I found boxed mono cd recently and got to hear it for the first time last year. No doubt the two mixes are unique enough to make both essential if you love this album. Passed on a mono og copy about 30 yrs ago and missed the record store day release. Hopefully one day ill land a vinyl copy. Love both but prefer the mono by a smidge. Worth the journey....even if beset by creatures of the deep!
If you really want to geek out on this hybrid, I highly recommend hunting down the french mono 45 edit of Interstellar Overdrive. Unique mono mix that gets the intro just right. My hybrid version uses the first four minutes or so of that, edited into the mono LP version.
I also have a fondness for the messed-up US Harvest A Nice Pair "twofer", cobbled together from US edits and single masters and a stray Ummagumma track. It flows and works completely despite itself. Sorry - Interstellar Overdrive. It fades out somewhere around the "chicken squawk" guitar loop.
Pretty much nailed it. Astronomy is better in mono is probably the only quibble I have here. Most noticeably better in mono is Pow R Toc H. The stereo mix is very lazy where they decided to have next to nothing coming out of one channel for a large passage of the song. The absolute best version of this song is the Stockholm 1967 version in the Early Years box. Mono Flaming vocal suffers from way too much phasing. Intro of mono IO is weaker than the pure guitar intro of the stereo. If they brought the organ in later, say at the 26 second mark, the mono would be best. You need both versions is the bottom line.
I’m a proud owner of first UK pressings (mono and stereo) of both “Piper” and “Saucerful” (including a “Saucerful” that is a mismatched mono/stereo hybrid) and I can’t choose, I love them all. Any “Piper” is good “Piper”!
I no longer have access, but the one I heard that flipped me around to the mono about 20-ish years ago was a very well done rip of a vintage UK press, but I don’t know which one specifically, as it was a burned disc for me to check out, much like OP was first told about it! Been considering getting into gambling to maybe one day actually own a vintage uk mono, but until my immunocomprimised body can hang out in a casino, my RSD mono is pretty rad!
Might as well ask this here, what is the best digital version of the mono these days? I have the 40th Anniversary 3CD set and remember there was a special edition CD of the mono in the green box in 1997. Is the 40th anniversary the definitive digital mastering so far?
The 40th is the best digital mastering of the mono mix. It's not perfect though and has some digital limiting.
I grew up with the stereo mix and didnt ever hear the mono until that 3cd set came out a few years ago and now I'm hooked. The sound effects just pop out of that mix like that whistling sound in AD and the organ at the start of IO; much like a lot of 1967 albums, you can tell a lot more care went into the balance of the mono vs stereo.
Thanks for that, I'm assuming the stereo in the 40th set is also the best digital version around currently? I've heard that the RSD mono LP might be the overall best mastering so far, a pristine needle drop might well rival the 40th digital edition.
This—I can’t speak to Piper as I’ve never owned a mono copy, but I found myself missing parts on mono Saucerful that I was used to in the stereo—even though other parts of it sounded more cohesive in mono (Wright’s airy songs in particular).
Good to hear as I have that on CD too (the cassette release of the Doug Sax remaster was my first Pink Floyd purchase in 1994!)
