The Beatles Mixing............?

F

Feanor IV

New member
Hello,

I was checking out the mixing in some Beatles recordings the other day ("Rubber Soul", "Revolver" and some more stuff from that period), and noticed that they tend to have the lead vocals almost entirely on the right and the rhythm guitars on the left. The backing vocals typically go with the leads, except for the "ooohs" and "aaahs" which go on the other side. I am totally new to the whole thing, so I was wondering if this is typical in mixing, or if it was of that decade or if it's just what the Beatles & their producers liked! :)

Cheers & thanks!

Menelaos
 
Actually, it was more likely an error during mastering..... stereo was just becoming more popular and it may have been that a mastering engineer misinterpreted a recording intended to be released mono....

It is also possible that it was intentional, and was a consequence of the consoles of the time not having PAN control, but rather only left/right/center switches, for each channel......

Either way, it is generally accepted in modern mixing that a well-balanced soundstage between the speakers is best practice. (Try listening to a lop-sided mix on headphones - it tends to be very disconcerting - especially with a bass panned to one side... awful!)
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Actually, it was more likely an error during mastering..... stereo was just becoming more popular and it may have been that a mastering engineer misinterpreted a recording intended to be released mono....

It is also possible that it was intentional, and was a consequence of the consoles of the time not having PAN control, but rather only left/right/center switches, for each channel......

Either way, it is generally accepted in modern mixing that a well-balanced soundstage between the speakers is best practice. (Try listening to a lop-sided mix on headphones - it tends to be very disconcerting - especially with a bass panned to one side... awful!)
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I remember a long discussion we had about this:)
 
Ehm, btw, what I actually was thinking about that was that since stereo was a rather new thing then, they were a bit exagerating with their mixes trying to make it as obvious as possible :)
 
Feanor IV said:
Ehm, btw, what I actually was thinking about that was that since stereo was a rather new thing then, they were a bit exagerating with their mixes trying to make it as obvious as possible :)
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More this than anything I think. Look at the confusion around surround mixes when they first came out, should just the vocal be in the center channel, only kick in the sub, etc ...

Obviously George Martin could have fixed this in the latest remixes but chose not to, it's a signature of the era.
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Actually, it was more likely an error during mastering..... stereo was just becoming more popular and it may have been that a mastering engineer misinterpreted a recording intended to be released mono....
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Not likely at Abbey Road.
 
what you are referring to is called "Beatles Panning" for obvious reasons. Although it is not very coomon today many of the elements of it are still really useful. It can be strange to put vocals, bass or kick drum off to the side these days, it works really well for most other things. I actually really like lop sided mixes. Not the same way all the way though a mix, but I like having a mix change its left right energy and focus though out a song.
 
Feanor IV said:
What exactly do you mean? Is there any song I can hear this "effect" on?
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A lot of Jazz recordings in the 60's also had drums panned to the side or horns panned hard left or right with ambience panned to the other side.

For a sample of the Beatles, check out the Sgt. Pepper's CD and mute either side. It's fun listening.
 
Here's an interesting quote from a 1987 interview:

"ALLAN KOZINN: Still, even as late as the "White Album," you've got a different violin solo in "Don't Pass Me By," the airplanes coming in at different times in "Back in the USSR." They were clearly still entirely separate mixes.

GEORGE MARTIN: Yes, we were still doing different things then, but I was still working towards the compatibility, and in fact my attempts on "Rubber Soul" were to find a decent mono result from a stereo record. As you know, if you put something in the center, it comes up four dB louder in mono than it does in stereo. But if you tend to balance your things between one side and the other....And also, I was aware in those days that the majority of record players in the home were built into kind of sideboards, where the speakers were about three feet apart, and the stereo picture was a very near mono one anyway. So I exaggerated the stereo to get a clearer effect. These were experiments. It wasn't a question of rushing, I really was trying all sorts of things."

Full interview @ http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/kozinn.htm
 
Has anyone heard of the Canadian indie groups Eric's Trip or Elevator? They're both headed by this guy Rick White who has been doing this crazy panning stuff really well. Even in thicker, louder songs, he pans some shit really hard. It's strange, but I enjoy listening to it.
 
Or Song For The Dead on the latest Queens of The Stone Age record: After the intro all the drums are panned to one side.

I thnik it's great that a modern rock band is not afraid to take some mixing risks;
 
fundamentally loathsome by marilyn manson uses some hard panning in the verses, and switches to a more conventional mix in the chorus...

it's an interesting effect, but i wouldn't mix like that on a regular basis...
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
(Try listening to a lop-sided mix on headphones - it tends to be very disconcerting - especially with a bass panned to one side... awful!)
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watching a band play live has the bass player on one side or the other.....wouldn't you pan out to 10 o'clock 0r 2 o'clock in this case Bruce? I always have the live band on stage image when I mix for some strange reason.
 
LemonTree said:
watching a band play live has the bass player on one side or the other.....wouldn't you pan out to 10 o'clock 0r 2 o'clock in this case Bruce? I always have the live band on stage image when I mix for some strange reason.
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Bass waves have no directionality because they're so long. I think that panning the bass that little wouldn't make much of a diffrence in the end.
 
LemonTree said:
watching a band play live has the bass player on one side or the other.....wouldn't you pan out to 10 o'clock 0r 2 o'clock in this case Bruce? I always have the live band on stage image when I mix for some strange reason.
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The location of the player may not be relevant - if the band is mic'd, then very little of the backline amps is heard by the audience -- most of the sound will come from the PA.

Also - if the band is not mic'd, then the relative non-directionality of the low-end probably covers any bass localization.....
 
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