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Volume #0183 November 11, 1998
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Surpassing the State of the Art
Subject: Re: mono
Sent: 11/11/98 2:24 am
Received: 11/11/98 7:48 am
From: dave prokopy, proXXXXXXXXst.net
Trucker Toby, MUV9XXXXXXXXent2.lu.se writes:
> I've read many times that people like Phil Spector and Brian
> Wilson preferred mono cos they could (paraphrasing) "control the
> listening experience" and I've always wondered what that means
> exactly!! Is it because they could blend instruments together in a
> way which made them unseparable from eachother, creating one big
> noise/sound as opposed to a stereo mix where everything is spread
> out...??
that's prety much exactly what it means. with stereo - especially
the kind of "hard" stereo mixing that was done in the sixties
(with instruments very distinctly mixed left, center, or right) -
it IS rather easy to affect the sound by simply turning the
"balance" control on your hi-fi, or sitting closer to one speaker
than the other.
granted, you still CAN change the sound with mono, through EQ, or
depending on what kind of speakers you have. but, generally
speaking, the balance of instruments and vocals can't be changed
too much.
brian had other reasons for mixing in mono, not the least of which
was that he was mostly deaf in one ear. plus, like spector, brian
knew his target audience - teens who primarily heard his music on
AM radio and cheap record players. so he mixed his records to
sound best in those contexts.
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Subject: Re: Mono
Sent: 11/11/98 4:04 am
Received: 11/11/98 7:48 am
From: Marc Wielage,XXXXXXXXctrax.com
Trucker Toby <MUV9XXXXXXXXent2.lu.se> asked on the Spectropop List:
>I've read many times that people like Phil Spector and Brian
>Wilson preferred mono cos they could (paraphrasing) "control the
>listening experience" and I've always wondered what that means
>exactly!! Is it because they could blend instruments together in a
>way which made them unseparable from eachother, creating one big
>noise/sound as opposed to a stereo mix where everything is spread
>out...??
-------------------<snip>-------------------
The explanation is simple:
in stereo, if you change your listening position, you'll emphasize
the sounds coming from one speaker over the sounds coming from the
other. That totally changes the balance of the recording.
However, if you're listening to Mono, you have the same sounds
coming out of each speaker. No matter where you sit in the room,
the balance will more-or-less sound the same. That way, the
overall mix between vocals and instruments, or lead vocal and
background vocals, will remain consistent.
When listeners have access to stereo recordings, or multi-channel
recordings (like Dolby Surround or DTS), you invariably run into
situations where the listener might wind up hearing a very
different mix, with radically different balances. With luck, it
might sound close to what the engineers and producer(s) intended
for you to hear, but there's much less of a risk of problems with
mono.
--MFW
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Subject: Mono
Sent: 11/11/98 8:22 am
Received: 11/12/98 6:53 am
From: Doc Rock, docrXXXXXXXX.com
>I've read many times that people like Phil Spector and Brian
>Wilson preferred mono cos they could (paraphrasing) "control the
>listening experience" and I've always wondered what that means
>exactly!! Is it because they could blend instruments together in a
>way which made them unseparable from eachother, creating one big
Jan preferred mono. On most cuts (except things like Pop Symphony
and Drag City), so did Dean.
Why? To preserve the mix, as well as to cover up errors (flat
notes!).
And there were other reasons.
For example, Jan mixed "Dead Man's Curve" with the vocal buried in
the mix. He did that so that the listener would have to turn the
song up loud to try to hear the lyrics. That's because DMC sounds
best at a high volume.
Doc
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Subject: Re: Spectropop V#0182
Sent: 11/11/98 3:15 am
Received: 11/11/98 7:48 am
From: Barbara Alston, BARBXXXXXXXXcom
Jimmy, you may be young but you have great insight and
understanding. It makes me feel wonderful to know that someone so
young can comprehend how we felt in those magical days. My
feelings might not appeal to everyone, but they are true and
honest. If someone had asked me in the 60's what I felt about that
record, I fear my answer might have been somewhat shaded by the
times and politically incorrect. Thank you so much for your
comforting comments.
You also seem to have a feel for how entertainers coexisted in
those days. We were truly a group of our own. Race relations were
never a problem to speak of in the entertainment world. We got
along so well that it was like living in two completely different
worlds. We couldn't understand how the outside world could be so
hateful to each other but treated entertainers with dignity and
respect (most of the time, that is). I imagine it is the same way
in the sports world. It just goes to show you that people can get
along very well if they want to. I remember those Dick Clark tours
going through the southern states and not being able to order food
from certain eating establishments, not being able to get a room
in certain hotels/motels and so forth because of being Black. Dick
Clark, bless his soul, would end up taking his whole tour to places
where we could all eat or sleep, and most of the times they were
places "across the tracks." Sometimes, however, we could not all
get the same accommodations and had to split up due to our group
size. But, basically, we had the "one for all and all for one"
mentality. I would say today that entertainers and sports figures
have had a lot of positive effect on race relations as a whole.
