AW: Vinyl/CD

[Sean Costello]

terry michaels wrote:

> Message text written by Haible Juergen
> >>I think the reason for bad sounding CDs is simply greedy sloppy
>         >re-mastering.
> <
>
> I couldn't agree more.  The Beatles first four albums were originally
> recorded in stereo, their vinyl albums were stereo, the stereo master tapes
> still exist, but the albums were re-released on CD in monaural.  Why?

I think that the Beatle's albums were also mixed and released in mono. The
mono and stereo mixes would differ; in many cases, the mono mix would be
preferred. I know of several songs, such as "Lady Madonna"/"The Inner Light"
where the mono mix of the single blows the stereo mix of the album away. Not
just subtle differences - differences as profound as one version having double
tracked vocals, while the other version doesn't! So, the decision of which
version to release was probably based on which version was considered the
best. Of course, the decision not to release both mixes on a single CD (where
they would clearly fit) is just greed.

Sean Costello