quote:Originally posted by ThistlinTom:
I'm looking at two different box sets of Beatles albums, both of which are remasters done in 2009. One of the box sets includes all of the Beatles albums and are done in stereo. The other includes the first ten albums and are in mono. The first several Beatles albums were done solely in mono and then albums afterwards were mixed in mono first, with the Beatles involved in it, and then afterwards the stereo mix was made without the boys present. (The only albums that were done in stereo at first were Let It Be and Abbey Road).
There are a few differences in what was included in the stereo vs the mono mix, but most of the issue is which collection is the better one to listen to and hear the richness of the recordings.
Has anyone looked at this and made a decision or have a view on this?
Some of the earliest stereo mixes are brutal, especially if you like to listen with headphones. They did hard separations of the two channels, so you get the instruments in the left channel, and vocals in the right channel. The is true of the first two UK albums. But there are lots of little and not so little differences to the two versions throughout - a different lead vocal on the mono version of Help, different lengths of songs, missing instruments on some songs, etc. The White Album, surprisingly, has the most differences between mono and stereo.
Personally I'd get the mono albums up until Rubber Soul, and stereo from Rubber Soul onward. Buy them individually.
It was a fun read.
