It" portion is problematic, at best, given the strange mono/stereo nature of each song, but to be truthful, if it would stay one or the other, it doesn't sound bad. There's not enough noise processing to suck the life out of the performances, and the sparingly-used strings still have depth and smoothness to them.

The "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey" portion is stereo all the way through (no strange crossfading present in those tracks), and the disc is a keeper, if just for that material. Again, although there's a 1997 "digital remastering" credit on the package, there still seems to be plenty of life in the transfer.

I'm sure it's not up to Steve's level of mastering, but as long as you know what to expect, stereo-wise, the disc is relatively cheap, and I'd recommend it for the soundtrack songs alone.

I **am** puzzled by the HDYLI mix, though-- this is the **second** place this bizarre stereo/mono mix has turned up, and I'm just wondering if this isn't what the original stereo LP mix does in fact sound like. Both of my copies of the LP are mono, so I can't say from personal experience; but it certainly is a curiosity.

-Kevin