Mixology: The Mono/Stereo Mix Differences Podcast

Hello Friends! We're kicking the year off proper today, with an album I have had requested from the moment I started Mixology, and that is The Piper At The Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd. The only LP released by the group under Syd Barrett's leadership, this album truly is something else, with seemingly disconnected ideas strung together to somehow make a psychedelic classic. Never remixed, this albu...

Hello Friends, and welcome to Mixology for 2023! We're starting the year off a little differently, with a wonderful conversation I had recently with Craig Smith. Best known for his work on the Monkees Mixography website and the upcoming Mixing Links: The Monkees on Disc book, Craig has worked with his partner Derek Miner to create the most comprehensive guide to the 900+ unique mixes in the Monkee...

Hello Friends! Well, with another year over, and a bout of illness delaying recording, it's time to look back over the year we've had. It's been one of incredible growth for the show, and I wanted to take some time to thank you all, not just in words, but by finally responding to some of the emails I've had over the last three years telling me everything I missed, and setting the record straight....

Hello Friends! We're back at it again today with, not only another new remix, but also a look at an album already covered on the show, The Monkees' classic 1967 LP Headquarters. In our original instalment we covered the original mono and stereo mixes, but today we're covering both the 1989 Bill Inglot remix on Arista, and the brand new 2022 remix by Andrew Sandoval from the Super Deluxe Edition of...

Hello Friends! This week on Mixology we're riding back to 1967 with The Hollies (again - whoops!), and their fantastic LP Evolution. Recording at the same time as Sgt. Pepper, and released the same day, this is an album that has always had a very curious stereo mix, one that sounds identical to the fantastic mono. Are these two dedicated, but very focused mixes, or is the mono simply a fold? Today...

Hello Friends! Thank you for your patience as I've been moving house, but now it's time to come back into things with a bang, as we breakdown The Beatles' 1966 All-Time classic Revolver, in celebration of the new reissue of the album. We'll not only be looking at the original UK Mono and Stereo mixes of the album, but also the many stray mixes issued in the USA (and the UK), the various remixes do...

Hello Friends! We're taking a trip back again with The Hollies this week, and their second LP on Parlophone, the wonderful In The Hollies Style, released in November of 1964. A huge step up from their debut LP, this saw the bevy of original numbers grown from 1 on the debut to 7 here, along with some fantastic covers to boot. But with this growth, do we see a development in mix differences? Well,...

Hello Friends! We're taking another trip out with The Monkees this week, jumping right back to the beginning with their debut LP. Released in October 1966, we once again have mono and stereo mixes of the whole album to look at today, as well as 3 unique TV mono mixes/edits used in the first series of the show. So Take a Giant Step outside your mind and see which mix truly is definitive, and if Rhi...

Hello Friends! Today on the show we're journeying to 1967, with Aretha Franklin's 1st LP for Atlantic, the classic I Never Loved a Man The Way I Loved You. Kick starting her career on the new label, the album included both the title cut and huge hit 'Respect', but the album us full of many other equally fantastic cuts - including a few Aretha originals. But most importantly to us, there's a surpri...

Hello Friends,  After the recent passing of Seekers member Judith Durham, I felt it only natural to direct my next Mixology efforts towards my favourite studio LP from the group, the wonderful Seekers Seen In Green from 1967. With it's ill-fitting psych-drenched jacket, this folk-pop gem was thankfully issued in mono and stereo upon original release, with no unique single mixes or subsequent remix...

Hello Friends! This week on the show we're taking our second look at The Byrds, with their 3rd LP Fifth Dimension. Released in both mono and stereo in 1966, 5 of the tracks were treated to new stereo mixes in 1990, and then an unknown quantity in 1996. Today, we'll be comparing the original mono and stereo mixes, all the new 1990 mixes, and also all mixes used on the 1996 CD, regardless of the evi...

Hello Friends! We're taking another trip back to Kinkdom today, with The Kinks’ last LP to be released in both mono and stereo, 1969's Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of The British Empire). A shockingly late period mono mix, this fantastic album explores a more matured, rock sound for the group, with plenty of British baroque elements mixed in, to give us a group of mixes that, while not as far a...

