Shadows Records - mono v stereo

[Moderne]

Don't forget the different mixes of Marvin, Welch, Farrar's Second Opinion LP in stereo and quadrophonic!

[Fenderman]

Talking of the mono releases do you feel they have more 'punch' that the stereo versions?

[RayL]

Talking of the mono releases do you feel they have more 'punch' that the stereo versions?

The mono releases you are thinking of were probably mixed on one loudspeaker.

As soon as you install two loudspeakers for monitoring in your control room, the 'centre' image you hear is composed of two sounds coming from two loudspeakers which are probably six feet apart at least. If your ears are in good condition and equally sensitive to (principally) volume and frequency, then you will hear a 'centre' image in the centre. This also depends, of course, on the control room having excellent acoustics.

Mixing on one loudspeaker that is directly in front of you affects the way you mix. As we now know, when stereo was still new technology at Abbey Road, they did a mono mix (for the single) in the main control room and a stereo mix (very much a secondary consideration) in another control room. No wonder the mono mix has more punch - it was going to make a mono single with only lateral movement in the groove. With stereo the cutting engineer had to worry about vertical movement as well, so opening a tune with a bass solo panned hard left or hard right was a no-no. The stereo mixes were more 'cautious'.

The now-notorious early Beatles albums which were issued in 'stereo' after George Martin had left to form Air Studios have the voices on one side and the instruments on the other. This was a misunderstanding because George had intended that these recordings were only to be used combined together for mono.

Slightly off-topic, but mixing on headphones rather than loudspeakers has to be done with care. Instruments panned hard left or right will sound louder (compared to a voice or lead instrument panned centre) on headphones than they do when listening (in the correct monitoring position) on monitor loudspeakers.

[iefje]

The now-notorious early Beatles albums which were issued in 'stereo' after George Martin had left to form Air Studios have the voices on one side and the instruments on the other. This was a misunderstanding because George had intended that these recordings were only to be used combined together for mono.

George Martin formed Air Studios in 1965 and The Beatles' albums that appeared before that year ("Please Please Me" (1963), "With The Beatles" (1963), "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) and "Beatles For Sale" (1964)) all received a simultaneous stereo release next to the mono release. What I have always understood is that priority and the most time was always given to the mono mix of all tracks up to and including the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and less time was spent mixing the tracks in stereo.

[JimN]

The now-notorious early Beatles albums which were issued in 'stereo' after George Martin had left to form Air Studios have the voices on one side and the instruments on the other. This was a misunderstanding because George had intended that these recordings were only to be used combined together for mono.

George Martin formed Air Studios in 1965 and The Beatles' albums that appeared before that year ("Please Please Me" (1963), "With The Beatles" (1963), "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) and "Beatles For Sale" (1964)) all received a simultaneous stereo release next to the mono release. What I have always understood is that priority and the most time was always given to the mono mix of all tracks up to and including the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and less time was spent mixing the tracks in stereo.

Correct (as Martin's own autobiography made clear).

The stereo versions of Beatles' vinyl albums (right from the start in the first half of 1963) were issued at the same time as, or very shortly after, the mono releases. It was not connected with George Martin leaving EMI or starting AIR Studios.

The problems with mono versus stereo only really started in the 1980s, when EMI proposed to issue stereo CDs of the first four Beatles albums ("Please Please Me", "With the Beatles", "A Hard Day's Night" and "Beatles For Sale"). George Martin, plus the Beatles' own organisation, expressed a preference for those four to made available on CD in mono only, though all the later releases were pressed on CD only in stereo (which caused just as much displeasure among fans as the mono-only first four).

But this was twenty+ years after the first (vinyl) mono and stereo releases. They were all eventually made available on CD in stereo anyway, just as the later albums (starting with "Help!") were all eventually made available in mono as well as in stereo.

It's a long and well-trodden story...

[Fenderman]

The first 2 Beatles albums do sound better in mono, i sold my mono CD's just after buying the stereo versions back in 2009, i now realise that was a mistake! Having said that, the stereo versions from A Hard Day's Night do sound quite good, probably due to them upgrading to 4 track tape machines.
Incidentally i've never heard the mid period albums in mono apart from Revolver.

