Posted by Paulus on August 21, 2007 at 10:34:31:
As the hours wind down on this board, I had a thought today while listening to Good Vibrations in the car. It seemed to be a mono mix, or at best a stereo mix with virtually no separation. (Those old Marantz tuners with the oscilloscope built in (talk about a blast from the past!) would show an almost smooth 45 degree line indicating little separation.) I noticed the mix when it seemed the sound sounded a bit flat.
So it led me to wonder: Is there a policy about when to use a mono vs. stereo mix? I can appreciate thinking on both sides: Mono 1) is more true to many (not all, particularly as we get into 70s and 80s) originals and 2) better than a really bad stereo mix (vocals in one channel; instruments in another). But stereo 1) is what we're all used to now and 2) sounds broader and more vibrant vs. a mono mix, an important competitive consideration -- we don't want our music sounding any worse than, say, Lite's.
But there may be more concerted thinking on this issue from CBS-FM management. To me, knowing that there have been several excellent re-mastered stereo versions of Good Vibrations, I did feel the station lost some punch when it was playing the mono version. Is anyone aware of the official CBS guidelines on this, if any exist?