Worst stereo mix in rock and roll history, worst mono mix....

Some of the Visconti tracks on Space Oddity are pretty dodgy. And they were recorded in stereo.

 

Anything with the vocals in one channel and everything else in the other. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

 

Magix AudioLab for me.

 

Plus Lovin' Spoonful.


and probably the greatest offender of them all --


Beatles "Revolution"

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Supposedly the Beach Boys (or Brian Wilson) did.

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it's like when you don't want to give birth the natural way, so instead you have a caeser salad.

 

No we have a mono edition......

 

Surfin' USA is in true stereo. The "Lonely Sea" stereo mix is not very good though. The lead vocal and all instruments are on the left and midway through the song the right channel finally comes to life with harmony vocals. Wierd. Other stereo mixes from that album and from other Beach Boys' 60's albums sound fine though. I agree Duophonic is not a pleasant listening experience though.

 

Totally agree with your irritation assessment; I just wonder why it was so unimportant to them to toss stereo in as an undeserving afterthought.

 

I have to wonder if something didn't go really wrong at the time they recorded and/or mixed this, and there was no way to do it again and get things right....one thing that I notice is that where the vocal begins you hear it as leakage on an instrument's mike, like the vocal track didn't record properly on the multitrack. There are also considerable level issues from one section of the song to another. Time was when record companies didn't let their artists have total freedom in some respects, such that something like this would not have been released on a record due to it sounding defective.

Digressing into bad sound in jazz a little, I remember hearing Maynard Ferguson's 1980 LP IT'S MY TIME some years ago and noticed that on at least one track ('Everybody loves the blues') there was a peculiar quality to the mix that sounded like some sections of the band weren't miked or were only captured distantly as leakage on other mikes, and not on purpose....like some of the tracks were missing. Actually in some respects a bit like part of the Caravan track cited above.

And for a record where it's a toss-up as to if it's bad mixing or just poor recording throughout, try Count Basie's PRIME TIME album (Pablo 2310 797, 1977). The band sounds like it's stuffed into a closet in the next room.

 

I agree...for a lot of them it's sounds more like Simon--------------------and -------------------Garfunkel

 

Just goes to show you can't keep a good song down ... even if the mix is horrible.

 

No, it's stereo. Awful, awful stereo. I didn't get a chance to hear it in mono until the 2012 reissue.

 

Nothing like listening to "Get Off Of My Cloud" at one of my locals. Whoever set up the stereo there cocked up, so the signal from one channel plays in the main room and the other in the back pool room; this means that, when "Cloud" comes on the Classic Rock station, in the main pub area all we get for most of the song is that li'l three-note lead guitar riff, with barely any other audible instruments until the chorus. It's very weird, like a remix by some avant-garde joker.

 

That drives me CRAZY! Almost every bar I hang at has this problem! Just goes to show that jukebox installers- and their bosses- have NO IDEA about speaker placement. Most hits released in the past 20 or so years really have no stereo separation, so they probably don't even bother with looking into how to place speakers in a public area.
A lot of classic rock gets played on jukeboxes- or internet music players- believe it or not. One time, as "Light My Fire" was playing, I heard some kid say something like, "Is this a remix? Kinda sucks". I wanted to tell him to walk to the pool room side and listen, but I didn't......

 

What the heck did SWLABR mean? Anyone?

 

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1782/what-does-the-old-cream-song-title-swlabr-mean

 

Heh, funny you should mention that one as last Friday evening I was at said pub when this song came on, prompting a fellow rock geek and I to discuss crap stereo mixes and worse pub sound design over four minutes of bass vamping as the solos distraced the pool players in the other room...

 

Even hearing it with headphones (after being used to it in mono) is a strange experience. I had headphones in the radio, and I thought maybe something was wrong with the signal! I like the rare stereo mix of Satisfaction, but I enjoy it more as an alternate, something to enjoy aside from the proper experience of the mono (or the newer stereo.)

 

Beatles' Revolution isn't that bad when heard from a better source. The best I've heard it sound was on the Hey Jude Reel-To-Reel Tape. Has plenty of bass and bite. Of course it's not as good as the mono mix overall, but the mastering on CD (including the 2009) just don't do the mix any justice.

 

You get used to it.

Evan

 

Paperback Writer. This is the song where they wanted the bass to sound like a Wilson Picket record (can't remember the one), and it's exiled to the right speaker.

 

All of the early Pye-era Kinks are awful....even in mono.

 

You must've been reading my mind

 

I was in a bar the other night and what sounded like "Like A Rolling Stone" came on. I said what "sounded like" because although I recognized the opening chords I couldn't hear any drums. At first I thought it may have been a cover or even a different but similar song. Only when the vocal kicked in it was sort of recognizable as the record. An unpleasant listening experience in half-stereo.