Question about home remixing for Steve, et al

After reading a recent thread, I have been mulling over trying my hand at remixing Please Please Me and With the Beatles for my own personal use of course. I have needle drops of both in Stereo, which are okay. In attempting to do it, I noticed that in Please Please Me two of the tracks are already vocal centered (Misery and There’s a Place), two of the tracks are fake stereo (PS I Love You and Love Me Do), so that leaves 10 tracks to remix.

The first guinea pig was Anna. The main idea is to bring in the stereo separation a bit, so I had thought that putting the vocals at 20% right, and the rhythm track at 30% left would do the trick. BTW, I had always thought that George Martin (or his assistant) merely took the two track tape and compressed it and issued it just like that, but there is actually a trace of the vocals in the left channel (heavily echoed); ditto for the rhythm track.

So now to the questions: Are there any repercussions to moving in the stereo separation as far as the balance between the volume of the vocals and the rhythm track that I should take in to account? Specifically, should I make one a bit louder? Should I try to compensate for the added echo with EQ or something else? Is 20% too much of a shift? Should I go a bit wider? Is the EQ that was considered by Martin optimal for the wide separation not appropriate for the closer stereo separation?

Thanks to all in advance for your expertise.

 

It's the Japanese red vinyl version. I have never heard the original Parlophone, but I could check my Beatles Rarities.

 

I'd forgotten about Die Beatles. That’s definitely something that’s worth looking for for my project.

But what about With the Beatles? My needle drop is made from the MoFi pressing, can I direct my questions in that direction?

 

I'm no expert but I assume you're doing this for your own enjoyment and the simple answer would be to experiment a bit to get the sound you like best. If a 50-50 mix of R & L channels sounds best to you, then there ya go. 40-60? 35-65? Depends on what you like. I've always been a fan of the Beatles studio instrumental performances, especially the ones that rock. My personal remixes focus on those, including some tracks I like to call "karaoke Beatles". But it's all about what sounds good to your ears. Same with the EQ, play around with it until you get a sound you like. I almost never futz with EQ, as I end up usually jacking the sound around. Like I said, I'm no expert