Janky Beatles Mixes

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jb
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Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by jb »

Boy, the panning on the "remastered" version of Eleanor Rigby that is on Spotify is BIZARRE. I want to know if that was the original version of the panning and other things, but the original mix doesn't seem to be on any service that I can find.

Anybody know where I can find the original mix from the album?

Oh, and don't be fooled by people on YouTube uploading their own covers of the song and labeling it "original mix". I have no idea why they do that, but it wasted five minutes of my life sorting through multiple bullshit versions of the song.

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Re: Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by fluffy »

Define "original mix." Apparently it had several treatments back when it was first released, according to the Wikipedia article:
The original stereo mix had McCartney's voice only in the right channel during the verses, with the string octet mixed to one channel, while the mono single and mono LP featured a more balanced mix. On the Yellow Submarine Songtrack and Love versions, McCartney's voice is centred and the string octet appears in stereo, creating a modern-sounding mix.
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Re: Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by AJOwens »

I have the Canadian album on vinyl from 1966 (I believe it was), scratches and all. My turntable is not hooked up at the moment, but if you want to hear the mix, I can set it up.
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Re: Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by fluffy »

I have the 1980s CD release and the 2009 remastered release. All of them have crazy fucking panning. The 1980s one keeps on jumping Paul between center and hard-right. 2009 sounds similar except and there's more clarity in the mix.

The Spotify version sounds just like the 2009 one except with even more fucking emphasis on the mix.

Also, checking this out made me notice that my audio interface was set to my output channels set to dual-mono instead of stereo and now I worry that I might have been listening to everything in mono for some unknown length of time.
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Re: Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by jb »

On Spotify the very first "El" is doubled and then quickly goes to Paul singing "anor Rigby" panned right for the rest of that verse.

That's what really got me. A couple other fades are weird, and there are vocals panned to the sides while the strings are up the middle. It's just odd. Other mixes, like the mixes on the soundtracks to the videos for these songs on YouTube, are actually sane.
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Re: Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by fluffy »

Yeah that's how the 1980s mix is as well. I'm really baffled as to why they decided to preserve that bit in the remaster, since it just sounds like a mistake (I mean, everything else sounds like a mistake too but that particular one sounds like someone moved a knob too late).
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Re: Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by roymond »

From either the George Martin autobiography or some interview i read years ago, Martin had said the stereo mix was something they missed before it was pressed and always regretted it. Headphones make all the early mixes tough in that regard. For what its worth, here's the entry in the Recording Sessions about the recording and strings mix...

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Re: Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by jb »

Interesting that the mono mixes are almost impossible to find in the digital world.
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Re: Janky Beatles Mixes

Post by AJOwens »

It turns out we have two vinyl copies of the Revolver album. One is my wife's, identifiable by a red Dymo Tape sticker reading "JONE B" on the centre label (she has since adopted the more traditional spelling). The other is my sister's, ever recognizable by the postage-stamp-sized George sticker on the centre label. Susan was always bitter about the fact that my parents left Liverpool for Canada when she was only three, as it deprived her of the opportunity to meet and eventually marry the Quiet Beatle.

Unfortunately, both records are monophonic pressings. The sleeve says "Also available in stereo" on the back, in the upper right corner; but along the bottom the following reassuring message is printed:

THIS MONOPHONIC MICROGROOVE RECORDING IS PLAYABLE ON MONOPHONIC AND STEREO PHONOGRAPHS. IT CANNOT BECOME OBSOLETE. IT WILL CONTINUE TO BE A SOURCE OF OUTSTANDING SOUND REPRODUCTION, PROVIDING THE FINEST MONOPHONIC PERFORMANCE FROM ANY PHONOGRAPH.
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