POLL: Mono or Stereo | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I just, within the past couple of days, finally sat down and gave the mono version of “The White Album ” my full album-as-an-event treatment. (Setting aside the time to listen, plugging in a set of headphones, and doing nothing but listening to the album with zero distractions. I even shut my phone off for these “events.”)

I have to say, I was blown away. It was like discovering “The White Album ” for the first time, like I’d never heard it before or something.

Two things that stood out in general, throughout the album: the vocals were crisp and very “in your face,” like sitting nose-to-nose with the singer and catching every cracking consonant; and Paul’s bass was absolutely ripping on most songs (the rockers, anyway, obviously not on songs like “Blackbird ” or “Mother Nature’s Son “).

Hearing “Long, Long, Long ” in this format was stunning. I’m used to that song being very quiet and almost muddy or muffled, where George’s vocal gets easily swallowed up in the droning organ notes. In the mono version, his vocal is still subdued, but it’s much more warm and present, and every syllable is clear. His guitar strums, too, are more crisp and audible, so for the first time it really felt like the acoustic guitar was propelling the song forward.

I’d never been much a fan of “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey,” but I am now. The on-going lead guitar riff that sits underneath the lead vocal during the verses sounded louder and more searing, more truly complementary. And again, Paul’s bass just pops, and suddenly becomes an indispensable part of the song.

As for “Helter Skelter ,” hearing it in mono was a revelation. The background vocals are much more prominent, and I could actually hear the screaming high “ahhhh” notes during lines like “tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me your answer.” Spine-tingling. And at the line “you may be a lover, but you ain’t no dancer,” when the background vocals do that “da-da-da-da-da-da-DOW!” I could finally hear them do the final slide-like downward swoop. Made my hair stand on end.

I think the mono version just made me a much, much bigger fan of “The White Album ” than I ever was in 25+ years of Beatle fandom.

Oudis said
After reading @PeterWeatherby‘s analysis I think we all should have two sets of Beatles CDs, one mono –the version they worked towards and lets us listen to what they intended us to hear– and one stereo –to discriminate each track, even if that means losing the sound as a whole. Why not?

I’ve been seriously considering doing a full album-by-album write-up of the mono versions for my blog, if I ever get the time. I’m certainly not knocking the stereo mixes, because when I first heard the 2009 stereo remasters, it blew my hair back and I thought I’d reached nirvana. But there’s something appealing to me about hearing what the production team (including the lads themselves) did to solve the nasty riddle of mixing in mono.

In stereo, you know, you can separate the instruments across the channels and have a bit more latitude, but with mono you really have to make some tough decisions: do I dial up the drums at the expense of losing some vocal presence, do I punch up the bass and pull back the guitars to keep the overall volume from red-lining into distortion, etc.?

And you can totally hear the end result of how they decided to piece the puzzle together, in things like “She Said She Said ,” where the blaring guitar and crashing cymbals almost disappear in the mix as soon as the vocal comes up, only to dramatically re-appear when the vocal stops.

I’m just really impressed with how they made it all work out on “The White Album ,” “Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and “Revolver ,” to name three stand-outs.

I’m far less impressed with the end result on “Help !” and “The Beatles For Sale .” For whatever reason, the low/bassy end of the mix is usually too prominent, so most of those songs just sound muddy and … I don’t know, “throbby,” for lack of a better word. And I would write it off to inferior recording equipment and having to deal with 4-track as opposed to 8-track, but then again, “Please Please Me ” sounds absolutely amazing in mono, so I don’t know.