The Beatles in Mono. Part I – Sgt. Pepper

[1965]

As I'm sure you '60s aficionados know, most of the Beatles material hasn't been available in mono for years. Personally, I think that some of their best albums were mixed much better in mono than they were in stereo. Feel free to discuss your thoughts below. Download link:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [Mono]

[sloop_john_b]

I've got a White Album MONO mix in flac and it sounds freaking awesome.

I've got a mono Pepper on vinyl, as well as a stereo copy - i'll have to give those a serious A/B test!

[1965]

There are some serious differences between the mono vinyl and stereo CD versions of Pepper. Lucy in the Sky is slower and lower, there's a flanger on many of the vocals (esp. on WALHFMF & LSD), She's Leaving Home is a semitone higher to give Paul that youthful voice, there's different audience noises on the Reprise, and on and on.

Part II will be Rubber Soul. In stereo, it's driven listeners using headphones nuts with its infamous panned drums. In mono, it's much tighter.

[revolver323]

I saw an interview with Macca -- can't recall if it's on Anthology -- wher he said he was at a party with one of the Beatles LPs in stereo playing and he dragged a friend over to hear a part that he particularly liked, only to discover it was in the other speaker. I love stereo, but you'd think that someone would have cared enough to do a remix that at least centered the bass and drums long before now. I recall hearing "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" for the first time on CD and being horrified by how up front the bongos drums are in that mix.

[1965]

The Beatles remasters have been long overdue. They've been "working" on them for years, hopefully they'll actually get released sometime soon. The CD versions are pathetic, they really don't live up to their potential at all.

[beefandbones]

Stereo tends to be emphasize 'space' whereas mono tends to emphasize 'depth' and I love comparing both versions! Both mixes offer valuable perspectives on the Beatles' music. Thanks for starting this thread!

I understand that the mono mix of Sgt. Pepper was created with input from most if not all of the Beatles, and is thought to represent most clearly their intention, but there are aspects of it that I find oddly sloppy. For example, the transition from "Good Morning Good Morning" to the Reprise is much rougher in mono - the cluck and the guitar note are two distinct sounds. (Perhaps it was a mistake of the stereo mixers that the two sounds were joined?) And in the Reprise, you can actually hear the tape machine with the crowd noise start to play, rather than having the crowd noise fade up. There's a distinct 'bwah' as the tape gets up to speed. It seems uncharacteristically inattentive. It's strange to me that much less time was spent on the stereo mixes, and yet the stereo mixers were able to nail the transition between the songs and fade up the crowd noise much more realistically.

I also find that in mono the bass is muddier during 'With a Little Help from My Friends' than in stereo. I think that bassline is among Paul's most creative pieces of work with the Beatles, and I do like hearing it out front as it is in stereo. Although, I admit, in stereo, it competes (in my ears) with Ringo's vocal for attention, which might be a little prominent for a bassline, generally speaking.

In mono, the tabla in 'Within You Without You' is HUUUGE! I love it! It's pretty unbelievable when you crank it up. Massive. It makes for a much more satisfying side-opener.

[beefandbones]

Yes, it kind of worries me that they've been 'working on' the remastered Beatles catalogue for such a long time. Are they waiting for a new format such as SACD or DVD-A, or are they remixing the entire catalogue from the ground up like the Who reissues? What could possibly take so long?

[rick36]

Since SACD and DVD-A are virtually dead as viable formats (unfortunately), I think the best we can hope for is high resolution stereo. The best example of a remaster in my opinion is the "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" - released in 1999.
I thought then, and still do, that the work that Peter Cobbin did on those tracks was superb. It really was like hearing most of the songs for the first time. In fact, I think it would be reasonable to assume that most, if not all, of the tracks from "Rubber Soul" through "Yellow Submarine" were remixed at that time. Lets get them all out now...

[JakeK]

I like both mixes. There are certain stereo mixes I like better than the mono mixes, and vise versa.

In the Who's "The Kids Are Alright", a clip from 1966 revealed Pete Townshend being asked about what he thought of the Beatles. He replied, "John [Entwistle] and I were listening to a stereo record of the Beatles, where the vocals come out of one speaker and the backing track comes out the other (I'm guessing either "Please Please Me", "With the Beatles" or "Rubber Soul"), and if you isolate the backing track, it's just flippin' lousy!"

Priceless!

[1965]

I actually like the spin up of the audience on the Reprise. It emphasizes the irony of the fact that the Beatles were no longer playing in front of real audiences, and gives the song more of a surreal feel. I think the smoother transition may have been fixed when the tracks were put on CD. Maybe, maybe not. All in all, I prefer the mono version of Pepper, it's got a lot more punch (as mono does when done right). I'm not generally a big fan of panning hard left or right (esp. vocals). In my opinion, it tends to detract from the gestalt of the material. This all depends, of course, on the song.

[wolfgang]

hello,
I can't recall where I read it recently, but the reason why RubberSoul is mixed in A/B stereo
without having the vocals mixed to the center goes as follows:
EMI and/or Capitol (in 1965) gave up pressing real mono records, but declaring the stereo pressings as playable with mono equipment, too. Although this is not a problem,
there is an audible difference when listening to a real stereo mix with a mono
record player cartridge (or combining the stereo signal right and left to mono) against
hearing it with a stereo hifi.

In a real stereo mix the sound mixed to the stereo center (the vocals) must be mixed
at a 3 decibels higher level to sound as loud as signals comming only from the left or right loudspeaker.

But if you are playing these stereo mixes in real mono, the center signal now sounds
3 decibels too loud.
To avoid this incompatibility, George Martin decided to create a right/left stereo mix
without signals from the center.



If this is true, it implies that later mono mixes (Revolver and Sgt. Pepper) were not the main mixes but additional mono mixes for remote areas, but not for the main markets
Europe and USA.

Wolfgang

[1965]

If this is true, it implies that later mono mixes (Revolver and Sgt. Pepper) were not the main mixes but additional mono mixes for remote areas, but not for the main markets
Europe and USA.

It's well known that the mono mix was done first, and the Beatles were for the most part present when it was getting done. The stereo mix was done at a later time without and input from the band themselves. I'm not sure how that works with EMI's pressing methods.

[teeder]

it competes (in my ears) with Ringo's vocal for attention, which might be a little prominent for a bassline

Bite your tongue! It can never be too prominent!

[rick36]

Whaaaa???

[brammy]

Check this kid out.....
http://www.break.com/index/amazing-youn ... layer.html