Anybody plan on getting these? I was saving up for the mono box set, but Amazon’s already sold out. I guess it’s available elsewhere, just not as cheap. Does anybody know if this is the only way the mono versions are going to be available? From what I can gather, the single-disc reissues are all going to be the stereo versions, which would piss me off. Why would they not offer both versions for fans - or even combine them onto one CD (much of the early albums could fit both versions on single CDs)?
I don’t get it. You’d rather have the mono version than a stereo version?
Definitely. The albums were originally recorded in mono (through the White Album), and much more care was put into them - the stereo versions were almost an afterthought. Plus, if I’m listening to them on my mp3 player and I need to take an earphone out to talk on the phone or whatever, it would be nice to not have the vocals on “Eleanor Rigby” cut out completely.
After reading a thread about this earlier this week, I decided to order the mono box set. Most sites were out of stock (except for the import set at $500+), I found it was still available at Barnes & Noble (for about $240 plus sales tax). So I’ve got it on order.
I have a friend who is a much bigger Beatles fan than me, so I’ve offered it to him, if he’s not able to get the mono set himself.
Wow.
Just WOW.
You could shut the music off and continue later. I know it sounds crazy!
I started the earlier thread, and was pretty easily swayed. I went and preordered the mono box locally (Australia), so Amazon wasn’t an issue for me.
But I suspect anyone after this boxset should preorder ASAP.
Even though I do know the mono version of the Beatles’ albums were the one the band preferred and spent more time on, there’s something just right about hearing the Beatles in the stereo mixes. Especially with the later psychedelic records, the trippiness of hearing voices only on one channel or separating guitars and drums on different channels helps enhance the mood of the music. Mono mixes tend to work better on garage rock records; I have garage punk legends the Sonics on reissued mono vinyl, and separating the instruments just would make the music less in your face.
I could, but why should I? I like listening to music while going about my mundane work day, and it’s not hurting anybody. So why should you care?
There’s a reason that they’re bothering to put out a “Beatles In Mono” box set, and a reason that it’s more expensive and is selling out very quickly-- while a lot of people like the weird stereo mixes that shove the vocals onto one side and the drums to the other, a lot of discerning Beatles fans think the mono mixes are far, far superior.
It’s commonly known that on many of these albums, The Beatles themselves were present in the studio for the mixing in mono, and then left when it was time to mix them in stereo. Lennon once said that if you haven’t heard Sgt. Pepper in mono, you haven’t heard it…
Personally, I think a lot of those “trippy” stereo mixes are very gimmicky-sounding, like a cheap 3-D effect or something.
Now, I like the stereo on, for instance, “Abbey Road”, which was ONLY recorded in stereo. It sounds good. None of those left/right extreme gimmicks. And I like the stereo mixes that were done for the Yellow Submarine Songtrack a while back. I’d love to buy more Beatles in stereo if they were to do proper remixes of them where the vocals are centered and it doesn’t just sound distracting to me. But for the original albums up to and including The White Album, mono is the way I want to hear them.
I accept that some people like the weird-o stereo mixes, but I think a lot of them are terrible.
So I take it that it wouldn’t be the same to just convert my stereo mixes to WAV, and use Audacity to mix them into mono myself? The mono mixes have more differences than just being in mono, don’t they?
The mono mixes are the original releases, with all the mistakes. John singing the wrong verse, Paul coming in early, stuff like that. The way we first heard them on the radio.
On how many original releases does John sing the wrong verse exactly? Or does Paul come in early for that matter? You think they fixed all that by separating the channels?
I realize the “stereo” releases of the old albums is a bastardized stereo, whereby they split say, the vocals and rhythm guitar onto one track, and then put the bass and drums on the other track, but to me that at least gives the music some depth. The mono versions are flat and non-spatial. I’d much rather listen to the faux-stereo than the very horizontal and flat mono versions. It’s the same recording, but separated into two channels.
I suppose one might make a congruent argument for watching black and white films in their original format, rather than being randomly colorized, and I get that. But simply separating the channels to provide some spacial depth isn’t anywhere near as much of a crime. IMHO of course.
Actually, it’s the stereo version of “Please Please Me” where John sings the wrong words in the last verse, not the mono.
In other words, bad stereo is better than no stereo at all?
