Doors - Strange Days MONO DEDICATED?

Is the doors strange days a mono mix? or is jus acouple songs (strange days, unhappy girl, my eyes have seen you) the only mono tracks? Ive seen acouple threads about this but none have given a solid answer. can someone please clarify this?

 

Yes, it was. It was released commercially as well though in small numbers. Rare though.

 

Listening to my copy right now and it sure sounds different to these ears.


To McLover: I love the avatar.

 

There is thread here about that. The conclusion: it's difficult to say for certain about all the tracks.

I have both Mono and Stereo copies, and have spent a couple of mind numbing sessions trying to determine if a lot of the Mono album is a fold down from the Stereo. I can play the stereo record and fold it to mono on my system, and for some songs, the effect sounds virtually indistinguishable from the mono LP.

I wish we could get a definitive answer. FWIW, I prefer listening to the Mono LP, fold down or not.





Edit: here's the thread w/ lots of info and opinions:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=120055&highlight=strange+days+mono

 

Thanks for the link.


Are fold downs created simply by flipping a switch? Wouldn't there be some compression added or whatever?

 

I was comparing the two side 1's just last week. On the two songs I most suspected of being fold-downs - "Love Me Two Times" and "You're Lost Little Girl " - the guitar (which is in right channel on the stereo) is too loud in the mono for those songs to be folded.

I need an opportunity to get to side 2, but at this point I think side 1 might actually be a dedicated mono mix.

 

I asked a similar question in the old thread. Maybe we should bump the other thread and see if there will be new contributions.

 

Thankie! This almost answers the question of which songs were dedicated?

 

"My Eyes Have Seen You" must be a dedicated mono mix, as it has a distinctive alternate fade.

 

I have previously owned the USA Elektro mono pressing, which I retained on hard drive after selling it. I now have the UK Elektra mono pressing.

The USA Elektra pressing is a separate dedicated mono mix. There is even a different take of one tune "My Eyes Have Seen You" which has a completely different and much poorer sound on the bass guitar intro.

The UK Elektra mono pressing is not a dedicated mono mix but a simple fold down off the stereo tape. Perhaps Elektra couldn't be bothered to send TWO master tapes to the UK one for stereo and one for mono. On this pressing "My Eyes Have Seen You" has the better sounding bass guitar intro that is familiar from the stereo version.

I would be happy to supply short samples as educational proof to those interested.

Bas Möllenkramer
Soesterberg
The Netherlands

 

I concur; my lengthy comparisons have yielded the same results. The US mono original appears to be a dedicated mix, but only for certain tracks. The UK mono is entirely a fold-down.

 

With all due respect I am not so sure about this. I just a&b'ed them both (U.S. mono mix, and the DCC). 'My Eyes Have Seen You' for my opinion is the same take. The mono just having some sort of compression on the bass and drums, making it sound different. If you listen carefully you hear jims voice come in at the same moment on both stereo and mono @ .15-.16 secs. . .This and the same guitar solo leads me to believe that it is indeed the same take.

 

The sound of the bass guitar in the opening bars of My Eyes Have Seen You is totally different on the original gold label MONO USA LP pressing of Strange Days. It is a different instrument with different strings and different harmonics. the sound is awful. I am a bass player myself and I would junk an instrument that sounded like this. Possibly only the bass track was re-done for the stereo mix. It is completely logical that the vocals, drums, guitars and keyboards are the same. But I stand by my comment that the bass guitar part on the mono mix is a different recording. Listen to it.

 

When they made the mono mix of "My Eyes Have Seen You", they probably mixed in the wrong bass track, assuming there are two different bass tracks on the session tape. I haven't studied the bass playing on that mix, but I do know that the mono mix is a match for the stereo mix, except at the fade, when Jim stops singing and the band churns on without him.

 

I'm just listening to this now and you're right, the bass on the intro is definitely not the same one as on the stereo. But I can hear the other bassline as well, be it buried. One of these basses is out-of-tune which makes the intro sound pretty bad.

 

wow you guys are good!

anyways, I found an US mono LP of Strange Days at a record store for the princely sum of $1. A few years ago i passed on a debut Doors mono LP which was only like $3 and have been kicking myself since so I don't make that mistake no more....

 

The USA Elektra pressing is a separate dedicated mono mix. There is even a different take of one tune "My Eyes Have Seen You" which has a completely different and much poorer sound on the bass
I would be happy to supply short samples as educational proof to those interested.

Bas Möllenkramer
Soesterberg
The Netherlands[/quote]


I would love to hear the mono base intro to the song...could you post it?

 

Here it is. You are welcome.

 

Excellent!

 

The drums are much more pounding and up front. The keyboards seem a bit more prominent, and yeah the fade out is different. Interesting.

Was there a dedicated mono mix for the single of the song "Hello I Love You (Won't You Tell Me Your Name?)" ?

 

There may be. Love's "Alone Again Or" was Elektra's first stereo single about a month earlier, there was a mono mix made, but not issued. It's available on the deluxe CD reissue of "Forever Changes". It's possible a mono mix of HILY was sent to other countries.

 

Here's something I got long ago, just found it on the hd.

Note: NOT my analysis

Tr. 01: Different echo on moog effect on vocals in parts. Listen to “We shall GO ON PLAYING OR FIND a new town”; on the stereo version the effect is mostly absent on the lines marked in capitol letters, while being there loud and clear on the mono. The moog effect was not on the multitracks, as evidenced by the pretty awful 2006 stereo remix.
Tr. 02: The balances are more or less the same. This could be a folddown touched-up with some additional EQ and compression. Actually, the whole album is more compressed sounding in mono than in stereo. This was probably done with the purpose of achieving a more radio friendly sound. But point is, it’s really hard to distinguish the mono/stereo differences between most of the tracks here and it seems likely that the stereo and mono mixes were prepared during the same sessions because the reverb (and other side FX) sound exactly the same on nearly every song. So, there really is no way for me to be 100% certain about this song.
Tr. 03: Same conclusion as Tr. 02.
Tr. 04: The handclaps & tambourine are missing entirely on the stereo version, suggesting that the producer thought of this song as a potential hit.
Tr. 05: Likely to be a fold. Most of the manipulated white noise that is heard so clearly at the beginning on the stereo is cancelled out when folded, giving the exact same sound as on the mono mix. No differences between the elements or the balance.
Tr. 06: Reverb on voice at the end of the song is missing in mono and the outro lasts about 3 secs longer.
Tr. 07: This always sounded like a fold to me, but clearly it isn’t. The rhythm guitar which plays the muted chords is much less present in mono (for example: it’s hardly there at 0.36 – 0.39 and absent during the guitar & piano solo’s.).
Tr. 08: Different bass intro and the vocals are faded much earlier at the end of the mono version.
Tr. 09: Backward recorded percussion effect (sounds like ticking) starts on both mixes at 1.39 but is faded out quickly after four seconds on the mono, while lasting the whole chorus in stereo.
Tr. 10: Morrison does some yelling before the grand double guitar solo at 2:56 (something like “f***ing $!@^!@ ….baby”, I think, or is it just me?!). The word “baby” is much more buried within the mono mix. Also, at the end of the solo, when the guitar notes are still fading, Manzarek hits the same note three times on the organ. These notes are better noticeable on the mono mix. I wish I could find more obvious examples than this, but this song has very few overdubs or studio trickery and the balancing is very much alike. Overall, there is more bass organ present on the mono mix, but I wouldn’t necessarily include that as proof of being a true mono mix.

 

Yes I agree. Interesting to hear a different version of this album, but I agree with what you say about the bass. Awful! The Stereo version has more subtlety and 'space'. Much nicer.