How did they create the stereo versions of Beatles albums?

“You’re right, Grant.”

 

yes by plugging the left channel of your amp into the right channel of your speaker and vise versa you can swap the stereo image

 

The internet is obviously readily available to him.

 

The above is a very incomplete and simplistic notion of what George Martin did to create the final stereo mix. A wrong notion.

Please clink on the link below.

 

That stereo was an afterthought. See link above. And consider clicking on it.

 

I think people make too big a deal of it. The Beatles were not audio engineers. George Martin oversaw the stereo mixes so at least they are authentic Beatles mixes.

 

Reading about the "Please, Please Me" album on the link I arrived at the following conclusion:

George Martin didn't remember making a stereo mix of the album - which was indeed released in stereo a month after the mono mix - because he didn't mix it in stereo. He actually did, but not to release it as a stereo album per se, but because making a stereo mix was part of the process of making a mono mix.

Then Parlophone decided to release a few copies in stereo from those twin-tracks, given the title track popularity at the time.

Martin wasn't mad after all.

 

There were actual stereo mix sessions for the album. Expressly for release.

 

Yes, but it was probably the label's intention, not the producer's.
That's what I believe. As far as he was concerned, he made the stereo mixes just as part of the process of making the mono mix but Parlophone wanted to release a stereo album as well.

And it makes sense if we consider the novelty that stereo (still) was in the early 60s.

 

The stereo mixes were made after the mono mixes, not before, by Martin himself, for record release. I know he said otherwise later on, but that is the historical record, sourced from EMI paperwork and tape box notes.

 

The guy who posted the link claims that the stereo mixes were done first.
Anyway, the process might have changed with time.
One thing was to mix an album in 1963...in 1968 it was certainly different.

 

That link verifies what I was saying. A rough stereo monitor mix was made during the recording process for balancing purposes. Then the prioritized mono mix. Then a proper stereo mix for record release, obviously easier to create than the mono, due both to the earlier stereo rough mix and limited tracks to spread out.

 

Thank God! Someone understand me!!!!

 

Sigh.

 

. . . and chock-full of misinformation and downright falsehood.

 

Just like books can be, so what do you suggest?

 

I suppose I was naive to assume this was going to be an easy topic to discuss. Has nearly every explanation in this thread been rejected by another?

 

It would help if the OP could expand upon their original post so as to reduce the amount of speculation and debate as individuals speculate over the meaning of the question as well as the accuracy of the answers.

As a business analyst one of my two big rules is "Always speak to the right people." In the context of this thread that means the OP.

Hey MRamble. Please can you share more background to your question so that we know exactly the question that we need to answer?

Otherwise this might turn into a religious war.

 

And I thought you started this thread just to feed the "oh no! yet another beatle thread" debate and watch it burn!

 

True stereo mixes were created for 99% of the band's catalogue. Recorded in and mixed for stereo.

 

George Martin will always have the last word for me.

 

That's true.
But the stereo versions of the first albums were originally pressed in small quantities. It wasn't until the late 60s that they became the standard version.

 

This thread hurts my head. Can we shut this down...please?!?