The Beatles Remasters: What Are The Mono Mix Differences?

Well, no, it's John, who else could yell/laugh like that at the end? If you're basing your wrong assumption that it's Paul on the similar thing on 'Uncle Albert', remember that was five years later. I've noticed Americans have a lot of trouble telling John and Paul apart at times, but this is clearly John.

 

Mono Tomorrow Never Knows does not have any guitar feedback during the line "For love is all and love is everyone".

Cowbell makes an earlier entrance in the mono Taxman

There's a cough in the background during Norwegian Wood (mixed out in stereo - 1965 or 1987).

Mono has extra tape loops in the middle section and at the end of Mr Kite

Blue Jay Way has backwards background vocals missing during the first verse in mono, and a "phasier", louder cello at the end.

There are a few extra "good mornings" during the fade prior to Sgt Pepper reprise, due to a slower crossfade into the animal effects track.

...also, Pepper reprise has an extra measure of Ringo drumbeat before the entrance of the band.

 

That's where the little bit of orchestration heard on the U.S. single was edited out.

 

Tomorrow Never Knows mono: ADT applied to the backwards guitar solo.

A Day in the Life mono: gotta agree the orchestra crescendo is a wonder to behold, and the first one is cut off suddenly like a tape edit, no ambience like on the stereo. Plus you can hear Mal counting if you listen closely...

With A Little Help mono: I hear some slight flanging on Ringo's vocal.

Drive My Car mono: the piano insert is more tightly edited.

You Won't See Me mono: organ note in last verse not as loud as on stereo mix.

The Inner Light mono: ADT applied to the vocal

Across the Universe mono: sounds like an additional guitar or table harp is strumming the chords on the "nothing's gonna change my world" chorus.

 

Help! differences

No one has really had a good stab at Help! (song) stereo and mono versions. This is probably one of the more interesting examples. To start with John's lead vocal is completely different in both -note the delivery, phrasing, "and" switched with "but" on one line and a complete change in the dynamic on the mono version of the third verse - "I never needed anyone to help in anyway". There's also the missing tambourine on the mono. I've spent some time looking into this song, primarily because of that vocal edit in the third verse of the mono version -it sticks out and bugs me. I sometimes wonder that with the bias towards mono at the time some of these edits/dubs didn't get a little more attention. Its like that bad edit in She Loves You where the EQ is way off from the rest of the song (but that's another story...)

The theory goes that the Help! mono vocal was re-recorded outside of Abbey Road at CTS during dialog overdubs for the Help! film. CTS was a 3 track recording facility at the time so its hard to see how this was pulled off as Help! was recorded on 4 track. It assumes that Martin took one of the April 14th mono mixes to CTS, removing the original vocals. This includes the backing vocals from George and Paul because study reveal these are mixed down to the same track on the 4 track master, together with the tambourine. They mastered the mono version for the single and album opener from the CTS recording, the stereo mix didn't use the CTS (for obvious reasons) and so they went back to the original 4 track master with the original vocals. Does this make any sense you might ask? Does the vocal on the stereo or the tambourine in the chorus bother anyone that much to warrant all that extra effort? I think the stereo sounds loads better, vocals 'n all! However, I'm not sure if any of this answers my original bug.

ZappleDD

 

And don't forget, the intro on the mono version is not from the CTS tape, but remixed from the Abbey Road 4 track. Hence the edit on "when...." that you can hear on the mono single mix.

 

So are the backing vocals. the full mono version (ie without the edit of the intro) is on the original soundtrack of the movie and the backing vocals are clearly different. (Mixed for a movie theatre, they are unusually prominent).

This line doesn't appear in the song, it's the regular "I never needed anybody's help in any way"

 

Yeh. I worked through the probable 4 track recording sequence from April 13th '65 (45 years ago today!) and it looks like both John's lead vocal and the backing/response vocals plus the tambourine ended up all on the same track. Quite an amazing mixing achievement in itself as that's what we hear on the stereo mixes.

Does everyone agree with my observation on the mono third verse vocal from John "I never needed anybody's help in any way" (thanks nikh33) in terms of the delivery and EQ differences to the rest of the verse?

 

This was discussed at length months ago when the remasters came out. I tried to find the thread, but it seems to have vanished.

The mono version was re-recorded in a different studio.

 

Yes, of course it's John.

'Life of ease' and all.

 

One of the nicest mono/stereo differences isn't on the remasters. it's the U.S. mono version (from the United Artists Hard Day's Night soundtrack and, IIRC, Something New) of And I Love Her with Paul's beautiful single-tracked vocal for most of the song. It's much better, in my opinion, than the regular double-tracked version in mono and stereo.

 

I actually think its Paul.....

 

Don't Pass Me By is slightly faster in mono. Everything else - exactly the same.

Just kidding

No, actually if you want to know, there's an extensive catalogue of differences between stereo and mono for every track here http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/

 

I always thought it was John

 

It has to be John - that maniacal "ah-hah!" at the end gives it away.

 

Not sure if you meant on the White album or if you were referring only to "Don't Pass me By"--"Helter Skelter" is over a minute shorter.

 

It could be an edit but it sounds more like just one of the two vocal channels to me. The line before is double-tracked, this line isn't.

 

Yellow Submarine's "Life of Ease" echoes are indeed sung (yelled?) by John.
If you are not satisfied that it's John by simply listening to it and hearing that it's John, doing a very typically Lennon thing, then maybe you should listen very carefully to the Yellow Submarine Songtrack, where, immediately John shouts "A life of ease" you can hear Paul saying, in a very Paul-like funny voice "Yes, it's very nice". They actually overlap, and the 5.1 extractions on 'Kaleidoscope' show they are on the same track, recorded in the echo chamber. It is there in mono but hard to hear, and of course on Revolver and Yellow submarine albums, it's not there as the answering bit is faded up late.

 

I must have heard both the mono and stereo versions of this song about a hundred times and I never noticed it until now! Doh! I'm beginning to think the remasters are wasted on me!

 

I concur with this. The first time I heard the mono PW recently it was like hearing the song brand new. I always knew there was a great hard rocking song somewhere in there, but it was buried too far in the one channel. The mono mix cooks like a mofo.

 

You forgot to note that photos of Our Boys at CTS in '65 show them holding
a lyrics sheet to assist in recutting this mono vocal; these pics appeared in the book 'Recording The Beatles'.

 

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

This is way off and I emailed them the correction 3½ years ago, but they never posted it to the site.

By isolating the vocals-only centre channel on the Love DVD-A it is clear as a bell what is said. Here's what Paul & John say:

1: "Twist it" from Paul, on the snare beat.

2: "What?" from John.

3: (louder) "Twist it!" from Paul.

4: John: "Ah...Shake it"

Unfortunately, on the Love DVD-A Paul's shouting at the end of the Reprise is on a different track and barely audible.

 

You have never heard Paperback Writer if you haven't heard the mono. The same with Revolution.

The same with Helter Skelter. Everyone always points out the 'edit', and no one makes mention of the 'impact'. Yeah, it's a heavy song in stereo, but it's a certified SCREAMER in mono....

 

I just checked these two out and by golly, you are right. Especially Paperback Writer! Some trippy reverb on that one.

One that blows me away is the long crescendo from A Day in the Life. On the mono, the song builds and builds and the claustrophobic effect of the mono builds the tension exponentially greater than the stereo.