[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Mono vs Stereo

[sherington]

I would love to know what you guys think of this article. I sort of
remeber thinking that the original mono tracks sounded better than the
remastered stereo but now I am not so sure since it has been many, many
years since I even had or even played the orginal, orginal records.

https://theconversation.com/its-only-rock-n-roll-and-sometimes-its-better-in-mono-63846?

How on earth would one listen to mono through LMS & a stereo system,
anyway??

Thanks in advance.

Andrew


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[Julf]

Post by sherington
How on earth would one listen to mono through LMS & a stereo system,
anyway??

Use audacity (or any other sound processing/mixing software to 1)
combine L and R channels into one channel, and 2) pan that channel
either hard left or hard right (depending on which speaker you want to
listen to).



"To try to judge the real from the false will always be hard. In this
fast-growing art of 'high fidelity' the quackery will bear a solid gilt
edge that will fool many people" - Paul W Klipsch, 1953
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[stereoptic]

If your stereo speakers are properly spaced, aligned and in phase and
you are seating in the 'sweet spot' the left and right channels should
'disappear' and the mono recording will appear to come from the 'phantom
center'.

This is assuming that the CD recording is properly mastered, mono tape
was played back on a mono player (not one with a stereo head) so that
the left and right channels are properly balanced.

Julf has some good advice above; using Audacity with those instructions
and saving the file as mono will also reduce the file size.
If you are going to convert your mono records to digital and don't have
a mono cartridge, you can use 2 "Y" RCA connectors to combine the
channels, then gently use software like Click Repair to remove a bit of
the static, feed that file into Audacity to make sure that here is no
clipping, and then optionally select one channel and save as mono.

Supposedly The Beatles were actively involved with most of the mono
mixes, but left the stereo mixes to the engineers. (3 days to mix Sgt.
pepper in mono, and 3 hours to mix the stereo or something like that)
Stereo LPs were like $1 more than the monos back in the day, and the
'wide' stereo mixes (with bass and vocals on one side and guitar and
drums on the other) gave the customer the feeling that they got more for
their money. Same with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and many others.
As mentioned in the article, the mono Revolution has much more power and
punch than the 'ice cream stereo' as Lennon put it.


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[mlsstl]

The choice between mono v. stereo is almost wholly dependent on the
intent and quality of the original recording.

As a widely available commercial product on LP, stereo dates back to the
late 1950s and early 60s. However, being brand new at the time, many of
those recordings were overly enamored with the sound-effect aspect of
stereo which led to a lot of grossly exaggerated and/or "ping-pong"
recordings. Definitely not something that resulted in improved natural
sound reproduction.

The Beatles actually used stereo recorders in the studio for multi-track
purposes. Four and eight channel open reels weren't yet common (if even
available) so they took a 2 channel recorder and used the left channel
to record the instruments and came back and added vocals latter on the
other channel. The original intent for the final release was a mixed
mono recording. However, rapidly becoming all the rage, pop trends led
to the albums also being released in stereo even though the effect was
completely unnatural.

As the studio equipment got better and the initial novelty of stereo
passed, the quality of stereo recordings improved with less exaggeration
and ping-ponginess (though the 1960s psychedelic rock phase certainly
had a lot of fun with stereo).

A well done stereo recording played back on a properly set up system in
a decent room can through a wonderfully natural, broad soundstage. This
can be amazingly lifelike for recordings of acoustic instruments and
unamplified voice. It can be far better than a mono recording. However,
I'd prefer a mono recording if it means staying away from the artificial
stereo or... shudder... a mono recording that has been digitally
processed into pretend stereo.


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[sherington]

Educational, as always. I will try the Audacity route tosee if I can
really hear any differences.

Andrew


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[drmatt]

LMS can define a player to receive only one channel, either left or
right. Assuming your source is mono anyway, this is enough. Then
disconnect one speaker.. :)




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