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12.4.185.2
In Reply to: RE: If you're sittin' on the fence? posted by middleground on October 15, 2014 at 03:45:26
While I have a few monos (mostly old classical stuff), I GREW UP hearing the Beatles in stereo (yes, I'm calling it that rather than "dual mono" as some people put it) and can't get into the mono thing. Okay, so these mono mixes may have been priority for them back then, but I learned to record (as a very young teen) this way (drums way over on the left, voice on the right, bass somewhere down the middle with a guitar or piano) and to me it just sounds familiar.Today, of course, I still love listening to the older stuff- I still have Beatles "Rock 'n' Roll Music" double vinyl from the 70's in decent shape, and have Sgt Pepper, MMT, and a few others on album (mostly purple label Capitols), but they are in STEREO. I also love RCA Shaded Dogs (incredible) and even Telarc digitally recorded LPs (the 1812 and Shaw's Firebird come to mind because they are my fave), but each of these explored an era/area of sound recording and production that hadn't been done before. That is why the STEREO Beatles matter more to me...
Now if I could only wrap my head around which power amp to get...
Cheers,
Dman
Analog Junkie
Edits: 10/15/14Follow Ups:
Generally you and I are in agreement, but if you have not heard the new Beatles monos you owe it to yourself to give one a try. You may be very pleasantly surprised. I know I was. I may be in the minority, but I really could not care less about any of their pre Rubber Soul releases. I only bought three of the new mono records ... Rubber Soul, Revolver and Pepper. All three are outstanding. I will probably never play my stereo Rubber Soul or Revolver again. The monos are THAT much better. I find the mono Pepper overall to be a more cohesive mix than the stereo and might give it the edge over the stereo mix, but I'll still play the stereo one too as I enjoy some of the whiz-bang effects added to it.
I have had for decades now a few Beatles albums on Japanese pressings and they are fine pressings indeed, but the stereo is so bad I could cry. On that basis I understand why some people do get excited over the monos. That's how bad those stereo recordings were! Absolutely no effort to even pretend that real people were playing their instrument in some form of real space.
I have some mono Jazz recordings that are lovely to listen to because the quality of the music and the playing takes your attention away from that small aural window. Some mono recordings are less objectionable to me in a way if I get the impression that I am actually sitting in the last row of seats high up in a balcony looking down at a stage so so far away that even in the natural sound of a group playing would be totally bunched up.
The worst are those Beatles recordings where the same instrument sounds hard left one minute and hard right another. What were they doing walking across the studio with their Vox amp tucked under under one arm?
I'm in the same boat as you- Rubber Soul, revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and MMT are my favorite era of Beatles.
That's probably the only reason "Rock 'n' Roll Music is still in my collection- its got most of the songs I consider "hits" and I don't have to pony up for the LPs again.
Regarding mono vs. stereo; yeah, different mixes for sure, and mono was the priority for their mixing back then, with stereo being somewhat of an afterthought. I have heard just about everything from Help onward in mono, courtesy of my old guitar player (he bought he CD box when it came out). Although the mixes are quite good (and in some cases just more or less different), the perspective of "everything in the center" just doesn't play well with my perceptions.
It's an opinion issue, I guess. At least we agree on the same era of their output!
Cheers,
Dman
Analog Junkie
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