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Stereo vs Monaural

A

amfmsw

The Beach Boys and Donovan discussion about stereo masters is a great topic. I've heard the Good Vibrations in true stereo on Dick Bartley's "American Gold" program. In fact, he's got some hard to find stereo 45's available on Eric (remember them?) records (www.ericreciords.com). I love hearing a stereo version for the first time. Stuff like "Whiter Shade Of Pale" and "Expressway To Your Heart" are on those discs.

I digress. Just because there are fancy box sets "from the masters" doesn't mean you're NOT getting the mono safety slave tapes FROM the stereo master. Some artists, like the Beaxch Boys, do not wan't the stereo versions released. Much of they're anniversary box set was in mono. I did mix some of the stereo music tracks only with the mono 45 version, and got great results. Also, blending 35/65% left to right and right to left resulted in a wonderful version of "All Summer Long" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice"...both never released in stereo.

Case in point of mono one track minds...Phil Spector. The CD of the famous Christmas LP from 1963 is mono (from the master). I have it on vinyl import from Great Britain in wonderful true stereo.
 
"Whiter Shade of Pale" is badass in stereo ;D I have two versions, one that is very clean where the vocals were mixed full right (that's the one I air) and another one from the "You gotta use both ears for this one" that sounds odd and is hardly what I would consider stereo.

I spend my spare time looking for the stereo versions of everything I play. Some cases there will never be a song in stereo and thus is labeled "Mono master" once I've confirmed it. Even though there is no way to really know the folks at the Both Sides Now Stereo chat board seem to know a lot, and there are also some famous studio engineers that pop in there once in a while.

I would like to hear Expressway to your heart also, I cannot find that one as of yet. Stuff is never labeled stereo so thats where BSN comes in handy, the folks there know which CD it can be found on...

PS. my Whiter Shade of Pale is different than the eric records version, so I've always wondered where it came from...
 
I for one am a big Stereo fan. On my little FM station, I favor the actual Stereo versions of the oldies. And I don't mean the "re-enhanced and re-channelled" stuff either (a-la the RCA Elvis pseudo "stereo"). Some of the nicest true Stereo songs came from the 1958-1963 era. Some of my true Stereo favorites in no certain order are "The Angels Listened In"-The Crests (1959), "Your Precious Love"-Jerry Butler (1958), "True Love Ways"-Buddy Holly (1958), "It's My Party"-Leslie Gore (1963). Try the longer version of "Hang On Sloopy"-The McCoys (1965) in Stereo. It's quite badass. I actually have a rare true Stereo version of "Louie, Louie"- The Kingsmen (1963) in my playlist. Any original true Stereo versions seem to have a more "Oh, WOW!" factor, based upon the response I've received by several listeners.

73,
Peter Q. George, CE/GM
WXRB-FM/Dudley-Webster, MA
http://wxrbfm.com
 
I have to agree with Peter that stereo certainly captures more of an "oh-wow" factor than mono, but if a true oldies junkie is looking for the authentic radio versions many are just hard to find in true stereo. I know some stations will play the LP mixes of certain songs but either differences in the overall mix or sung lyrics can be noticeable.

By the way, Peter, how long has that Class D been around? I'm quite surprised that many survived and it looks like you're at one of the few that did. I'm going to have to venture up from Fairfield County to give it a listen.
 
>>By the way, Peter, how long has that Class D been around? I'm quite surprised that many survived and it looks like you're at one of the few that did. I'm going to have to venture up from Fairfield County to give it a listen.<<


Hi Bill:
'XRB has been around since 1976, first as WNRC/91.1 later moving to 95.1 in 1982. Later, WNRC made the move to LP-100 at 97.5 in February, 2005. 95.1 became all-oldies WXRB-FM upon the switch for 'NRC to 97.5 in 2/2004. It was a very seemless transition. The results have been very positive. With most mainstream commercial oldies stations around the country giving any pre-Beatles (1954-1963) songs the ol' "heave-ho" (citing Madison Avenue's "older demographics" mindset), it looks like we came just in the nick of time. I think some of the smaller AM and non-comm FM stations, like ours, are going to be the terrestrial means to keep this great music (and Old Time Radio, taboot) alive for the general public, without the use of XM or Sirius satellite radios. Needless to say, it's a job I truly love to do and I'm having a ball doing it too.

-Pete
 
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