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Which Beatles albums are best in mono?

post #1 of 9
2/2/08 at 2:40am
Thread Starter 
A call for help to the Beatles aficionados ... lets say hypothetically I had all the Beatles albums in both the original mono and stereo mixes ... where would you switch from mono to stereo? The White Album? Or earlier?
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post #2 of 9
2/2/08 at 2:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanafuda View Post
A call for help to the Beatles aficionados ... lets say hypothetically I had all the Beatles albums in both the original mono and stereo mixes ... where would you switch from mono to stereo? The White Album? Or earlier?
I would say you could probably switch over with sgt. peppers - I love the mono version, very punchy direct sound, but that is the 1st album where in stereo it actually starts to make sense. I am not too hardcore of a beatles fanatic I just love the sound and music, but I am pretty sure that was the 1st album the beatles and engineers conceived it with stereo in mind, hearing all the studio effects in stereo is pretty cool.
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post #3 of 9
2/2/08 at 2:55am
Thread Starter 
Actually what I read about Sgt. Pepper's is that the band put all the work into the mono mix, but the stereo version got thrown together overnight by a couple engineers without the band's input. Whatever, I agree with you it sounds cool. The first three albums are tragically bad in stereo, especially with headphones. But I wasn't sure what the deal was with "Beatles for Sale" thru "Revolver." Last time I encoded my music for my Zune, I did those in stereo, and included both mixes of Sgt Pepper's. Will probably do all albums up to Sgt Peppers from the mono mixes this time (I'm upgrading my stuff from -V2 to -V0 - prolly pointless but I'm doing it), unless someone knows something about the pre-Sgt Pepp's albums that makes the stereo mixes better.
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post #4 of 9
2/2/08 at 3:00am
how exactly would one go about doing this?... sorry this question may not be right for the forum.
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post #5 of 9
2/2/08 at 3:21am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by variable114 View Post
how exactly would one go about doing this?... sorry this question may not be right for the forum.
Back in the 60's, LP's were mostly in mono, particularly the mainstream stuff. Stereo was more of a novelty for 'enthusiasts' and didn't do much for sales of a popular album. The Beatles are a good example of this - on the stereo mixes of their first few albums its basically just vocals in one channel, music in the other. Doesn't sound too bad in a big room over loudspeakers, but with headphones its murder to listen to. Even now, AFAIK the CD's of the first three Beatles albums are the mono mixes. You can't even go out and buy the stereo mix of "Please Please Me," etc., although I believe there are some remizes of some early songs done in proper stereo on some compilation stuff released in the recent past.

Anyway, point is, the 'official' releases of the Beatles' early albums, the ones that got all the attention at the mixing board, were the mono versions. So the stereo CD's of "Beatles for Sale" thru "Revolver" you can buy at the store, which still have never been remastered btw, may not be the best versions to listen to. That's why I'm asking.
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post #6 of 9
2/2/08 at 4:16am
oh I knew what you meant. I thought you were saying you could rip the audio as either mono or stereo, as opposed to which version to get in the first place. that's what I wanted to know how to do, if it's what you were talking about.

edit - rereading the first place I understand what I got wrong.
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post #7 of 9
2/2/08 at 5:40am
Funny...I just posted something about MONO in my blog.

Anyway, All of them are better in MONO. The MONO mixes are the mixes The Beatles actually approved. Even The White Album sounds better in MONO. Of course, Abbey Road is only STEREO but anything before that will sound more punchy and lifelike in MONO.

If you want proof, listen to the MONO version of Yesterday. Now compare it to the STEREO version. HUGE difference. If you remaster the STEREO versions carefully, you can get close to the MONO versions in terms of sound quality but the MONO's just have a special kind of magic in them. YMMV, but while I think the MONO's are better, I prefer to have both.
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post #8 of 9
2/2/08 at 10:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LFF View Post
YMMV, but while I think the MONO's are better, I prefer to have both.
me too. But for my portable rig, I just want one version of each album, w/ Sgt. Pepper's as a possible exception.
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post #9 of 9
2/2/08 at 9:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanafuda View Post
me too. But for my portable rig, I just want one version of each album, w/ Sgt. Pepper's as a possible exception.
Well, not that it matters much, but on my portable rig - I have custom remastered stereo versions.
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