From: pstodd@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Paul Stoddard x5559)
Subject: Re: Analog Beatles
Reply-To: pstodd@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Paul Stoddard x5559)
Organization: Interleaf, Inc.
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 22:50:58 GMT

In article <1992Jul21.044510.28010@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> hpky@gauguin.cc.rochester.edu (Hanan Polanski) writes:
> In <1992Jul20.091535.22777@mr.med.ge.com> hinz@bonfire (David Hinz Mfg 4-6987) wonders:
> 
> >Why does it seem that capitol/emi are trying to eliminate the stereo albums
> >of the first 4 releases?  I own most versions of these albums, and the 
> >stereo mixing is only primitive on some of the first two...on B's 4-sale, it
> >is quite good!  Yet, Capitol goes out of its way to obscure the existance
> >of the Stereo versions of these, blotting out where the albums said 'stereo'
> >on the CD's, etc (check 4-sale's cover).  WHY?  Did they lose the tapes or
> >something stupid, or is there a real reason?  I'm surprised that they aren't
> >re-releasing the stereo trying to leech us for more money in CD's (just being
> >cynical, I'd buy them anyway).
> 
> While I would be the *last* person to applaud Capitol's expertise in marketing
> and sonic quality control, the first four CDs were released in mono at the 
> insistance of *George Martin*.  It was his contention that they were recorded
> to be mixed in *mono*, with the stereo mixes only remixed as an afterthought.
> (I think he said later that _A_Hard_Day's_Night_ and _For_Sale_ *could* have
> been released in stereo, but he didn't have enough time to make a go of it
> and still meet *Capitol's* CD release deadline...)
> 
I've been following this discussion and I'd like to add what I can. I'm also
one of those folks who enjoy the primitive stereo on the first 4 Beatles'
albums, so I started writing letters to find out why they had been put out
in mono. I wrote first to Capitol Records in the U.S. Their reply was that
they acted merely as the U.S. distributors of the CDs and that all content
decisions were made by the parent company: E.M.I. in England. I then wrote
directly to George Martin at E.M.I. He no longer works there, but my letter
was forwarded to him at A.I.R. Studios, which, I believe, he co-owns. He
did actually personally reply to my letter. Here are his remarks, verbatim:

	"Your letter dated April 11th has percolated through from
   EMI but I am afraid you will have to address your remarks about
   The Beatles' CDs to EMI Records. Although my advice has been
   sought from time to time about The Beatles' recording and I have
   re-mixed some of the Beatles' recordings at EMI's request, the
   ultimate decisions are made by EMI who have absolute control over
   what is released and in what form."

Taking Mr. Martin at his word, we must believe that his decision is NOT
the reason that the first 4 Beatles' CDs are in mono. I attempted to persue
this further with EMI Records in England and got in contact with a Mr.
Rupert Perry, whose title is managing director. He is an officious twit,
who attempted to supply me with misinformation, e.g. that the first 4
Beatles' CDs were "mock stereo" (his term). This is utter nonsense since
mock stereo would be something akin to rechannelled stereo which is cre-
ated by two methods:

		1. splitting a mono signal into 2 channels and removing
		   all of the high frequencies from one channel and all
		   of the low frequencies from the other (or some varia-
		   tion of frequency filtering)

		2. adding echo of varying amounts to one channel while
		   keeping the original signal in the other

Neither of these techniques were used on any of the songs on the British
versions of the first 4 Beatles' albums. The sounds from each channel were
distinctly different. In fact, many of the tracks on "A Hard Day's Night"
and "Beatles For Sale" had a clearly defined 3-way stereo image, indicating
that more than 2 tracks were used to record them.

It was useless to persue the matter with Mr. Perry. He insisted on shifting
the responsibility back to George Martin, claiming that the sessions for
the first 4 albums were only done in mono. When I pointed him at the inter-
view with George Martin in the video production: "The Compleat Beatles",
which uses stereo versions in its soundtrack, in which George Martin states
that when he was producing the FIRST Beatles' album, "there was no mixing,
just direct STEREO" (emphasis mine).  The content of the rest of Mr. Perry's
correspondence boiled down to stating that the Beatles CDs are the way they
are and that's it: like it or not, that's what you get. I doubt that we will
see stereo reissues of the first 4 CDs, unless Mobile Fidelity gets permission
to do them. One of the things that I suggested to EMI was that they release
the first 4 in stereo, and the next 6 in mono, and this solution would satisfy
most listeners, since all albums that had both mono and stereo versions in
vinyl, would be available on CD.

Comments?

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Stoddard, Interleaf Inc., Prospect Place, 9 Hillside Avenue,
Waltham, MA 02154 (617)290-0710 x5559, INTERNET: ...!mit-eddie!ileaf!pstodd
Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles