'Mono' Matt

[johnfoyle]

A Matt Monro purchase I made today got me thinking about yet another aspect of his career.

The latest , it seems, wheeze for the record industry is to try and persuade us to buy the back catalogue by favourite acts in the 'Mono' format. Until 'Stereo' became the abiding format in the late 1960's most acts released discs in both mono and stereo. Mono got most of the technical attention for the simple reason that it sounded best on the pre-FM radio stations. There was a real art to it, ensuring that the most attractive part of the sound picture was obvious. Hours would be spent getting that right. Stereo, on the other hand , would , usually, be done quickly , usually emphasising the seperation aspect, people getting all excited that the drums were coming from one speaker and the rest form the other etc. The polarisation is very distracting, giving a over-emphasis to the format as opposed to the content. Luckily Matt Monro fans are saved from all that by the diligent and careful work you, Richard , have been doing to prepare the recent re-issues, collections.

I say 'it seems' because , in some cases, it's worthwhile doing. The recent Beatles and Bob Dylan 'mono' editions have been wonderful, breathing life into songs that we might have become over familiar with. There's a slight echo on the vocals on the 'mono' mix of Blowing In The Wind which makes the song stand out anew and so on.

Today I got a vinyl copy of Matt's 1965 collection 'Hits of Yesterday' , all in glorious Monophonic. It's in remarkably good condtion , marks around the spindle hole indicating that side one got most of the plays. As with Dylan, the 'mono' presentation is pretty thrilling. ' From Russia With Love' really leaps out of the speakers. At times I thought it actually was a stereo relay but , after fading speakers, I realised the mix was done so intelligently that it was just that the more interesting sounds were mixed better etc. And , of course, there's all the warmth and depth that is exclusive to vinyl.

All this is a rather long winded way of wondering , Richard, are there any plans to re-issue some of Matt's work in Mono? Perhaps you'll say that it's been blooming difficult enough to get new editions/better mixes of the stereo stuff! Even a collection of some 'mono' mixes would be great.

[Rmoore]

To be honest Matt's work in general was recorded with Stereo in mind.

The first Parlophone single was recorded in Mono only and from that point onwards all singles (and the first two albums) up until 'One Day' were recorded in Stereo with a Mono back up. These were designed to be heard that way. The only odd track out was "When Love Comes along" which was 4 track for technical reasons. The single master can never be mixed in stereo as the backing track survives, but the master vocal take does not. (The four track sounds glorious mixed to stereo, but no master vocal makes it impossible). For all of these recordings if you want to hear them in mono just fold down the stereo.

Even when recording in 4 track the idea was that all recordings would recieve Stereo release and so in general the orchestra was recorded in Stereo, and the vocal on the third track - sometime the rhythm section could be on the fourth track for balancing purposes. All of these songs were recorded live in the studio in much the same way the Stereo material was recorded. Matt recorded live in the studio even when recording to 8 track.

Once again there is an exception. "From Russia with Love" was recorded with one track of Orchestra over which two vocals and the Tack piano were recorded. This has never really sounded good in stereo and was mixed as an after thought, where as in most other cases the Mono and Stereo mixes were made in the same session. I have run all stereo mixes side by side to the mono and there are no differences apart from slight difference in edit points and minor differences in compression. All Stereo mixes used on The Singles Collection match the original singles releases exactly.

When Matt joined Capitol in 1966 from that point all US recorded material was folded down to Mono from the stereo mixes, and any UK recorded tracks were treated the same as before. By late 1968 no mono mixes were attempted at all.

So Matt in Mono is not really something i'd think would interest many simply as there is so little difference - if at all. I'm still trying to get the Stereo mixes for much of the Capitol material (the way it was mixed!) released but it's a slow job.

There are CD's that contain a lot of the original mono mixes out there if you wish to track them down, but they are by no means revelatory and often sound dull and lifeless in comparison.

Hope this helps

Richard

[johnfoyle]

Thanks Richard. The more I think about it I should have realised that what you say is the obvious answer. Matt's demographic from the start was more likely to be the more sophisticated , stereo owning type, as opposed to the teeny, beat group crowd who would have been happy with mono productions. I'm still lovin' what I'm hearing on this album!