Motown distortion

Last night I listened to some of my Motown stereo anthologies and I forgot how much distortion there was on some of this material. The early Motown stuff (1960-1967) was never clean but you can really notice it on the stereo mixes.

I read that when the Hitsville studio was originally set up everything was installed sort of haphazardly without any documentation. There were little custom boxes jerry-rigged all of the place and whenever a glitch popped up, which was all the time, it was very difficult to trace the problem.

Obviously, this type of setup seems like it would be prone to all kinds of audio gremlins, including distortion. Is there anything out there that discusses this issue? I imagine its a combination of faulty equipment/wiring and tape distortion.

 

Thanks Steve. I was wondering why my original US mono Temptations greatest hits sounds so much better and cleaner than my original US stereo copy!

 

On 60s Motown distortion seems to have been introduced in two places - during the recording and during mixing.

An example of the first is Levi Stubbs' vocal on "Reach Out, I'll Be There", which is distorted in the same way on every mix of the original multitrack track (original single mix and three different stereo mixes - original, Cooley High, and Motown Box).

On some tracks, however, the distortion sounds as though it was introduced during the final mix, and in some cases possibly deliberately for effect.

For instance. the backing vocals on the original stereo album mix of "Tears Of A Clown" by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles literally break up in places, whereas in the 1970 stereo remix with the new overdubbed drum track those backing vocals are clean and intact, with no break-ups.

There are a also number of other tracks where familiar distortion is gone from a remix, including "Baby Love" by the Supremes and "Heaven Must Have Sent You" by The Elgins.

When I first heard the "Cooley High" remix of "Baby Love" I was stunned by how clean the sound was and how Diana Ross was suddenly in my living room pleading to me.

 

I always preferred Motown mono over Motown stereo.
Are there some stereo Motown tracks that sound cleaner than their mono counterparts?

Darryl

 

I view the Motown mono mixes as paintings rather than high quality photographs. Therefore some elements of the recording are brought out and presented in a way that affects us emotionally even though the sound isn't always accurate. On "Reach Out I'll Be There" by Four Tops for instance, the four-to-the-bar snare drum by Pistol Allen sounds nothing like any real drum that I've heard but it's certainly impactful and will also come across loud and clear on AM radio.

Other elements get buried, however. For instance, the strings on "Shoo Be Doo Be Doo Da Day" by Stevie Wonder.

The stereo recordings, however, are a bit more like photographs. Instruments and voices sound more realistic and you can normally hear most of the elements of a recording by virtue of the fact that they are spread out across the stereo picture. The downside, however, is that some impact is often lost, especially on uptempo tracks. In the stereo mix of "Reach Out", for instance, the drums are panned hard right and rather quiet and unimpactful.

What sounds better between mono and stereo also varies according to the kit that you're listening on. When I first compared these things on cheap equipment in 1969-70, the mono mixes were rich and powerful and the stereo mixes were weak and thin sounding. 45 years on and listening on an expensive-ish set-up, the dynamic range on the stereo mixes is far greater and the sound is wide and deep, whereas the mono mixes can sometimes sound compressed and lacking in high treble and deep bass.

Distortion varies from track to track and mix to mix. It tended, however, to drop off around 1968 which is when I suspect that Motown upgraded its studio again. If you check out "I Don't Blame You At All" by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles from around 1971, the stereo mix is nice and clean but the mono mix is distorted in places, i.e. the distortion is deliberately put there.

In terms of what I prefer, as a general rule, I prefer the stereo mixes of ballads and the mono mixes of uptempo tracks. Therefore, my go-to version of "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" by Jimmy Ruffin is the stereo mix with it's deep bass and piano and clear vocals whereas my go-to version of the aforementioned "Reach Out" is the mono mix with that driving drum beat.

