Smile: stereo or mono?

I'm just curious whether a majority of people agree with the decision to mix the 19 "main tracks" on The Smile Sessions into mono, or wish they had opted for a stereo mix instead. By "main tracks" of course I am talking about disc one of the box set and sides 1-3 of the LPs. I know that they didn't have the tapes available to do stereo mixes of every song, so the stereo option means stereo whenever possible.

 

Beach Boys albums in the mid-60's were mono. It's makes sense for historical purposes. Also, some songs (like Wonderful) can't be done in stereo, so what was the alternative?

That said, I like the bonus stereo mixes a lot and wish they would have included stereo mixes of every song possible.

So...I'd kinda vote both, if I could.

 

S T E R E O...of course.

 

I think they DID do stereo mixes whenever possible.

 

They could have cobbled together a stereo "Wanna Be Around" and "Fire"...maybe "Worms". Make it easier on us.

 

Stereo. I think it fits the psychedelic vibe of the material.

 

I prefer Pet Sounds in stereo, and Smile in stereo, too.

 

Stereo of course. After hearing how much thought and detail was paid even to the backing tracks (disc 5 on GV), almost 50 percent of peculiarities are lost in mono, it seems.

 

Mono mix for me ! and I hate mono! Brian Wilson would have made it mono then so thats how it should be ! but maybe they are keeping a remixed stereo smile for another day?

 

I can't vote because I'm glad they did it in mono, but I wish there was a stereo mix as well. I don't really care what Brian would have done because I doubt he would have used his demo vocals over a track, nor make many of the tracks as long as they are on this set. With that, I'd like the stereo... but I enjoy the flow it has in mono. But hey, they have to give us something in 40 more years.

 

I'm glad they mixed it into mono because that's what it would have been in the 60s and will buy the stereo mix when it's released.

 

Mono

 

M O N O of course!
because he was deaf in one ear...

 

Yeah, I agree. I love the way it sounds in mono, but I'd like stereo versions wherever possible too, since it brings out little details that might otherwise get lost. I know that the fan mixers are already on the case. . .

 

I like options. In a perfect world it would be available in both mono and stereo. However, since the multitracks and/or stereo mixes do not exist for all tracks, I have to vote for mono. Going back and forth between mono and stereo would hurt the cohesiveness of the "finalized" album.

That said, having stereo mixes of the master versions on the sessions discs is always a good thing.

 

Mono all the way for me. Some smile tracks in stereo lose a huge amount of the feel with seperation. I'm a big fan of stereo to allow you to hear things that would always, only ever be buried in mono, and MOST music i'd always opt for stereo, but some pieces of music just work best in mono and smile is one of those to me.

 

Stereo.
Not asking it to replace the mono, it needs to be included also.
I think the opposite of the last poster.
The stereo adds a huge amount of power and fidelity to each song.
The Pet Sounds remix was a success (to me) and Smile, especially at the price they were charging, deserved the same attention (at least).

 

It depends lots of early Stereo was not really mixed well. You'd get a hard left/right mix, where the voices came from speaker A & the instruments from Speaker B. Lots of Beatles stereo mixes sounded that way. Also ther was a lotof audio ping-pong. I have a stereo version of Bobby Darins' Artificial Flowers where his voice starts on the left speaker then goes center and then moves to the right, then the voice reverses direction. I don't think the voice is ever in one spot more than 10 seconds. In cases of 50's and early 60's I think Mono is better.

 

No vote.

Agree with the having-options-is-good opinion upthread.

If enough multis existed, I'd lobby for 5.1.

 

But I'M not!

(I'm really impressed by how great the mono sounds. But I'd love to have stereo versions where possible. I love that fan mix of "Good Vibrations" that was on YouTube a while ago.)

 

Wish it was both, the way we can choose mono or stereo Sgt Pepper to listen to.

 

Mono is the way it's supposed to be!

From the beginning of 1965 (when Today was released) through the end of 1967 (Wild Honey), all the Beach Boys albums were released ONLY in mono. Yes, their early albums were released in stereo, but those were Chuck Britz mixes prepared only because Capitol demanded stereo versions. Once The Beach Boys had enough clout to do what they wanted, Brian was able to stop supplying Capitol with stereo mixes. It wasn't until the group hired ace engineer Stephen Desper that they were willing to tackle stereo again, beginning with Friends in 1968. Maybe if they'd brought Desper in to mix Smile, I'd be okay with it being done in stereo, but they didn't, so mono's the only way to go as far as I'm concerned.

 

Brian can't hear in stereo so of course he would think mono is fine. Every stereo remix I've ever heard sounds better than the original Beach Boys mono recording to me except for some wonky bootlegs.

 

No easy answer from me.

The purist in me would prefer stereo, because (with very few exceptions), no original mixes of the material exist, and with today's equipment it is not possible to make authentic 1960s sounding mono mixes.

For overall llistenability and uniformity, mono works better, because some of the most complete fragments only exist in mono, and a continuous switch from mono to stereo and back could destroy the flow of the reconstructed album part.

Ideally, the set would use all existing mono mixes of songs, sections and fragments, and use wide, unprocessed reverb-free stereo mixes for the remainder.

The logic that "Brian would have mixed it in mono, therefore it must be in mono" does not make sense to me, especially in the light of digital reverb, cross-fades and digital synch-jobs which Brian surely would not have made.

 

I have no problem with the mono but they should have had both,
A 5 disc set without lps(release those for Lp Fans) or some kind of BR /DVD
or download that would cover mono stereo

I bet a HD Tracks version would be a sure bet if it was Universal title