On Friday, September 4, 2015 at 10:06:35 AM UTC-4, Mike Rivers wrote:
On 9/4/2015 8:46 AM, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Yes. Good mono beats average stereo every time. And excellent stereo may
not make for good mono. So why bother with stereo when 99.9% of your
audience is listening in mono?
It all depends on the material, of course, but I think that today a high
percentage of listening is done with earphones that are wired for two
channels, one for each ear. But with that kind of left-right separation,
you want to have a strong center in your mix. That's likely to result in
a mix that, when listened to on speakers in a less than ideal
environment, sounds mostly mono.
And, of course, even today, the majority listen to pop in a less than
ideal environment, stereo wise.
Ideal, stereo-wise (earphones) but that's not ideal when listened to
properly recorded stereo. It's ideal for listening to properly recorded
binaural, however, the kind of thing you get with a dummy head with omni
mics in the "ears." Not much rock music is recorded that way.
Mike, I was told by a group member of Bubble Puppy, their HOT SMOKE & SASAFRASS hit song was mixed using car stereo speakers. Not sure it made a bit of difference, but maybe someone felt most music gets listened to in a car, so create the environment to mix.
During the '70's, less stereophonic sound was marketed. Even a participant here mentioned it was common to fix the centered and vary only one stereo channel. Some songs, though I enjoy wider stereo, when mixed wide (via RockBand multi-tracks) can't compete with a narrow stereo rendition. I blame that all on the recording engineer(s).
Jack
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