• daggermoon@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I think it was to reduce distortion on mono records when played back with a stereo stylus. I could be wrong though.

  • Midnitte@beehaw.org
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    2 months ago

    Think this is more an artifact of the way vinyl records worked - since audio can be encoded in two channels via the way the needle moves in certain orientations

    • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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      2 months ago

      Urr, I don’t think that’s it. I’m not sure stereo sound for vinyls has ever worked so that something like this would be necessary, and it wouldn’t really make sense – why would they have to put vocals on one channel and instruments on the other?

      A stereo vinyl player just has the needle moving up and down in addition to left and right, so that the left-right axis is the sum of the waveforms of both channels and the up-down axis is the difference – which means that a regular mono player can play stereo vinyls

  • the dopamine fiend@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The jump from mono to stereo made a lot of engineers’ heads spin. Then again, how many 100% perfect 5.1 albums have you heard?

    Actually, I’ve listened to only three 5.1 remixes, all of them phenomenal albums to begin with, and their 5.1 jobs were pretty meh. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots came out pretty good, but mainly because they just fucked around and tried stuff.

    • Hammocks4All@lemmy.mlOP
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      2 months ago

      It makes sense. I bet it’s super hard, especially at first.

      It’s largely a headphone problem, at least for me. I can’t listen to a song where certain tracks are completely isolated to one ear. The audio doesn’t need to be mixed perfectly, but I need at least a little bit of each sound in each ear. Otherwise it’s too distracting. My brain hates it.

      • Tabooki@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It’s supposed to sound like the band is in front of you on a stage. Not all mashed into one spot in the center of the stage. You should be able to close your eyes and picture where each drum is positioned. Where the before guitar players are standing. And you should be able to hear the shape of the room. Modern recordings mixed digitally can no longer do this. Then again if you’re streaming Spotify into Bluetooth your missing most of what’s there anyways.

    • saigot@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      There’s some cool 5.1 and even 7.1 stuff in classical music (I don’t have a a surround sound setup myself but I hear a lot of talk of it).

      • LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It was a pain in the ass but me and a buddy got it working once. I was a young teen and this was long before weed helped me see more beauty in music, so I didn’t get much out of it, but as an adult it’d probably be different.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        I thought part of the point of Zaireeka is that it is impossible to get it exact every time, so every time you play it it is a unique soundscape.

    • Riley@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, who produced Pet Sounds, was actually deaf in one ear. Despite that, he got along just fine in a monophonic world, but the switch to stereo completely left him behind. It was a huge change in how music was mixed.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        And yet Pet Sounds (and even the contemporary stuff they originally recorded for SMiLE but never officially released) still sounds phenomenal to this day despite being in mono.

        The man was a wizard.

    • li10@feddit.uk
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      2 months ago

      I hate the “spatial” mixes.

      Sometimes they’re done really well, but most of the time it’s just putting different parts of the song in different areas and makes it sound “diluted”.

      Like, the guitar is in front of you, then the bass is behind and to the left… why??

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        You’re missing a key ingredient: Lysergic acid diethylamide.

        In all other circumstances I agree with you.

        • li10@feddit.uk
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          2 months ago

          Lysergic acid diethylamide doesn’t fix a bad mix.

          You can still hear all the separate instruments surrounding you on a good regular mix, all the spatial does is break the interwoven sound.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 months ago

            Lysergic acid diethylamide doesn’t fix a bad mix.

            I mean… Have you ever listened to “Whole Lotta Love” or “Axis: Bold as Love” while tripping balls? Those panning parts are pretty wild.

      • DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        My understanding is that most (at least rock) music is mixed this way, just subtle enough to help your brain pick out instruments but not enough to consciously notice.

        • li10@feddit.uk
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          2 months ago

          Music is mixed that way, but spatial then takes a hammer to that concept.

          It takes away the single interwoven sound and imo sounds like different tracks being played on opposite sides of the room.

          I usually try the atmos mix for an album if it’s available on tidal, and usually all it ever does is remove the punch from songs.

  • minticecream@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Turns out early audio consoles with stereo didn’t have a pan knob. They had a pan switch. So choices were limited to left, right, or center (mono).

    Wasn’t til later that the pan pot was invented allowing incremental panning and true stereo mixing.

    • Hammocks4All@lemmy.mlOP
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      2 months ago

      That’s wild. But theoretically they could make two separate mono tracks, right? For example, a left mono track with 75% of what would have been an isolated left channel + 25% of the right channel and, similarly, a right mono track with 25% of what would have been an isolated left + 75% of the right. Then, sure, pan switch it fully to left and right.

