how the hell did they mix the beatles on one speaker?

[CoolCat]

I was just having coffee and a thought popped up...

how the hell did they mix the beatles albums in that little room with one speaker off to the side?
often with people standing around.

then what I gather the mastering was done upstairs, but not a lot was changed from the mix.

Id read the EMI kept one speaker for classical (serious music) only...and so the beatle kids music was only played through one speaker.

it just seems impossible to do all that mixing, and get those results in that room with one speaker?

 

[RFR]

I think it's not so unbelievable.
First off, the format of the day was mono. People were used to that.
That 'one' speaker and the room was most likely better fidelity than most end users had.

I've heard many well credentialed mixers talk about the importance of mixing it, or at least checking, in mono.

You can concentrate on levels, and eq and in short, make it sound good.

 

[cavedog101]

I hope you realize just what the Altec 604e was all about at that time. And the power amps that were being used to power them. As well as the design of the box they were housed in. Speaker technology has "tried" to come a long way since then but there's only so much you can do with transducer technology.

Also. Try mixing something in mono. SURPRISE!