j-boy said:
"Taste of Honey" was a very early EMI recording, when they were using two-track tape. In this time frame, the band typically recorded the backing instrumentals together as a band, "live" as it were, to one of the tracks. The other track was used for the vocals. Any overdubs involved a sound-on-sound second generation recording on one or the other tracks, so they tried to be efficient in planning everything out beforehand. The mixes were intended to be monaural. The "stereo" mixes released in the States by Capitol were horribly mangled "Duophonic" process, applied to second-generation masters sent over by EMI (a disaster to say the least!). The best pressings from this period that I have heard are the German Odeon versions, which are *true* stereo, where the vocals are panned to one side and instruments to the other.
In fact, the infamous Butcher cover for the 'Yesterday and Today' album was the Beatles' comment of disgust at Capitol's sonic mangling for their masters.
Yes! Better to call them multitrack, even if only 2 tracks, intended for mono mixdown. It was a good use of the stereo tape machines available to Martin at that time because he at least could balance vocals with backing later.
The Capitol releases were like us buying a CD and hearing eight separate tracks through eight home speakers and being told to "do our own mix", but of course with only 2 tracks, so long as both speakers give equal weight and you are sitting reasonably centrally, it's not the end of the world. But that stereo, (and it's a true separation, not fake, -you cant simulate that sort of separation) was never intended as anything more than a primitive multitrack awaiting a mixdown.
Nothing magical "happened'" when Martin mixed them to mono except that his balancing choices were now locked in.
Also, in those days there was a changeover happening between mono vinyl and stereo vinyl. If the ME used the same master tape for both stereo and mono disc pressings, just cutting in a mono summing circuit when cutting the mono disc master, it tended to give too much prominence to the previously central stereo information over the sounds panned hard left or right. Prove it yourself by listening to a stereo CD and then hitting the mono button on your amp. Centralised vocals and other information tend to be higher now in the mix. It makes the biggest difference when listening through cans.
Martin objected to record companies not taking account of this and giving the public a mix noticeably different from what he had intended as a stereo mix (we're talking about the true stereo mixes that came later). So it's not that mono is good stereo bad, or vice versa, but that if it was mixed for mono or mixed for stereo, that should have been carried right through the signal chain.
It's not really true to call the Capitol releases "stereo mixes". They were, if anything
unmixed and that was the problem.
Still I like having the chance once in a while to listen to those Beatles "stereo mixes", as you can pick out more detail than you strictly can in the mono mixes, even though it was never intended that way...if you know what I mean.
Tim
) were recorded on any of these desks, though.