Hello Friends! We've got an extra special episode of the show today, digging into all of the new mixes presented on the recently released Expanded Edition of The Beach Boys' huge selling compilation Sounds of Summer, newly remixed by Mark Linett. With 28 9not the listed 24) tracks to look into, we'll be breaking down each of these mix by mix, in the order they appear on the compilation, starting w...

Hello Friends. Many moons ago a listener of the podcast requested I cover The Lovin' Spoonful on the show, and I can only apologise that is has taken this long! On the show today we will be looking at the group's 1966 album Daydream, a mid 60s pop classic by anyone's measurement. Filled to the brim with fantastic singles, hooks, and original cuts, this album is a real treat for the listener. Betwe...

Hello Friends! We're following on from our recent look at Please Please Me this week, with the earliest album by The Beach Boys to receive mono and stereo mixes, 1962's Surfin' USA. The follow up to their Capitol debut Surfin' Safari, this LP saw the production standards grow, with double tracked vocals and additional instrumentation entering the fray. What does this hold for the two mixes and the...

Hello Friends! Today on the show we're taking another trip out with Nancy Sinatra, and her album of duets with Lee Hazlewood, Nancy & Lee from 1968. An album that for many years was seen as an underground classic, over the last few years it has risen to greater prominence in the music community, and today I want to take a look at that original 1968 stereo mix, the original mono single and LP relea...

Support the show and get hours of extra content at:  https://www.patreon.com/backtomono   Hello Friends! Today on the show we're hitting the 50th album on the show, and I've decided to take it right back to the beginning, with The Beatles' debut LP Please Please Me. An album with a notoriously wide twin-track stereo mix, just how different could the mono and stereo mixes be? The answer is not too...

Hello Friends! It's time to get revolutionary, as this week on Mixology we'll be taking our second look at Paul Revere & The Raiders, with their fantastic LP Revolution! from 1967. The first in a line of 'featuring Mark Lindsay' titles thanks to their heavy wrecking crew involvement, Mark has gone on record as saying producer Terry Melcher only ever intended this album to be heard in mono. As a re...

Hello Friends, and welcome to the first Mixology look at The Bee Gees. Today we'll be starting our journey with their 3rd UK LP Idea, released in 1968 in both mono & stereo mixes. With a drier and faster mono mix competing with a wetter and higher orchestra mix stereo, is one really superior to the other? Let's get an idea about the answer and find out...   Happy Listening,   Frederick   Support t...

Hello Friends, today on the show we're taking our first trip out with The Association, and their huge hit 1967 album, Insight Out. Featuring hit singles 'Windy' and 'Never My Love', this album is somewhat of a mixed bag mix wise, covering everything from fold-downs, to multiple unique mixes across LP and single mixes for other tracks. Does this add up to a superior stereo mix, or a hodge-podge mon...

Hello Friends! Today we're taking our first Mixology look at The Who, with their 1966 LP A Quick One. Following up on their first LP, this album featured far more original contributions from every member of the group, culminating in Pete Townshend's epic 'A Quick One While He's Away'. Originally released in the UK only in mono, the album received a mostly stereo mix in the US and across Europe, an...

Hello Friends! Today we’re finishing up the trilogy of Folk Rock albums from Simon & Garfunkel, with Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme from 1966. Their second album in the limelight, this was a huge leap forward in terms of production, but still heavily relied on songs from Paul's previous effort, The Paul Simon Songbook. Did this advancement in production lead to a greater number of mix variations...

Hello Friends! After looking at the fabulous self-titled debut LP from The Doors last year on the show, it only felt right to move on and cover their only other mono LP, Strange Days. Released in 1967, this album heralded a step forward for the group sonically, with the use of a greater number of tracks to record, as well as synth sounds and experimentation in the studio. This would naturally lend...

Hello Friends! Continuing on our January dive into The Beatles' 1965, we're taking a fresh look over the mix differences for the all-time classic LP, Rubber Soul. Originally covered in my very first episode of Mixology, the formula by which I make episodes was still in it's infancy, and since then my approach has got broader, deeper, and far more in depth than I ever intended, and I wanted to retr...

Hello Friends, and welcome to 2022 here on Mixology! I've decided to go all-out with January, where we'll be cover the entire UK 1965 output by that fabulous group, The Beatles, starting of course with their first LP of the year, Help!. Formed out of the basis for the soundtrack to the film of the same name, this album features 14 pop gems from the group, including two numbers from George, as well...