Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert James Michael Anderson

---

Mr Big wrote at 2007-09-07 14:38:52
I think the idea that stereo is better than mono for the Beatles albums is ridiculous. Stereo totally kills the rhythm of a record because it cuts the sound in half. Nowadays with 48 track recording, stereo can be done in a subtle way, but the Beatles were only using 4-Track. You quite simply cannot make a credible stereo mix with only four elements. For anyone wanting proof of this, listen to the dreadful CD stereo versions of Help, Rubber Soul and Revolver.



The truth is that with pop music before 1969, your best bet is mono - they nearly always sound better.

---

Remco wrote at 2007-11-12 13:29:54
One brief remark to this excellent MONO-logue (excuse me for the pun): the two-track recording tapes for both Love Me Do and She Loves You are presumed lost, the mono mixes seem to be all there is, alas. In the case of the vinyl single version of Love Me Do, if I remember right, the reprints on 12 inch in the eighties and the later cd versions even use a clean copy of a gramophone record as a master.

---

the boondah wrote at 2008-02-18 04:26:57
If you like stereo for stereo's sake, go with the stereo.  If you want to hear what the Beatles intended, go with the mono.  Or, try both, make up your mind.  The Beatles spent three weeks mixing Sgt. Pepper in mono.  The stereo version was done in three days by a separate engineer, and the Beatles did not participate in those mixes.  These are the records they made, and they do sound GREAT.  If you want to listen to a remix done in 5.1 35 years after the fact, a la Yellow Submarine, there you go.  I would mention that the mixing process is a very important part of the creative process when making a record.   Especially with a group as production heavy as The Beatles.  

---

JugglerDan wrote at 2009-04-17 20:42:03
Some (including George Martin) will argue that the Beatles sound better in Mono...

http://i.gizmodo.com/5216258/sorry-stereo-but-beatles-in-mono-rocks-a-lot-more

---

StevieD wrote at 2009-09-24 18:27:00
This should have been settled with the release on 09-09-09 of The Beatles Remastered box sets in both mono and stereo.

---

Lovely Rita wrote at 2009-10-05 07:11:05
A very confusing post in parts.

He goes on to initially say that mono and stereo is apples and oranges, ie no better than each other only different, and then finishes by saying that mono is good but stereo is better.

---

K.I.S.S. wrote at 2009-10-26 06:50:42
In case you didn't feel like deciphering all that, the simple answer is this- When the Beatles would finish recording an album, they would mix it twice- Once in mono, and once in stereo.  They are in fact two seperate mixes, and have noticeable differences, especially in the later years. (Notably Pepper and the White Album.)  The stereo remasters are basically the norm, whereas the mono box is a limited release, and is geared towards the hardcore fan.  Hope this helps!

---

khodges wrote at 2009-10-28 01:23:39
The comparison to Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel is inapt.  Those paintings were seriously degraded, such that they required touching up in order for an observer to view them in anything like their original splendor.  The Beatles' master tapes, by contrast, sound pretty much as they did the day they were recorded.  Rather, the chief problem with the Beatles's earlier CD's was with the sloppy remastering and the medium itself, not the underlying music.

---

Stet wrote at 2010-02-16 15:52:59
I recently purchased the remix monos of The Beatles and am not sorry (I'm also a big Beatles). As a child of the sixties I remember very well listening to early Beatles records on our cheap little stereo record player and hearing nothing but vocals from one speaker while only guitars and drums came from the other. Of course the later albums were mixed better, but my experience with all stereo recordings is that unless you're positioned between the speakers somewhat equally or, ideally wearing headphones, mono comes across richer and better. Having said that I also find that music of any kind played on a variety of speakers throughout a house or in a public bar or restaurant sounds much better in mono because you're not losing a lead guitar here or getting too much drums there.    Stet

---

Tom Wotus wrote at 2010-10-12 22:27:40
changing LOVE ME DO or SHE LOVES YOU to STEREO, essentially, can't be (accurately) done. The results would be WORSE than "colourizing" a B&W movie! Techno-heads think you can put the "digital" label on Anything and make it work-just ain't so. they can be "remixed"....re-working the side-to-side placement (balance) of the instr./voices, but that's ONLY if the raw, un-mixed session tapes exist, and it's well-documented that they DON'T. The Y.S. Songtrax CD worked because the actual Session Tapes were,in fact used. Besides, this Re-Mix stuff is hardly anything revolutionary. This could have been done quite well in the sixties thru Analogue means--any veteran mix engineer can back that up !!

---