Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now
Scroll down to the bottom and click on the lighter text for “2 Comments” to read someone’s defense of the mono mixes, followed by our reply.
One of our good customers had this to say about the new Revolver pressing and The Beatles in mono:
Hey Tom,
I think the Revolver new thing doesn’t sound terrible. It’s just what you’re comparing it with. Most people are going off original pressings maybe and the acclaimed mono and stereo box stuff that came out in the last 10 years. IF you don’t try one of those Harry Moss records or a 1970s pressing, you probably think the new Revolver is fine or even good. That’s my theory. Who knows.
And as far as mono vs. stereo… you know the answer to this but I’m not sure. Were those earliest records meant to be mono or recorded as if they would be put out as mono and later records – maybe Rubber Soul on – meant to be stereo? I don’t know the answer to that. But maybe that’s why people are so loyal to mono. They feel like “this is how it was meant to be heard by the artist.”
George Martin was very clear about that, the first two albums for sure and really, the first four are, for him, better heard in mono than stereo.
Dear Sir,
I disagree. I think George heard the playback on studio monitors stuck on a wall five feet from his head.
Who cares what that sounds like?
Nobody who isn’t mixing a record would ever listen to music that way, certainly not in this day and age.
More importantly, who are you going to believe, your lying ears or George Martin?
This is fundamental to understanding everything to do with audio and records.
Richard Feynman summed it up beautifully:
Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.
Watch the Let It Be documentary produced by Peter Jackson, especially the last part where they play the album back for everyone who was involved in the making of it.
With four crappy monitor speakers lined up left to right and shoved up against a wall.
This is how they listened to the album in order to approve Glyn Johns’ mix and the takes he chose to use?
How can anyone — especially someone who calls himself an audiophile — take any of it seriously?
TP
Further Reading
you have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. That’s exactly the point why the mono sounds good because no one is sitting in a perfect stereo field listening to music these days. They are either listening on Headphones or undoubtedly hundreds of degrees off access in another room or whatever they’re doing in their car or whatever so the stereo mixes will not stand up under those kinds of conditions. It’s only for nuts, so it’s like you sit down With a supposedly perfect acoustically design room and perfectly aligned speakers. Not exactly real world for the masses. I always tell people I teach engineering to… First thing… And learn how to do a great mono mix. Then you can start with all the fakery. You are way out of your league even pretending to know what you’re talking about
Dear Doodah,
I would think that anyone reading this blog would be able to appreciate that we are not the least bit concerned with anything the masses are up to. The masses seem to like streaming. Why should anyone waste his time taking what they like seriously? I suppose if you’re teaching those looking for work in an industry providing music to the masses, what you are telling them may be of some value.
It is surely of no value to those of us who aspire to high quality sound. Yes, the experience we are after does indeed require special rooms and speakers and, most especially, high quality stereo records to play.
If you’ve never heard The Beatles’s music reproduced at the highest levels, why would you pretend to know anything about it?
Our customers can easily access the mono mixes and the modern digital releases. They have chosen instead to spend a great deal of money on our vintage records. The abundant evidence — sales figures, letters, etc. — should make it clear that they do in fact deliver the superior sound we promised.
Some people drive Hondas and some people drive Ferraris. You can try telling people who drive Hondas that Ferraris are no better, but is anyone foolish enough to believe you?
We have nothing against people who choose to listen to The Beatles’ music with the lowest possible fidelity imaginable. I grew up doing exactly that, hearing them for the first time in 1964, in mono, on an AM car radio. That low-fidelity mono sound worked for me and millions of others. As a matter of fact, that was the very year I became a lifelong fan.
Perhaps this is the kind of sound you are teaching your students to strive for?
Some of us have moved on from car radios and mono mixes. With all the latest playback technology, and the right stereo pressings, The Beatles’ recordings, more so than those of any other band, can now come alive in ways unimaginable to my younger self. And, sadly, you and your students it would seem.
I hope that they have a chance someday to hear The Beatles’ music in all its glory, on a truly high-fidelity system, in stereo.
Such an experience will surely teach them how mistaken at least one of their teachers was. A Mr. Doodah, was it? Yes, that sounds right.
Regards,
TP