      • Riley@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        You have to understand that mixing consoles from that era were supremely limited in channels (think four, eight, later sixteen), to the point where they would often have to mix one section (say, the drums) and then record that mix to tape so it would take up a single channel and then do the guitar, bass, and vocals on another channel. The idea of having two of the same thing going through two channels was an exorbitant luxury they couldn’t afford!

        • bizarroland@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          Exactly. Plus the common use of mastering at the time was to optimize the recorded audio for printing on a vinyl disc, and if the grooves were too deep or the transitions to Sharp it could cause the needle to skip out of the track.

          If your average listener is going to be listening on a mono device then a smart thing to do would be to pan one thing consistently to one side and the other to the other as the mono needle isn’t going to care where it’s getting its vibrations from. That would give you more resolution and more depth for the cut, as long as the final disc was only played in mono.

          I’m not saying that’s the case for every recording but I’m pretty sure it has happened quite a few times back then while they were still figuring everything out.

    • aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Thank you, that’s the piece of info I never had. If it’s not a Reddit-level fact. The 2 channels were new and people wete trying things out and mind-altering substances were freely available as well, so judgment might have been hogtied at times.

      At the time, there was sentiment that it was a way to sell two amplifiers and speakers instead of one, a suspicion furthered by the later arrival of quad, which for many was a bridge too far. Audio places tried that briefly and then went back to selling stereo. And may be why a certain generation looks askance at 5.1 etc.

      There were other changes as well, tubes/valves to solid state plus hybrids…when I read about Cloud products in IT, it rhymes, marketing hoodoo inveigling into genuine tech appraisals.

      • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        It’s an incorrect comment based on a real thing.

        There was equipment with switched panning, but knob panning was so common it was referenced in diy electronic project books aimed at high schoolers.

        There are some tube amplifier circuit types where the pan control actually changes directly what signal goes to what grid of what tube, and in those cases it would be useful to have switch instead of pot pan, but there were circuits to mitigate the problems and even tubes intended to take multiple grid inputs by that time.

        Another comment explained how a person could work around that problem and get pot pan with split channels and they’re right.

        One of the biggest reasons for switched panning was that it wasn’t always clear that you were going for a stereo effect! Often in the case of reinforcing a live band, you had some speaker cabinets for different frequencies and it would be stupid to send the trumpets to the big cabinet meant for the tympani!

        Partial panning was also used in lots of the movie versions of stereo and multi source sound from over a hundred years ago so it’s not like switched panning was the only option or something

        Switched panning is famously present on mastering machines though for the old (er than single groove stereo) two groove stereo record type.

        So switched panning isn’t the reason for the wild mixing of the 50s and 60s, but it did exist.

        • aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          Thank you, helpful.

          There weren’t crossovers for routing signal in live recordings?

          In my youth I wanted to learn more about this stuff, but I appeared to be much younger than I was, so was shooed away.

          • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            to be 100% clear, i was talking about using a mixer to run sound to make a live band sound bigger, not to record them, but yeah, to this day lots of live sound cabinets are without crossover.

            who needs em when there’s a qualified technician with several amplifiers setting everything up and running the board?

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I mean this is true but not about the '70s as the original post states. Even by the '60s they had sophisticated stereo audio mixers - they just cost hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of running on people’s phones like today.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        Yeah, we had stereo mixing/mastering pretty much down by the 70s I think…

        What I think OP might be referring to are albums that were recorded in mono in the 60s, and then released again in stereo in the 70s when the tech only allowed for full L or R panning. Those albums were never meant to be listened in anything but mono though.

  • banazir@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    I’d be perfectly fine if everything was just mixed mono. I see little value in stereo. I’m weird like that.

    • strawberry@kbin.earth
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      2 months ago

      like @zaphod said, its mostly to make it sound wider. in mono, everything sounds like its in the center of your skull. in stereo, some stuff it a few inches from my ear (wherever the drivers are), some stuff can be in my head, some can even be in my throat if that makes sense

    • fishos@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Things like Spotify or your phone/earbuds themselves usually have a mono setting. I use it all the time when only wearing one earbud. Beatles songs are notorious for splitting vocals to one ear only.

      The solution is already right there. But let me guess, “No, I want to use my old wired earbuds from 1995 and they should accommodate me in my archaic niche use case instead of me upgrading my earbuds to enjoy the new features developed like forced mono”?

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        Beatles songs are notorious for splitting vocals to one ear only.