I also remember we had a section in Brooklyn (Bensonhurst) where
Black people couldn't even live in those days. And this is not
even in the South. So being a rebel was, as you said, strictly a
group of nonconforming Whites, no matter where they came from or
where they lived. Accordingly, we felt no kinship whatsoever with
that tune. It was entirely Phil's trip! And I would love to see
him trip over that big R right now :-) ...heeheehee! As you can
imagine, I have no love lost for Phil Spector either! But then
that's a horse of another color I must say!
Thank you again and it was truly wonderful hearing your comments.
Babs
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Subject: Darlene Love
Sent: 11/11/98 11:25 am
Received: 11/12/98 6:53 am
From: john rausch, XXXXXXXX.net
Hi Everyone, Just heard Darlene on my local oldies station doing a
telephone interview and seems she has a pretty big spread in the
latest (December?) ish of People mag. Anyone interested might like
to pick up a copy!
Jonr
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Subject: BOUNCE spectrXXXXXXXXities.com: Non-member su
Sent: 11/12/98 2:41 am
Received: 11/12/98 6:53 am
========== Start of forwarded message ==============
*** Supreme Court rules in favor of Kingsmen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court gave the Kingsmen rock 'n'
roll band a victory Monday in its battle to get paid for its
1963 hit song "Louie Louie." The band's five members signed a
contract in 1968 giving them 9% of future licensing fees and
profits from the record. The band sued Gusto Records and GML Inc.,
the record companies that hold the recording rights, in 1993,
complaining it never received any royalties due. A federal judge
in California and a U.S. appeals court rescinded the contract and
granted the musicians the right to all royalties from the time
they brought the lawsuit. Attorneys for the record companies
appealed to the Supreme Court, but the court sided with the band,
rejecting the appeal without comment or dissent. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2557021286-652
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Subject: Burt 'n Eva
Sent: 11/11/98 11:03 am
Received: 11/12/98 6:53 am
From: Jeffrey Thames, KingoGXXXXXXXXcom
>From Marc's list of Burt Bacharach's biggest Billboard successes:
> #1 (1 wk.) Maxi Priest - "Close to You" (Charisma 98951) [6/30/90]
I'm sure most of you've caught this by now, but this is a
different song from the B&D "they-long-to-be" classic immortalized
by Karen and Richard. I believe this "Close To You" (one of my
favorite #1's of the early 90's) was written by Maxi himself,
although I don't have that info in front of me at present.
Will mentioned Little Eva's complete Dimension anthology, which
features "Makin' [It] With The Magilla". I gotta know: is this the
same song (or the same recording, for that matter) used in the
Magilla Gorilla cartoon of the same name? I remember taping that
song from the TV when I was a kid (using my old hand-held...this
was a little before the age of the VCR) and listening to it for
weeks afterwards. And to think it was actually released! So is
this a new comp, and if not, is it still readily available?
Thanx!
Jeff
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Subject: Burt Bacharach Hits
Sent: 11/11/98 6:11 am
Received: 11/11/98 7:48 am
From: David Feldman, felXXXXXXXXnderables.com
Marc listed Burt Bacharach's greatest hits, including...--
> #1 (1 wk.) Maxi Priest - "Close to You" (Charisma 98951) [6/30/90]
A great song, but not the Burt song made famous by the Carpenters.
Dave Feldman
Candy of the Fortnight: Atomic Fireballs
CD of the Week: The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection
Word of the Week: Edgy
Best Time Killer of the 90's: Filling out the UPDATED gender survey at
"http://www.imponderables.com"
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Subject: Re: Bacharach's biggest hits
Sent: 11/11/98 2:02 pm
Received: 11/12/98 6:53 am
From: Frank Youngwerth, FXXXXXXXXcom
<< #1 (1 wk.) Maxi Priest - "Close to You" (Charisma 98951) [6/30/90]>>
While some of Maxi Priest's hits were remakes, this "Close to You"
isn't the Bacharach-David song that the Carpenters recorded, but a
different song with the same name.
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Subject: Re: Maxi Priest (alleged Bacharach content)
Sent: 11/12/98 2:01 am
Received: 11/12/98 6:53 am
From: Engelbert Humperdinck, MUV9XXXXXXXXent2.lu.se
Marc wrote (or maybe quoted from another source):
>I show that as Burt's sixth-biggest chart success ever, out of 129
>that made the BILLBOARD charts. Here's the Top 10:
[SNIP]
>#1 (1 wk.) Maxi Priest - "Close to You" (Charisma 98951) [6/30/90]
This was DEFINITELY NOT written by Burt Bacharach!!! :)
Close To You by Maxi Priest is watered down reggae at its worst
(makes Inner Circle's theme to Cops sound like Lee "Scratch" Perry
in comparison! :-D), it was a huge hit when I was about 13.....in
1990, that is.
We now return to soft rock, girlpop groups and if Mike
Love will ever get his hair back.
Tobias
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