technically speaking, what is 'fake' stereo? (Duophonic, Electronically Re-processed, etc.)*

There are a few rare instances where the "duophonic " process works on one level or another. For example, while I was all about the original British mixes of I Feel Fine/ She's A Woman when I first got them back in the day, I found myself preferring the American mixes and in the case of I Feel Fine the American "stereo" version.

My first copy of Pet Sounds was Duophonic and I played it on my mono record player. I fell in love with the album that way, but now listen to either the mono or true stereo mix. I also used to like the Frank Sinatra Christmas album in "stereo"

 

Maybe there will be a special section of hell for hi-fi purists where the only music played is brickwalled fake stereo

 

I remember playing some the Beatles' duophonic mixes and being shocked...

I was so shocked that I forgot how they sound now.

 

Yes, here in the UK in 1978, they brought out 'Beach Boys 20 Golden Greats' - now this wasn't a cheapo Ronco or KTel complilation, it was an official one from EMI, and it was so bad, they even used a fake stereo 'I Can Hear Music' from 1969, when there's a perfectly good stereo version on 20/20, and EMIwould have had access to that - really lame!

 

I like the US Capitol Fake stereo mix of "She's A Woman". It's the first version I heard, and the clean mix just sounds weird.

 

I'll Get You

 

I quite enjoy Arnold Layne, I'll Get Around and I'll Get You (with that harmonica bit) in Duo. Decca's fake stereo for the Stones was very good of it's type frequently listening to my blue labeled copy of High Tide plus 70's compilations such as No Stone Unturned and Rock 'n Rolling Stones.
There were a number of compiling mistakes on the Beach Boys 20 Golden Greats, not only was I Can Hear Music in fake stereo where the real thing was in the vaults, they also used fake stereo Surfin' USA which gain was in real stereo from the lp.

 

I like maybe up to no more than a dozen fake stereo tracks on various labels from favorite artists of mine. Some fake stereo mixes can sound really distracting. I can understand why the majority of listeners hate this stuff.

 

Fake stereo or true stereo doesn't make a right lot of difference. They are both dismissed as "inferior". Sometimes I feel that the only thing approved of on here is flat transferred mono (sorry, true MONO). No mastering whatsoever permitted.

 

I think that's a rather sweeping statement - with regard to a lot of 1960s material, yes perhaps as a lot of it certainly sounds more authentic in mono, but true stereo can be magnificent when it's done right. When there are difference in the final mix of mono and stereo versions them that's always interesting - one isn't necessarily better or worse then the other. When only a mono version exists, I think the general consensus is that messing around with it to created a psuedo-stereo version is generally a bad thing, but it all depends on which version 'does it' for you - i.e., a few people on here, their first experience of a particulat song is the fake stereo version.

It would be a fairly pointless forum if we all like exactly the same thing and had exactly the same opinion on it...

 

According to the Billboard May 29, 1961 issue, a small blurb on the "new" Duophonic process from Capitol credits John Palladino with creating it. If he's still around, maybe someone can ask him exactly what the process was.

http://books.google.com/books?id=BCEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA2&dq=capitol duophonic&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8VTpUafjB_Wl4APpp4DQAQ&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=capitol duophonic&f=false

 

Rechanneled Stereo is really unacceptable unless there is a way to get true mono out of it. Mercury's method you can play back the left channel and get pure mono out of it. Rechanneled Stereo was done for one reason, and one reason only. Money. In that era, Stereo LP discs sold for $1 extra. Record labels wanted more profit and wanted Stereo to offer the record buyers. When this garbage was current, it was a mere annoyance, you could buy the Mono LP issue and dispense with this rubbish. When the mono originals went out of print, it became big league obnoxious. The Orban Stereo Synthesizer was the only main method which would collapse to mono without audible artifacts.

 

I have a cheapie Nat King Cole LP I think on Pickwick, most of it is in real stereo and sounds nice, the one fake stereo track really sticks out and not in a good way.

 

Same story as Beatles VI (Yes It Is).

 

For a lot of people, duophonic is the way that they first heard The Beatles. My father had all their records, and I grew up listening to all of his old Capitol records versions. I now have just about every conceivable version of every Beatles album ever recorded (lol.. I really have way too much), but I will always have a soft spot for those crappy old albums. I am completely aware that it sounds like mush compared to other versions I have, but I think it's the nostalgia factor that makes it acceptable. Those old worn out records, and the dogeared covers that they came in, bring me back to an amazing time in my young life when I was discovering a great band, and singing along to them with my Dad. No matter how good the Blue Box sounds, or the MFSL versions, or whatever, I still go back to those old ones.

 

well that works for other instances too - I can listen to a pristine copy of Paperback Writer in stereo on my hi-fi, but fire up one of my valve record players and stick on the original 7" - especially my original capitol copy which has been compressed within an inch of it's life (and well played!) - well, you can guess which one rocks!

 

The funny thing is you're right, they really sound terrible, but I go back to them anyway.. It sounds sappy, but I think it's just that familiar-ness about them and that feeling I had when I was hearing The Beatles for the first time, drenched in reverb. "She's A Woman" takes the cake though. Recorded in London, and Paul's vocal sounds like it's coming from a pay phone in a subway tunnel in NYC... Hahaha.. There is something a little different about all the versions of their music that I have, and I love to listen to it all

 

I listen to the first five Parlophone singles themselves.

I listen also to the Australian A8103 I Want To Hold Your Hand true stereo single - it was you that drew my attention to it!

I listen to the remaining singles on the Japanese EAR- true stereo 45s.

I listen to Please Please Me LP on Die Beatles -2 - true stereo - again following your recommendation.

I listen to A Hard Day's Night on the Russian Melodya DMM true stereo pressing.

I listen to the remaining LPs on UK Parlophone true stereo pressings.

I have the Capitol LPs, but I never listen to them. I'm not keen on the sound, and I HATE that doctored mess of Thank You Girl.

I do indeed like several duophonic tracks by the Beach Boys, and electronic stereo See Emily Play and Arnold Layne by The Pink Floyd. Also Cry Me A River by Julie London and I Know A Man by Rolf Harris.

<----- that Oxy guy ----->

 

Maybe this is the right thread to ask this question:

Is a record that says it's monaural same as mono? Because my Left Banke Renee/Ballerina album that says it's monaural doesn't sound mono at all.

 

Your Left Banke LP was a silent experiment testing the waters for single inventory Stereo. Mercury was putting Stereo discs with mono labels in jackets and seeing if they had higher return rates so they could go with discontinuing mono records. If you folks have a Mercury or Smash title with 2/6 prefix deadwax, you have one of these experimentals. If you are seeking out a mono issue of any Mercury or Smash from 1966-1967 ask the seller to give you the deadwax numbers. Some of these are really mono, if your LP has a 2 prefix it is mono. Monaural is a synonym for mono.

 

Sometimes I wonder if Capitol wasn't trying to 'Spectorise' at least some of those Beatles tracks? Phil's 'wall of sound' being in vogue and having hit after hit with it just then, perhaps part of Dave Dexter's thinking was that if the Beatles sounded more like Spector's productions they'd sell more records?

And by the way John Palladino is still very much alive....93 or 94 years old I last heard (on here)....

 

I'm not a fan of all things "fake" stereo, but listening to Elvis' Golden Records in sequence has to be the "stereo effect reprocessed from monophonic" LP for me. I grew up with my mom's tan label reissue LP, and it's something of a sentimental sound. I have the Japan-for-US first issue rechanneled CD, but it's a more subtle bass-treble rechanneling compared to the full-on "Elvis in the john" sound of the LP.

 

Yea, a lot of folks listened to the "bad" stuff back in the day, didn't know they should hate it, and had a great time boppin' to the hits.