To me, it’s very simple. The Beatles, George Martin, and Geoff Emerick all mixed these albums in mono. Then, the Beatles left the studio, and the stereo versions were done rather quickly, and (I would argue, in many cases) sloppily. Some of the stereo versions are better than others, but until they actually stopped recording for mono, the mono versions were the definitive editions.
I don’t want to hear “Eleanor Rigby” with Paul’s vocals on one side and the strings on the other. That’s not giving the music depth, it’s adding forced perspective. Now, if and when they do a proper stereo remix on these songs, as they did on the Yellow Submarine Songtrack (where “Eleanor Rigby” sounds better than ever), then I’d be very interested in hearing these records in stereo. 'Til then, I’d rather hear the original recordings the way The Beatles intended them, rather than some slapdash stereo afterthought…
I can’t afford either, but given the choice between the current (bad) stereo and (good) mono, I’ll go with mono. But what I’d actually prefer is to hear Sir George Martin and his son do to the full Beatles the same job that they did with “Love” - go back to the original multi-track master tapes, clean them up with modern technology, instead of the crappy, limited amount of cleaning possible with the stereo and mono masters. Then go and do creative stereo and surround mixes that follow the original intention but using the the full range of creative possibilities available now. The classic mixes would be available - I just want to hear what George could do while we still have him.
There are serious murmurs that the stereo remixes WILL happen, maybe in a year or two, when they do some kind of Blu Ray release or something like that. And that will be more akin to what George Martin & son did on “Love.” Obviously, they didn’t want to do that with these reissues, because like them or not, the original stereo mixes were what they were (and in the case of the White Album, the mono edition didn’t even get a US release-- UK only!) and it’s important to preserve them for people who are used to them or actually prefer them. (Again, that’s why they’re doing the special mono box set-- a lot of people will choose the stereo box because either they prefer it or they don’t realize that the mono editions are actually an improvement on the stereo versions.)
But if you want to hear what good Beatles stereo sounds like, listen to the non-mash-up tracks on the “Love” release. “Help!” and “Day In The Life” sound just about as good as anyone could want them to sound, and without all the extreme left/right panning gimmicks. I’m thrilled that the mono mixes are finally going to be available on CD, but a part of me is just as excited that there will eventually be a 5.1 surround sound upgrade that really knocks it out of the park…
They are probably complete and sitting on a shelf. They just want to extract the money from Beatles fans multiple times.
It’s possible that the Abbey Road mixers just didn’t have panpots, and they could only put a track in left, right or center. I can’t find any high enough resolution pictures of the Abbey Road console, but there’s a book called “Recording the Beatles” (bit pricy for me at $100) that appears to have high resolution pics of the console with call-outs of each knob.
Oh, I have no doubt that the 5.1 surround sound stereo mixes are complete and sitting on a shelf somewhere. I actually heard that it was McCartney who insisted that this initial reissue campaign focus just on the “original” versions and not on any remixes.
Personally, I don’t mind getting the Mono box now and shelling out for some amazing 5.1 versions in a year or two. I think if they were to also be releasing remixes right now, it would be too much all at once-- confusing, overwhelming, exhausting. AND a dumb business decision, because I’d bet a lot of people would just go for the new stereo versions and leave it at that. It would cannibalize sales from BOTH the mono and stereo versions. And yet, if they ONLY released 5.1 remixes, fans would be howling about Beatles revisionism, and clamoring for the original mixes to be released…
As much as I would love to hear it, I haven’t heard a thing to suggest that the Beatles catalog has been completely remixed and is simply waiting on Paul and Ringo to pull the trigger. I frankly doubt it will ever happen.
For one thing, some of the catalog can’t be remixed; some tracks were recorded in direct stereo, and something like “Tomorrow Never Knows” was essentially mixed down to the master “live” with all the loops running at once, and would be impossible to duplicate. (The original loops, AFAIK, do not exist in the Abbey Road vaults.)
For another, too much variant product dilutes the Beatles’ brand and diminishes the aura of specialness about their music. We already have the Capitol box sets, Live at the BBC, the Anthologies, Let It Be Naked, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, 1, and the Red and Blue albums in addition to the core catalog. That’s a lot of ways to resell the same 225 songs.
I think what we get next week is all we’ll get, at least until the CD finally goes away and everyone starts re-buying their music en masse in some new format.
If the Beatles want to soak their fans for more money, there’s a very easy way to do it: release Let It Be on DVD.
Yeah, but it’s just WRONG.
There’s a divide between Collectors and Hi-Fi-ers, even back in the day. It’s extended further today.