Remixing RAM to fix phasing issues

The mono mix was definitely not a fold down or manipulation.

Eight Arms To Hold You contains a blow-by-blow description of the differences in each track and the first volume in the McCartney Legacy series will have even more to offer on the subject.

Chip Madinger
www.lennonology.com

 

I always wondered about this quote from a Lennon NME interview. So this wouldn’t have had anything to do with the phasing issue?

Q: Did you listen to Paul McCartney's 'Ram' album?"

JOHN: "Of course I did. The first time I heard it I thought it was awful, and then the second time, ahem, I fixed the record player a bit and it sounded better.”

 

I know I speak for many us when I say thank you, Steve, for taking the time to clarify the issue!

 

Some of the mix differences are noted in this thread:

Paul McCartney Ram Mono Cd

 

Now let's listen to the DCC RAM cd en enjoy the music

 

So the facts are that the master stereo tape was very slightly misaligned which caused it to have phase issues when down mixed into mono for radio.

You say that the stereo isn't affected by this misalignment, but that is where we disagree. The fact that we have the corrected version in this thread to compare it to confirms my suspension.

 

I'm OK with remixing just about any album from the pre-digital age. Whether it sounds better or not is up to the listener, but I'm always down with a more clean sound. If you can avoid degradation without no-noising something, why not give it a shot?

 

Well, I have just ordered Steven Wilson's remix of Chicago 2. I have always wanted this album and when I went online to research the album before buying, this remix gets glowing reviews. I will purchase a cheap copy of the "original" so I can compare.

 

So, as is ...There is three official RAM versions.

Original stereo Stereo LP
Stereo CD ( different from LP)
Mono remix

???

 

Two - stereo mix and mono mix.

 

All the stereos identical digital /analogue ?

 

Yes, apart from the mastering (none of which 'correct' the phase issues).

 

Why would it matter if it was pre or post digital or not?

 

So from a playability factor a radio DJ couldn't play DCC -RAM because of phasing problem ?

 

Re; a earlier post. Just after playing MONO Smile Away and thats a bit of a grungy cluster distorted thing( Stereo better imo) the rest of the albums music especially the vocals really shine on the official mono cd( yet to hear the vinyl ).

 

I think there is confusion here because there are two "issues" - phasing problems introuduced through the bouncing process, and a slight misalignment of the stereo master tape. The misalignment problem can be fixed but the phasing issues cannot. That's why a mono remix was required.

 

Only if the radio station was broadcasting in mono (meaning the stereo channels were folded = phase problem).

 

I don't detect any problems caused by a reduction mix. As I pointed out before, any bounced elements would still have to be combined in a mono mix, yet the mono mix is fine.

 

Ah..i see.
Days of yore stations were MONO only most part even in 1971.

 

Is Ram really worth the effort? It wasn't that good of an album to begin with, rather disappointing.

 

If that's the case then it was deliberately mixed that way. Either way, it doesn't make a difference - it still can't be folded.

 

Huh?

IF there was a stereo reduction that sounded fine when left in stereo but caused phase problems in mono, then how was the mono mix made? The mono mix combines everything (unless you leave the 'problem' tracks out of the mix, which is not the case).

The problem is purely to do with the machine capturing the stereo mix, and is 100% fixable.

 

Why not?

 

I'm not sure if it's been fixed on the 2010 remaster, but I think all previous versions of Lennon's 'Give Peace A Chance' suffered from the same problem. Again, easily rectified.