Classic rock... king of stereo gimmicks! (1 Viewer)

[Rob Lutter]

Anyone else dislike stereo remixes having the vocals track in one ear and the instumentals spread across the channels? I find it really jarring when that happens. I think it is wanted, expected, and more REALISTIC to have the vocals in the middle field.

Some offenders and The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix

Although it might just be nitpicking

 

[Rachael B]

The thing that I have noticed on some 60's stuff that was orginally mono and "electronically rechanneled for stereo" < (a quote right off the cover of Donovan's MELLOW YELLOW) is the incredible amont of hiss that was often generated. That's what really bothers me anyway.

 

[MarkHastings]

When I was a teen, my friends car had one speaker blown out and everytime we listened to classic rock, it was an EXPERIENCE! (Try listening to Bohemian Rhapsody without the left speaker )

I remember how we never heard Eddie Van Halens guitar everytime we played their first record.

 

[Brian L]

Personally, I kind of like it that way. Makes it much easier to pick-out individual parts.

I tend to prefer that to cases where the artist uses so many tracks that nothing seems to have its on space in the mix....it comes out sounding like sonic mush.

IMHO, of course.

Brian

 

[andrew markworthy]

The point's been raised in another thread, but in the case of The Beatles, the early 'stereo' records weren't originally intended to be released. The 'left' and 'right' channels were simply the separate tracks that were intended to be mixed down into mono - there were *not* intended to be heard as separate channels. However, the US marketing departments' thirst for everything to be 'stereo' (no matter how aesthetically unpleasing) meant that the early Beatles albums, that had been released in their intended mono form in the UK, were released in this ersatz 'stereo' in the USA. I personally think they sound awful. Indeed, up to The White Album, I prefer the Beatles albums in mono (including Sgt Pepper which in any case uses radically different mixes).

 

[Tim Fennell]

Some of the worst are the early Grand Funk albums with bass on one side and drums on the other. To me drums belong in both channels.

Tim

 

[Tim Fennell]

Some of the worst are the early Grand Funk albums with bass on one side and drums on the other. To me drums belong in both channels.

Tim

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I recall hearing an AM radio station play Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence". The station wasn't properly downmixing stereo to mono, or perhaps just that particular turntable wasn't, and I couldn't hear Simon. Or maybe it was Garfunkel.