Mixology: The Mono/Stereo Mix Differences Podcast Frederick French-Pounce

Hello Friends! It's time to hop back on the Beach Boys train this month with a look at the group's 2nd LP of 1965, the commercial smash Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!). Containing huge hits 'Help Me, Rhonda' and 'California Girls', the album was only initially issued in mono and Duophonic stereo back in 1965, but once the late 90s hit, the album steadily gained true stereo mixes of it's tracks, until in 2012 the whole album received it's first true stereo edition, using many of the previously issued mixes, and some additional ones created for this issue. However, those stereo mixes had been changed multiple times prior - not always with notice - giving us a perplexing bevy of mixes to look into, along with an alternate fade on the single version of 'California Girls', and a unique 2003 DVD-A mix of 'Summer Means New Love'. In short, you'll need an entire summer day and night to digest it all!
A huge thanks to @vinylbenjy on instagram for his second flatlay artwork to grace the show while my collection makes it's way between countries!
Happy Listening,
Frederick



Patreon
 


Email
 
Instagram - @hypnoticfred



 

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! 

Happy Listening,


Frederick
 


Patreon
 


Email
 
Instagram



 

Hello Friends! The time is finally here for the epic journey that is our Mixology exploration of the 1966 classic from Ike & Tina Turner, River Deep-Mountain High. Of note due to it's 5 Phil Spector productions (including the title cut), and 7 killer Ike Turner originals, this is a 12 track album of wall to wall bangers that didn't see release in American until 1969. Naturally, the album was issued in 1966 in both dedicated mono and stereo mixes, but unacknowledged until now was fully remixed into stereo in 1969 for the worldwide A&M reissue of the album, giving us 3 unique mixes of the 11 tracks carried across the 3 releases, plus 2 for 'You're So Fine', the track unique to the 1966 LP.
 


However, the fun doesn't stop there, as discussed recently in my breakdown of the mix exploration for this album (free to all over at the Patreon), 3 of the tracks were issued in seemingly unique mono mixes on the 1991 Back to Mono box set, and the mono LP and 45 presentations of the title cut are vastly different sonically - but are they differing mixes? We have a lot to dig into today, and to help me cover the deep dive taken for this is Patron, Assistant and Friend Andy, who joins me for a chat about the various pressings, cuttings, LPs, 45s and CDs we explored to cover all the bases of this seemingly innocuous album, and who is also responsible for this episode's flatlay.
 


This is the most excited I've been for a Mixology episode in a long time, and I hope you'll have a blast discovering these mixes (and maybe even this album) with me today on this epic journey. And to top it off, there's some great differences between these mixes too. So grab that tambourine in hand, get the echo unit ready to roll, and let's sail on down the river and climb that mountain - no matter how deep or how high!
 


Happy Listening,


Frederick
 


Patreon
 


Email
 
Instagram



 

Hello Friends! We're back with our first proper Mixology breakdown of 2024, taking our first look on the show at The Searchers, and their fantastic 1965 LP Take Me For What I'm Worth. The last LP issued by the group until their late 70s renaissance, the album sees the group moving in a Folk Rock direction, and deep in the throws of a love affair with the echo chamber, giving us some wonderful differing echo levels between the two mixes, along with a few other tidbits. An album deeply worth your time, it's time to see which mix you should be after - if you don't just take either for what they're worth!
Happy Listening, Frederick
Fans on the Run Podcast (feat. Frederick French-Pounce)

Patreon
 


Email
 
Instagram
 


Back to Mono

Hello Friends! We're kicking off the world of Mixology for 2024 with a bit of a theory based episode. Friends is one of The Beach Boys' best loved studio LPs. Issued in 1968, this did not see a mono issue in the USA, and elsewhere in the world any mono issues were done simply as fold-downs from the stereo mix. Thus, aside from 2 sides mixed to mono initially for 45 use, we have never been presented with an authorised mono mix of the album... or have we? Understanding the mixdown process for this album, and Brian Wilson's unique involvement in it, means that the monophonic LP saga for the group may not actually end with Wild Honey, and just maybe, that UK mono LP you hold might actually prove to have some worth...
 


Happy Listening,
Frederick
 


Patreon
 


Email
 
Instagram

Hello Friends! It's that festive time of year again, so I thought I'd pull out one of the few 60s seasonal LPs in my collection for your listening pleasure today, courtesy of Andy Williams. Today, we'll be looking at the first of his 5(!) Christmas albums, here sensibly titled The Andy Williams Christmas Album from 1963. Not reissued in it's mono mix since it's first issue, this LP is home to the classic 'It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year', along with other Side 1 bangers such as 'Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells'. Side 2 then delves into the more secular side, which while not my usual chosen side of things, seems appropriate to cover, and overall, this is certainly a solid holiday LP from the period that deserves to have it's poppier material heard in that punchy monophonic sound, but the stereo is certainly no slouch - if anything, it's a little too bombastic! So let's weigh it all up, and most importantly, don't forget to hang up your sock!



Happy Listening, Frederick

Patreon
 


Email
 
Instagram
 


Back to Mono