        FYI, you’re listening to the wrong mix then. Beatles albums (particularly those before The White Album, or maybe Sgt. Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour, I forget exactly) were never recorded with stereo in mind. The tech was pretty new, and the stereo mixes of those songs/albums were more of a novelty.

        If you’re listening to the 2009 Remasters, make sure you’re listening to the mono versions if it’s an album prior to 1967-1968 or so, otherwise you’re gonna get this “fake stereo”, panning a mono signal between L and R, bullshit.

    • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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      2 months ago

      In electronic music you often slightly detune the left and right of a synthesizer to make it sound “wide”, you can’t do that in mono and if you mix the stereo down to mono it sounds boring.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        2 months ago

        Cant you do that in mono with two oscillators? Also aren’t analog synths mono most of the time?

  • gid@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    You know, I love those albums where they fucked around did things like hard-pan all the drums to the right channel. I’m here for the experimentation.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      It does what it claims to do in that it makes the music sound like it’s coming from a set of speakers a few feet in front of you in a room that has poor sound deadening. I really tried to like it but it just sounds more muddled/is fatiguing for me.

      Edit: I haven’t tried it on acid yet tho, maybe that would make it make sense.

  • Orbituary@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    There’s actually a biological reason for this, believe it or not. Language and music “time share” many characteristics of both hemispheres of the brain. Language and music are processed in different hemispheres.

    Read pages 20-26 of the book “How Music Really Works” by Wayne Chase. It breaks it down in detail.

  • MermaidsGarden@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    This would be more early 60’s, mostly because those engineers were working with 2 track stereo which really limits your options. Most artists were recording on at least 8 track stereo by the 70’s.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 months ago

            Beatles albums prior to… I want to say The White Album? Or it might have been Sgt. Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour, were recorded in mono and originally released in mono. “Stereo” versions were released (“Fake stereo” AKA recording in mono and panning it to one side or another) which are the ones that sound kinda bad imo. They were never intended to be listened in stereo other than as a novelty.

            It wasn’t until their later albums were they actually meant to be listened to in stereo. Eleanor Rigby, being on Revolver, was not recorded with “real” stereo mixing in mind as far as I understand it. If you’re listening to the 2009 Stereo Remasters (the Box Set versions), then they were properly mixed into stereo, and sound pretty good. However, the original experience was always meant to be mono.

            Though I’m sure there’s some expert on this shit that knows more than me.

            • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              I have all of the remasters, but it’s the newer mixes that really do a great job with stereo. I love the Beatles. :) The Giles Martin mixes really are awesome. I hope he gets to all of them.

      • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I noticed that I had blown the front left speaker in my first car when bohemian rhapsody was missing vocals. I don’t remember when “a night at the opera” came out, but I’m going to be bold and say the 70s.

    • debil@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Just ignore that crap and put some real shit into your headphones. Like The Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us.

      Play it loaded.

      • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I just love this kind of personal recommendation instead of the same shit Spotify and every streaming/scrobbling service keeps recommending. Sure I will, thank you.

    • magz :3@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      this kind of comment just reminds me of how people used to complain about distortion on electric guitars when it was initially discovered/invented/popularized

        • magz :3@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          there is plenty of non-quantized instrumental music if you’re willing to look, and even then dismissing all music doesn’t forego a strict grid (which in the modern day is simply a choice and artist can choose to make) is dismissing a massive body of work just because it doesn’t use a technique that you like

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Dude/Dudette, it was just a gag comment. Not only am I not really dismissing a massive body of work just because it uses quantization, as someone who’s spent more than half his life writing software synthesis applications, I’ve literally made a career out of quantization.

            That being said, music that is not quantized definitely has a more natural feel to it, although putting that “feel” into sequencing software is surprisingly difficult.

            • ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
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              2 months ago

              As a treble lover, I tend to have problems with low bitrate and lossily compressed stuff.
              But from what I have seen heard, as long as the quanta are fine enough, the resultant regenerated audio tends to be close enough to the original. Of course, the components of the sound card matter, when you get to extreme clarity levels, but I guess my ears are not fine enough for that.

  • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    The early days of stereo (which is what you’re talking about, the recordings of 70s which aren’t using stereo as an “effect” almost universally have the vocals panned to the center. The old way to take the vocals out of a recording was to adjust how much of the signal present equally on both channels was allowed to be played) were all about two things: backwards compatibility with mono systems and giving people with stereo systems a recognizable effect no matter what goofy system they had.

    Wild panning accomplishes both goals.

    Studio engineering that used the stereo format to create the illusion of a room or capture the sound of the room the players were playing in wasn’t developed yet and came from the experimental stereo recordings that sound crazy now like silver apples of the moon.