An Issue With Any Oldies CD in Stereo

[RADIO TRUTH]

That issue is.....Are the songs in stereo actually in phase. I have found various hit songs on various major label cds that are out of phase to varying degrees. Sometimes the same exact song is somewhat out of phase on one cd and in phase on another cd. The worst example of an out of phase song is "Walk A Miles In My Shoes" by Joe South which is totally out of phase. I would be interested in any examples of out of phase stereo versions of songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

 

[hornet61]

My copy of copy of "Walk a Mile In my Shoes" from the Capitol issued best of Joe South sounded odd. I use Adobe Audition 3.0 (approx $350) and I looked at the cut with the Phase Analysis feature (editbar/window/phase anlysis) and my copy is "In-Phase" for the instrumetation and 40% out-of-phase for the vocals............it sounds very odd ,but.
The Abobe Phase Anaysis feature is a colored ball that moves left to right for Stereo and up and down for Phase...the ball color is green for phase, red for out-of -phase and yellow for boderline. It does dip 40% of the time to red, only on the vocals, but for the most part is green and above the horizontal, overall I would say my copy of approx 80% in phase.

Most of the early Stones were not available in Stereo.........the have been issued in bootleg Stereo and the quality of the Stereo is astonishing......they also sound a little odd because the Stereo is so discreet, it just explodes out of the speaker........I ran several of those thru phase anlysis and they are in Phase.

Maybe I don't have the ear to immediately identify an "Out-Of-Phase " cut, but, thank God for Adobe Audtion 3.0 what an amazing software.
Alot of folks use Audicty..........does It have a Phase Analysis feature???

 

[billyg]

I did the same thing with the Rascals "A Beautiful Morning" from the "Ultimate Rascals" CD.

In the late 60's Atlantic-Atco, Warner Brothers and A&M used the "Haeco-CSG system" on some recordings. (Association, Buffalo Spingfield, Vogues, Cream, Carpenters) Which in theory allowed stereo records to be played on mono phonographs or radio stations without any "center channel buildup" problems.

This system worked for mono, but in stereo it threw anything in the center channel out of phase.

I used Winamp to play the CD with the Stereo Tool plugin enabled and shifted the stereo image 90 degrees to the left. I had Winamp write it to my hard drive as a wav file, worked great.

http://www.hansvanzutphen.com/stereo_tool/

 

[Oldbones]

The worst example of an out of phase song is "Walk A Miles In My Shoes" by Joe South which is totally out of phase. I would be interested in any examples of out of phase stereo versions of songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

The worst I've come across (not counting songs in some sort of fake stereo) is "Windy". I heard somewhere there's a fairly new Association compilation where they finally fixed this. When I programmed an oldies station I ended up carting up a clean copy of the 45.

Was the phase problem in the Joe South song only on CD issues? I don't recall any phase cancellation issues back in the day playing the 45 (which I think was stereo).

 

[billyg]

The worst I've come across (not counting songs in some sort of fake stereo) is "Windy". I heard somewhere there's a fairly new Association compilation where they finally fixed this. When I programmed an oldies station I ended up carting up a clean copy of the 45.

I remember hearing "Windy" on KOMA-AM back in the early 00's when they were still simulcasting with the FM. The lead vocals get buried over the backing track. The best sounding stereo version is on Rhino Records "Just The Right Sound" compilation, or Collectors Choice CD reissue of "Insight Out".

The mono 45 version is on the Varese Sarabande compilation "Sunshine Days - Volume 5" but it's a rare CD and has been out of print for a long time.

Now that many oldies stations are moving to the AM band, they need to be careful how stereo recordings sound in mono.

 

[hornet61]

The worst I've come across (not counting songs in some sort of fake stereo) is "Windy". I heard somewhere there's a fairly new Association compilation where they finally fixed this. When I programmed an oldies station I ended up carting up a clean copy of the 45.

I remember hearing "Windy" on KOMA-AM back in the early 00's when they were still simulcasting with the FM. The lead vocals get buried over the backing track. The best sounding stereo version is on Rhino Records "Just The Right Sound" compilation, or Collectors Choice CD reissue of "Insight Out".

The mono 45 version is on the Varese Sarabande compilation "Sunshine Days - Volume 5" but it's a rare CD and has been out of print for a long time.

Now that many oldies stations are moving to the AM band, they need to be careful how stereo recordings sound in mono.

When a stereo song is mixed down to mono for AM, it should OK...It's when you try to play stereo cut on AM
is where you are in trouble....If the vocals are not center tracked you might never hear them.

 

[billyg]

When a stereo song is mixed down to mono for AM, it should OK...It's when you try to play stereo cut on AM
is where you are in trouble....If the vocals are not center tracked you might never hear them.

Right, whenever you combine the left and right channel together into mono, anything in the center gets raised +3 db.

I worked at a AM station in Oklahoma in the mid 80's where the turntables were wired only for one channel. I found out when I played an stereo Beatles LP and only heard the vocals. Luckily the station manager was listening and we got that fixed quick.

 

[motormouth]

I had the same problem with the joe south CD but it does make a good sounding instrumental over the air.