[RayL]

This is George Martin speaking in about 1980 regarding the recording of the Please Please Me album in a transcription from the radio programme 'The Record Producers'.

"It was all done on two track, yes it was two track recording because we didn't have four track then but I used it as two track not stereo 'cause I kept the rhythm separate from the voices so I was able to compress the two together to make a harder sound."

On another recording that I've got (somewhere in the cellar) George explains that after he had left EMI they wanted to re-release Please Please Me and other early albums. They took the two-track tape from the archive. George wasn't there to guide them and in view of his (by then) reputation they assumed that, since this was the tape that George had made, this strange two-track must be the right one.
Ray

[JimN]

This is George Martin speaking in about 1980 regarding the recording of the Please Please Me album in a transcription from the radio programme 'The Record Producers'.

"It was all done on two track, yes it was two track recording because we didn't have four track then but I used it as two track not stereo 'cause I kept the rhythm separate from the voices so I was able to compress the two together to make a harder sound."

On another recording that I've got (somewhere in the cellar) George explains that after he had left EMI they wanted to re-release Please Please Me and other early albums. They took the two-track tape from the archive. George wasn't there to guide them and in view of his (by then) reputation they assumed that, since this was the tape that George had made, this strange two-track must be the right one.
Ray

Well, Ray, that tends to fly in the face of primary historical sources (not all that unusual when interviewees rely upon their own memories of events rather than checking the extant and easily-available archives - remember Bruce who "never used" a Telecaster!).

The Beatles' albums* have never been out of print. Not even for a moment. They were first issued on vinyl (mono and stereo), then on vinyl and cassette, then on CD (at which time the vinyl format was discontinued, though later re-commenced). As a result, it has never been possible to re-release them. It HAS been possible to re-press them or to issue them in a new or revived format, but that's a different thing.

It is possible (in fact, given what he is reported above as saying, it may even be likely) that George had little to do with with the original stereo releases of the early albums, hadn't listened to them very much before EMI wanted to make them available on compact disc and consequently got a surprise when he heard the stereo masters for proposed CDs.

[* That is, the 13 studio albums:

Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles For Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour (originally two 7" EPs and later augmented with other 1967 tracks to form a 12" disc)
The Beatles (White Album, LPx2)
Yellow Submarine
Abbey Road
Let It Be

Plus the 2 later (and still current) compilations of non-LP tracks:

Past Masters Vol 1
Past Masters Vol 2.

Other (compilation) albums, such as 1966's "A Collection Of Beatles Oldies" (Parlophone) and the two 1970s "Rock And Roll" LPs (Apple and MfP) have indeed been deleted and never (as far as I am aware) re-released in any format.

The other "problem" album was "Live At The Hollywood Bowl" from the 1970s, available on LP and cassette. Unavailable - except secondhand - for years, it was reissued in (slightly) expanded form a few years ago in association with the release of the 2016 "Eight Days A Week" movie directed by Ron Howard]

[iefje]

When The Beatles' catalogue was remastered and re-released on Wednesday September 9th, 2009 (Number 9, Number 9, Number 9), I bought both the 13CD box "The Beatles In Mono" and the 16CD/1DVD box "The Beatles" (subtitled "The Beatles In Stereo"). Sublime sound and presentation.
Interestingly, the CD's of "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" from the box "The Beatles In Mono" feature the original mono mixes as well as (for the first time on CD) the original stereo mixes of the tracks. When "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" were released on CD for the first time in 1987, George Martin had created new stereo mixes of the tracks in 1986. These 1986 stereo mixes were re-released on the CD's "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" in the stereo CD box "The Beatles".

[Fenderman]

George Martin remixed both Help and Rubber Soul as when he listened to the original stereo mixes he said they sounded 'very wooley' and 'not something fit for release' so the CD's had new mixes, i've never heard any of the original stereo mixes to see what was wrong with them, this reinforces that mono was the primary format for most artists.
I don't know what the Shadow's thoughts were for mono v stereo but i believe Norrie took the same amount of care when mixing into stereo.