"The Monkees Salesman" Deep Stereo Separation - Isolated L/R Channels
0Time Stamps:
0:00 original stereo mix
2:39 isolated left channel
5:16 isolated right channel
I used to do a thing with my stereo set where I'd wire the speakers so that I could listen to stereo albums, but either only the left channel or the right channel coming out of both speakers. One reason why I enjoyed doing this was because I could hear the separation of the instruments with greater clarity. This is the musician in me!
Often, stereo albums would be mixed with drums and percussion on one channel, guitars, horns, strings and keyboards on the other channel. This wasn't always the case, but basically this was the stereo mixing format. Vocals could be centered, but sometimes you'd get the lead vocal centered, while the background vocals would be only on one channel. Some record companies had sound engineers who favored mixing all vocals to one channel and ALL instrumentation on the other channel (I'm recalling an album by Gary Lewis and the Playboys and a few cuts on some of Nancy Sinatra's albums.)
So you get a very fascinating listening experience when you're hearing either the left channel or the right channel from two speakers. Interestingly, you may also notice that you can get two completely different vibes from one song when you listen in this way. The "drums" channel can be funky, soulful, danceable, rockin'; the "quieter" channel, with only guitars, vocals, etc. can turn a hard-edged song into an almost intimate listening experience. You're able to focus almost solely on the what the vocalist is doing on a song.
So presented here (and elsewhere) is first the stereo album mix of a song then the isolated left channel, then isolated right channel. Hopefully you'll feel as if you're re-discovering some of your favorite albums.
#stereo #themonkees #monkees