 

There is a three or four page description of Motown's recording facilities, and what they could or (more pertinently) couldn't do in the introduction to the first chapter of Terry Wilson's excellent book "Tamla Motown: the stories behind the UK singles" (Cherry Red books, paperback). The title is self explanatory, it details the history of every Motown single released in the UK up to about 1975, whether they were a hit or not. At the same time it's a history of Motown, and a biography of all the artists, whose stories are told through there records. The essential message is that the "Snakepit's" early facilities were antiquated, with little scope for repairing original tracks, and no independent mixing (though Motown was among the first, later on, to use 8 track for "pop"records - no disrespect intended). I don't know if you can glimpse these pages on, say, Amazon, but it's a brilliant book anyway, and well worth buying if you love the early or mid period Motown and want to dig deeper into the origins of the records, who they were made by, and how they were made. Although there is obviously some difference between US and UK releases, the book tries to cover this, so don't let that put you off in itself. The story for "Reach Out..." for example, notes that Holland Dozier Holland spent a virtually unprecedented 2 hours recording the track, to get it right, whereas the previous "I Can't Help Myself" was considered done in two takes. It was a (fantastic) production line.

 

For the majority of stuff from the Hitsville period (59-71), mono is THE way to go.

The mono mix of "Just My Imagination" (Temptations) has some an interesting hum, heard in the intro. It's not there on the stereo mix. Stereo mix is too clean, to my ears.

 

The intro played on the guitar has annoying reverb on it and the guitar is set way back amongst the orchestra in the stereo mix whereas in the mono mix that guitar is in the room with me.

The whole feel of the track is different in mono. It almost sounds like something recorded in the 1940s.

Great feel in mono, huge orchestral crescendo in stereo.

 

And a very warm bass guitar in mono, too

 

For the non-purists among us, how much of this vintage Motown stuff has been remixed and where can it be found? I see that some well-known tracks are on the "Cooley High" soundtrack album referenced above but are there other sources?

 

The 2 disc deluxe set of Funk Brothers instrumental remixes (Standing In The Shadows Of Motown) is a revelation for dissecting those recordings. There is a Jr. Walker track that has a verse and chorus of just James Jamerson on the bass and the bare sound is not clean at all, to put it mildly.

 

That clip is super and very instructive. What musicianship!

On the clip one can clearly hear the three guitar orchestration that is a trademark 1960s Motown technique. One guitar strums thick chords in constant sixteenth notes, one guitar does the chicken picking melodic licks and fills, and the third guitar plays the backbeat "chank" chord on beats two and four. I've been to the Motown Musuem a few times, and have seen the single amp that all the guitar players plugged into simultaneously. They all monitored out of one speaker cabinet while they recorded their parts together. It must have been quite a challenge for the players to adapt to such an unusual and restrictive set up.

And that isolated Jamerson bass tone is something else, isn't it? Within the track, and especially on a car radio, it cuts through with every note sounding distinct, full and funky. Yet, by itself the tone was nasty and distorted, it's difficult to believe it really sounded that bad. The painting analogy posted above is pretty apt--the whole mix, when heard on the "right" equipment, suggests an emotional soundscape that is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

some of the first cds I purchased were the Motown hits of four tops etc. They sounded pretty bad. The supremes greatest hits released in the last 10 years or so sounds fantastic to me . They are stereo versions.

 

Different masterings. I've found that mastering engineers have tended to give the stereo mixes a bit more ooomph on some of the more recent releases. Sometimes this works but other times the sound becomes a bit lopsided or over-compressed. The real ooomph is still in the mono mixes.

 

I'm just saying the best remastering remixing or whatever I have ever heard from lousy original sounds are The Aqualung remix and this supremes cd .https://www.amazon.com/Number-Ones-...rd_wg=1nF5q&psc=1&refRID=N0EE868EJV5PTH16CFEK

 

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Tops-Gr...9&sr=1-8&keywords=the+four+tops+greatest+hits


these were some of the first cds I purchased . It used to be frustrating hoping music you like would be released on cd

 

I'm sure it was accomplished using a digital filter, but I prefer the mono version of Just My Imagination from the Temptations' Emperors of Soul box set. The music still sounds good but that annoying hum is gone, so whatever the person who mastered the box set did they didn't ruin the sound in the process.

 

That Diana Ross and The Supremes album is an interesting set of 21st century remixes, often revealing previously unheard backing vocals, longer fades, longer tracks and proper endings after familiar fades. It’s my go-to Supremes compilation and it reveals, for instance, how Holland-Dozier-Holland had to edit and simplify original concepts to maximise appeal. They continued that approach after leaving Motown, as evidenced by the longer unreleased-at-the-time version of Band Of Gold”.

 

I don't understand is it the better sound the longer endings. Why do you hate them .

 

They sound clean for sure . I also converted them to mono.