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
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