Mixology: The Mono/Stereo Mix Differences Podcast
Music:Music Commentary
Hello Friends! As promised, it's finally time to blaze it up, with the 1967 LP from the much derided Herman's Hermits, Blaze. Issued in October of that year, the album was not issued at the time in the UK (though formed popular on the import market), the album comprised of 10 tracks produced by the ardent lover of mono, one Mickie Most. This overall leads to a generally simple stereo presentation, including two reprocessed stereo tracks (though not necessarily of the same mono mixes), but this does not mean these don't feature some significant differences.
Things get more interesting when we bring in Ron Furmanek remixes from 1991 of the first 7 tracks for the album. If one hasn’t heard a Ron Furmanek remix before, it’s important to understand his sound for the period. These are very clean and open mixes, and compared to the often heavy compression and EQ used on ‘60s mixdowns, Ron prefers to keep it dynamic and dry, heavily aided by his very ahead-of-the-curve syncing of stage tapes, albeit with some minor sync issues sadly. I personally find them more fascinating insights than actual preferred listening experiences, and the tracks as presented on the Bear Family set also appear to have a bloated sounding EQ, especially apparent when moving from the ‘60s mixes, so do keep all these pointers in mind as we compare.
As a little bonus, I’m going to be including the song ‘Mum & Dad’, which was recently brought to my attention by Andrew Sandoval as excised from the LP late in the production, present in the tracklist (but not audio) for the US reel-to-reel release, as the second to last track on the LP. Of course, this eventually saw release on The Best of Herman’s Hermits Volume III in the US only, which gave us true mono and stereo mixes of the track, and we were treated to a remix from Ron again for this one.
All in all, this makes for an episode that was far more fun to make than I was expecting, and it was very much one initially done out of the love for the album over anything else. And hopefully you learn a lot too!
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) by The Beach Boys
River Deep-Mountain High by Ike & Tina Turner
Take Me For What I'm Worth by The Searchers
(The Validity of) Friends (in Mono) by The Beach Boys
The Andy Williams Christmas Album by Andy Williams
1962-1966 & 1967-1970 (Remixed and Expanded Editions) by The Beatles
Waiting For The Sun by The Doors
Kinks by The Kinks
Ferry Cross The Mersey by Gerry and The Pacemakers, etc.
Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake by Small Faces
The More I See You by Chris Montez
Horizontal by Bee Gees
Hums of The Lovin’ Spoonful by The Lovin’ Spoonful
Begin Here by The Zombies
Beatles for Sale by The Beatles
The Who Sell Out by The Who
The Mamas and The Papas (Cass.John.Michelle.Dennie) by The Mamas and The Papas
Disraeli Gears by Cream
Smiley Smile by The Beach Boys
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