General Asylum

Posted by PAR (A) on September 12, 2017 at 11:26:44

In Reply to: RE: If Your System Has a Mono Switch...... posted by magiccarpetride on September 12, 2017 at 09:51:14

What you say is almost certainly correct in respect of the early albums. They did want the bass of their discs to sound like Motown and the EMI engineers ( being very conservative) would not cut those levels. Of course for the later records Motown was no longer immediately germane to what the Beatles were doing whereas the early records contained many Motown cover versions.

Later the Beatles had considerable influence on their productions and by the time of Revolver John Lennon was giving George Martin instructions on what he wanted viz. Tommorow Never Knows or for the later Sgt. Pepper, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.

As you will be aware by Sgt. Pepper the Beatles could even effectively overule George Martin by engaging other producers; She's Leaving Home was passed to Mike Leander for the string arrangement as GM was not immediately available. GM always felt this as a personal affront as it was not a decision made by EMI executives but by the Beatles themselves.

However whilst the Beatles had say on what went on the later mono masters admittedly that may not have applied to the production master (sometimes called the cutting master) where the usual EMI conservatism would reign. The mix as chosen by the Beatles would be used to make the production master but the EQ for cutting would be carried out by an engineer. Nevertheless I am sure that the Beatles would have been given lacquer copies and test pressings for approval.

The 2014 mono set is important as it attempts to restore the sound of the original master tapes to LP, at least within reason.