Mono, but no "Beatle Stereo"

[Moses Presley]

I'm trying to capture that old pre-stereo sound as in Beatles tracks, where stuff is panned far left or far right, and can only be heard in one speaker or the other.

Thing is, I record all my tracks in mono, put a mono master fader in, and pan them hard, but when I listen (to both pre-bounced mixes and bounces mixes), everything is in both speakers.

HELP! Anyone have any ideas?

MP

[gigi]

Put a STEREO Master fader and set the position (left or right) of the signals from the pan of the single mono tracks.
Hope this helps
Ciao
Gigi

[jonnyrocker]

The Beatles sound I believe you are describing is still stereo. The parts are hard panned because they had to create submixes to accomodate many overdubs on their four-track tape machines. The final mix is still on two tracks (right and left), allowing you to hear things panned.

It sounds like you just need to use a stereo master fader. Then pan your mono tracks hard. To mimic the submixed sound, try hard panning every instrument one way or the other.

Good luck.

[Moses Presley]

Hmm...when I create a Stereo Master Fader, the Master Fader itself has no option to pan. Is that right?

I bounced Stereo after setting up the Stereo Master Fader, and the results are the same. Everything is still in every speaker. Where else could I be going wrong?

Also, I may have one or two tracks that AREN'T panned hard...would they all have to be to achieve the effect?

MP

[apetrocelli]

You have to pan EACH of the track either left or right, depending on which speaker you want them to appear. FOr example, pan bass, r. guitar and drums hard left, lead guitars and voices far right.
Then use a stereo master fader, not a mono one. The Beatles sound is not pre-stereo, actually is very stereo in that you don't hear the same thing on both speakers. Wherever you put a mono device in your signal, that effect will be lost. Some people has the theory that they mixed that way to show the effect of the new stereos in a more radical, comercial way. Who knows.
Cheers, Andrés

[Moses Presley]

Okay (and I'm sorry if my line of questioning is stoopid), should I also make sure all the plug-ins are stereo as well.....or mono (all the tracks are mono)?

MP

[apetrocelli]

Hey Moses, no problem.
The tracks are mono, hence the plugs should be mono too. If you want to blend both channels a little you can try and use a stereo reverb on a stereo auxiliar channel. For example put a stereo auxiliar whose input is Sub 1-2, and make all the Aux Sends of the left tracks go to Sub 1, and then all Aux sends of the right tracks go to Sub 2.
Cheers, Andrés

[ghostman420]

Originally posted by apetrocelli:
Some people haVE the theory that they mixed that way to show the effect of the new stereos in a more radical, comercial way. Who knows.
Cheers, Andrés

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I know. They mixed and recorded that way because they didn't have any other options. They only had four-track tape machines to work with. Thank goodness for Les Paul and George Martin! It wasn't to show off the new stereophonic sound (which wasn't exactly new at the time anyway).

[Moses Presley]

Yup. I've heard the same thing. All I know that throughout music history and everything that has come and gone, I still love listening to the production of those Beatle records. Not just the songwriting, but the production. Listening to songs only in one speaker, etc.

Hey thanks, guys. I'm going to try those tips out today.

MP

[jeffinmarin]

Hey. I think stereo records started in 1958. The Beatles came round in 1963.