THE BEATLES "Rubber Soul" Stereo Mix: Why the Return to Hard-Pan L&R?

After decades of listening to stereo versions of The Beatles' albums, this only recently occurred to me: the stereo mixes of Please Please Me (entirely) and With The Beatles (for the most part) are in the much-derided "hard pan" or "ping-pong" left and right style. A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale and Help!were mixed in the more modern convention of the "image" spread between the two channels. Why, then, when it came to Rubber Soul, did the mix revert (regress?) to left-right with little or nothing in between? Were George Martin and Norman Smith so pressed for time when it came to mixing Rubber Soul for stereo that they just did a quick and dirty version to get it out for the Christmas sales rush? Did Norman Smith, who left his role as The Beatles' engineer after Rubber Soul just not particularly trying too hard by that point? Was there some other reason? It's interesting that George's 1987 remix for CD wasn't all that much different than the 1965 mix. I've read a lot of material in my time about recording the Fabs but have never run across a mention of this.

 

Try doing a Rubber Soul thread search. You'll find loads of info on this topic. Better yet, screw it & just listen to the much better MONO version.

 

The "why" behind the original mixing decision is well-documented, the "why" behind George Martin repeating it largely for the 1987 remix is less-so.

 

His hearing must have already been failing him then, because the top end on the '87 mix is just painful.

 

Typo or Freudian slip?

 

Do you mean the alternative was just more mixing effort to ensure that a stereo LP played in mono would match the mix levels of the regular mono mix?

Was this an actual, observed problem with the stereo AHDN and BFS LPs? Or just irrational paranoia?

 

Not all EMI stereo from that period was mixed that way....Cliff Richard material, produced by Norrie Paramor, has centred vocals, as does most of the more "easy listening" stuff like Matt Monro, Cilla Black and the like. Ron Richards, on the other hand, retained the "no centre" mixing style for the bulk of the Hollies tracks until 1967.

 

So does this make the Yellow & Black UK Parlaphone a bad version to listen to?

 

Well, I wasn't shy with my original post, but got the feeling I was being admonished for not looking it up for my damn self. Next time I promise will do my homework before posting anything.

 

Oh good, then it isn't just me. I don't have a nice rig or anything, so I can't comment any further on the sound quality, but I can only imagine it sounding even worse on a more revealing system.

 

Maybe I'm fortunate enough to have the same hearing loss as Sir George, because the eq on the '87 CD doesn't bother me at all. The added reverb on some tracks (see Nowhere Man), on the other hand, I could have done without... But, with all sincerity, considering the decisions, contributions and recommendations Sir George made to the Beatles' canon, their music, and music production itself, would be very different without him. He IS the Fifth Beatle. Long Live Sir George!

 

Bogus because the mix didn't need recreating? Because the original '65 stereo mix that was finally put out on cd in the Mono Box sounds fine? Because the original Abbey Road echo chamber reverb sounds infinitely better than circa 1986 digital reverb?

 

Sorry, I left out stereo for this version lp. Meant to put that in there as I was multi-tasking (cleaning, listening to music, forum).

My question may be a dumb one, not sure.

 

I know I've said this in a few threads, but I feel like John's vocals suffered most, especially the sibilance. John's 'esses and tees'. Didn't seem to hurt the others' vocals near as much as John's.
But I think it may have been more of a mastering thing, because I hear the same ugliness on Revolver and Pepper too. And again, it's always John's vocals.
Listen to 87 Mr. Kite.
For the benefit of misssssta kite
The sssselebrated misssssta K performsss hissss feat on sssaturday at Bishhhop'sss gate....
Ugh!

 

I'm probably in the minority here on this Forum, but I happen to like the original stereo mix. Different strokers for different folks, as they say.

If you haven't heard the original stereo mix before, don't run out and buy a mint, super-expensive stereo Y&B... try a EMI two-box edition, those can usually be found for around $20.

 

The only Rubber Soul I had was the stereo UK LP (never had the US until later). I thought it was an incredible listen. When the 87 CD arrived and I played it for the first time, I was so disappointed at the remix that I never listened to that CD again in its entirety. It just did not sound right, or better.

 

Well, here's hoping they do a proper stereo remix some time before I die.