technically speaking, what is 'fake' stereo? (Duophonic, Electronically Re-processed, etc.)*

The US Pepper was real stereo & real mono. Sounded like ****, however, either way.

 

Not a big Hermans Hermits fan.I have obviously only listened to original 60s monos of The Animals before Winds of Change.I like the '67-'68 stereo Animals on MGM,and Eric's first couple of post Animals records a lot.Are there problems there I do not know about?

 

It may have "sounded exactly the same as Duophonic", but it was not Duophonic if the rechanneling process was done at EMI Studios, which it was. Duophonic was a patented Capitol process.

 

The non UHQR MFSL I have is better than the Capitol,but I have never found a UK original.

 

Was the electronic stereo used by EMI in Europe licensed from Capitol?

 

NO, unless Capitol USA provided the tapes.

 

Every single cut that they recorded for EMI is reprocessed by MGM for the US, all bass-left, treble-right (or is it the other way around, I forget). I beleive See See Rider was the first in real stereo. Herman's first stereo was the Blaze LP. No acknowledgement of reprocessing anywhere.

 

If I Needed Someone by The Hollies was Duophonic on the UK GH V2 LP, and the track was never released in the US in any form. Duophonic was NOT just Capitol in the US.

 

Sigh...you don't get it.

It was rechanneled stereo that sounded like Duophonic.

Duophonic was a Capitol patented process that was used ONLY ON CAPITOL (and subsidiary) RECORDS. Other forms of rechanneled stereo might "sound like Duophonic", but they are NOT the actual DUOPHONIC process. Refer to them as what they are: rechanneled stereo.

Saying a non-Capitol release is in Duophonic is like saying Elvis Golden Records is in Duophonic. It ain't the same, no matter how close it sounds.

 

I noticed it's obviously a different take than the single/mono version "ruined our plans" vs "shattered our plans",different solos,like the awful harmonica,and other obvious signs.I never had this record in anything but mono,so I never heard this before,and I've been listening to this song ever since it was a hit,and I was four years old.The subway station effect,or whatever is bad,but the fade in and outs are unbelievable.I can't believe they released this piece of s**t.

 

So EMI UK/Europe went out of the way to copy Duophonic,s**t.

You still need to find one of those late 60s/early 70s electronic stereo EMI Furtwanglers,and listen to it.

 

Did I say Elvis' stuff was Duophonic? No, it was worse. Much worse. But Capitol=EMI & it was used on both sides of the Atlantic. The Polydor stuff was a very similar process, but not genuine Duophonic (now THERE'S a selling point--genuine Duophonic). And Walrus is not bass-left, treble-right, no matter what it actually is. And I forgot about the weird panning (which is what fooled me into thinking it was real stereo in 1968).

 

Interesting you should mention Sly and the Family Stone Greatest Hits. Here's some info from the Quadraphonic Discography:
"When the stereo version of "Greatest Hits" was mixed, the master tapes
for three songs, "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Thank You" & Everyone's
A Star" were not available. These three songs were put on the stereo
album re-channeled. When it came time to mix the Quad version, the
master tapes were found and used for the project. Thus, the Quad
version is the only format were you can hear these songs in true
stereo."

Interesting, no?


A question for Steve: I have an old "Electronically Re-channeled for Stereo" copy of the Jim Reeves Lp

He'll Have to Go, which sounds dreadful. I always assumed that there were no stereo tapes of those songs, but
I recently purchased a Jim Reeves compilation on iTunes, and those songs are in true stereo. What gives? Why
did RCA do the "re-channeled" thing when stereo tapes were apparently available. Do you know the story behind that?

I'd love to hear it if you do. Thanks!

 

Les Baxter is one of my top ten or so all time favorite artists.He got the Duophonic treatment too.

 

There is a stereo recording,but it was done after the hit.You know there are two different covers for the LP,the good one is the mono with the B&W photo.It'salso harder to find.The Camden electronic stereos are as bad or worse.

 

Then there is The Dave Clark Five.It was a real revalation when I finally got that '72 greatest hits collection in real stereo.

 

Ah, so he re-recorded the songs? That seems logical. Yes, I've looked for the mono in the past (not recently) and have yet to find it. He was an amazing singer, and his music deserved better treatment than fake stereo.

 

There were lots of Bing Crosby compilations where they used "stereo" on first pressings of the LP sets for the rechanneled stuff and then later on admitted it was also fake.

 

Maybe there was no stereo mix prepared in the '60s, so they rechanneled the mono. The ITunes mix might be a modern remix from the session tapes. This is not unheard of.

 

I was always very intrigued by the vocals on that song and wondered how it was done. Especially considering they were given a very limited amount of time to record and mix the debut.

 

TRUE stereo albums were more expensive, but not the fake ones. And the major labels were pretty quick to license use to off labels once the songs got out of rotation on the radio. There were a LOT of off label releases by various 60s bands.
There are a LOT of albums out there, you still see them all over the place, that were "Super Hits" type of releases by 3rd party labels. You still see them all the time at flea markets and yard sales.

 

That may have been true early on, but most of them I had were third party el cheapo compilations. Specifically, I had a couple of Beach Boy greatest hits type of compilations that were fake stereo on off labels. I never had much trouble finding the stereo releases of albums, the real stereo releases. I had a lot of two album sets that were comps of specific years hit songs by various artists. Which, I always thought it odd that they were in fake stereo given that true stereo recordings of the songs were available.

 

You're talking about budget LPs on budget labels (like Pickwick, K-TEL). They were not cheap because they were reprocessed. They were cheap because they were cheap.

 

Written in part by me!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duophonic

I hate Duophonic quite a bit, but Steve is right: there's a half-dozen different processes for fake stereo. The one that caused the least damage I think was the old 1970s Bob Orban processor, which notch-filtered even frequencies in one channel and odd frequencies in the other channel, and -- as long as you didn't add any reverb or EQ -- this would combine back to genuine mono, assuming perfect alignment (beyond phase shifts caused by the filtering). The problem is, record companies were anxious to do whatever they could to take the adjustments to an extreme, all in an attempt to confuse average people that they had a "Stereo-ish" record.

Give me real mono any day over this crap. Or pull the multis and remix it to true stereo if possible. I understand that people become nostalgic for what they heard as a kid, but these fake stereo releases -- particularly for Elvis and the Fabs -- are just an abomination.