Sometimes Stereo is a Bad Thing
When a well recorded and mixed album is played through a well balanced stereo the results can at times be simply spine tingling. The instruments blend, there is the right space between them and you can get a real sense of the music and how it would come across from a stage. Sometimes it does the opposite.
This album is one of Jan's father's favourites. I have always liked The Girl From Ipanema and got to know the whole album on summers in the Marlborough Sounds.
A few years ago I bought my own copy CD of the album. Tacked at the end of the CD were shortened mono versions of the The Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado.
These immediately highlighted to me how BAD the stereo version of this album is. It is unbalanced with voices and instruments blaring out of opposite speakers at almost no time really giving that feeling of being involved in the music.
The mono versions on the other hand just knock me out.
When Jan's father left the sounds I was lucky enough to inherit some of his records and Jan made sure she brought this one one home. It was 50 year old vinyl and played really well BUT it was stereo and the mix was as bad as the CD. SAD.
So I have always kept my eye out for a second hand mono version of the album. This weekend I had to make a Visa run to NZ. Long Story. So while in Christchurch I visited a second hand record store and there in the "Just Arrived" bin was a copy of the MGM NZ original release. Chris asked - why would you buy that - you have it already. I said it might be mono and he looked at me even more strangely than usual.
It did not say whether it was mono or stereo so I played it on the store's headphone system and it sounded mono to me but I was not sure whether that was just because it was a crappy system. But I shelled out the money and took a punt.
Later I checked on the various websites that give details of old albums and they all said it was stereo.
Last night I played it and it was .........
When a well recorded and mixed album is played through a well balanced stereo the results can at times be simply spine tingling. The instruments blend, there is the right space between them and you can get a real sense of the music and how it would come across from a stage. Sometimes it does the opposite.
This album is one of Jan's father's favourites. I have always liked The Girl From Ipanema and got to know the whole album on summers in the Marlborough Sounds. A few years ago I bought my own copy CD of the album. Tacked at the end of the CD were shortened mono versions of the The Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado.
These immediately highlighted to me how BAD the stereo version of this album is. It is unbalanced with voices and instruments blaring out of opposite speakers at almost no time really giving that feeling of being involved in the music.
The mono versions on the other hand just knock me out.
When Jan's father left the sounds I was lucky enough to inherit some of his records and Jan made sure she brought this one one home. It was 50 year old vinyl and played really well BUT it was stereo and the mix was as bad as the CD. SAD.
So I have always kept my eye out for a second hand mono version of the album. This weekend I had to make a Visa run to NZ. Long Story. So while in Christchurch I visited a second hand record store and there in the "Just Arrived" bin was a copy of the MGM NZ original release. Chris asked - why would you buy that - you have it already. I said it might be mono and he looked at me even more strangely than usual.
It did not say whether it was mono or stereo so I played it on the store's headphone system and it sounded mono to me but I was not sure whether that was just because it was a crappy system. But I shelled out the money and took a punt.
Later I checked on the various websites that give details of old albums and they all said it was stereo.
Last night I played it and it was .........
MONO GLORIOUS MAGICAL MONO
No comments:
Post a Comment