Back in 2009 German Sound Engineer Stefan Wriedt and I started a discography and review of all the CD issues of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons to identify the 'best mixes'. Anecdotal evidence showed that only STEREO mixes of most of the 60s material exists in WIDE STEREO– Instruments[Hard Left] : Harmonies[Hard Right] and Frankie centre.What we have is better than nothing in STEREO....and in some cases we only have the MONO. But thank God we have that......BUT this is the way it would be mixed today.
In 2009 we spent two years completing that discography[here]bemoaning the loss of multi-track Masters since the 60s and blaming bad engineers and poor re-mastering. And so we turned to the MONO mixes as obviously there we found balance in the sound and a structure that made it easy for us to say.......'this is the way producer Bob Crewe meant them to sound'. But NOT available as MONO albums and singles on CD.
It took nearly 5 years to collect and re-master all the MONO 45 mixes in our MONO Archive as we believed many may not exist as they have 'never' as a collection been released on CD. MONO has just not been the 'realm' of CD Re-issues for Frankie and the group. And we weren't alone in this as posts on The Steve Hoffman Forum' discussing all things sound and masters shows.
Yes the MONO mixes are fine with great instrumentation and harmonies gathered around Frankie's vocal......like most of the music we bought and grew up with during the 60s. Lots of great songs in punchy MONO sound.
I recently returned to that theme in a piece I wrote on this blog [post Stefan's passing] re-quoting earlier comments as we look forward to 'new transfers' from the Four Seasons Partnership to Snapper Records of London for their planned 40 album box set.
Speaking to Charlie Calello over the last two years I've been haunted by his comment that......'you are not hearing it like we heard it in the studio'. I brushed this off by saying that as Bob Crewe was 'engineering' MONO mixes then that was the way it should be....and those MONO mixes re-mastered in our MONO Archive sound great.
In the early 60s STEREO was a novelty release left to the Engineers....giving us the wide and entirely separated STEREO we've had to date.
But I met a man recently who showed me how all I've been thinking was wrong.
What we have had to date is all down to one thing......'Technology'. 1960s technology.
Bob Crewe used it like a musical instrument.....constructing instrumental and harmony backings using just 3 and 4 track recording equipment [upto 1966] and 'bouncing' tracks down to finish with the best structure for release. One track of instruments/one track of harmony/one lead vocal[sometimes double tracked]. The recording technology of the day and the 45 format and market dictated it for him as much as it did for the Beatles and every other artist of the day. The 'limits' of 'technology'! And that is what is around today and subject to some tweaking and'panning' is what we will get in this 2020 box set when it comes to STEREO. At least the plan to include the MONO mixes will give us the 'balanced' mix, which still sounds great.
But it wont be that way looking into the future. The recent Digitally Extracted STEREO[DES] creations I wrote about previously on this blog have been a revelation. Here's why DES is the future.
I realised how today's DES software with the skills of the engineer can 'uniquely' create completely NEW and aesthetically pleasing alternatives to even the best STEREO mixes from Vee-Jay and Philips STEREO Masters like not possible any other way. I realised that Bob Crewe and the group were forced to 'push'all the great instrumentation in Charlie Calello's arrangements into one channel[Left] leaving just occasional harmony backing [Right] with Frankie's vocal[Centre] so there is a lack of balance in the sound stage. The attraction of the MONO has been that at least everything is 'together'and although some would argue 'it was designed that way'…...that isn't true.......it is really just the result of the technology of the day and the constraints of the MONO 45 and it's market.
This'eureka'moment for me arrived when I realised how, in a working sample of 'Everybody Knows My Name'. the engineer was able to change the STEREO mix by placing the instruments across the sound stage so that you could hear each one. The great 'rolling' [Dylanesque?]rhythm track which was originally compressed to the left...in the DES version became a spread of the instruments across the 2 channels and brought the whole song to life like never before in any 'published' mix.
You can hear this sample here.
DES is getting an ever growing audience as others realise this is the only way to 'salvage' the sound of the 60s from the MONO or [limited]STEREO we have surviving from those days . Digital extraction of instruments individually and vocal elements generates a'multi-track'and allows engineers today to do what Bob Gaudio, Charlie Callelo and the group would do today with their mixes....create a balanced 'sound-stage'..as I said....it is all down to 'Technology'and we have come full circle.
Our next project is to select and persuade DES engineers and an enlightened Record Company to help recreate the TRUE 'studio' sound. But for us this is NOT a commercial venture someone else can use it to make money and build their record company. The engineers we know of do it mainly out of 'love' of the music and a commitment to preservation. Each track takes days of work of extraction. But the body of completed DES work is ever increasing on You Tube and at ERIC Records web-site.
Can a NEW set of Four Seasons Recordings be created like never before heard.......like...”what we heard in the studio” as Bob Gaudio, Frankie Valli and Charlie Callelo would say? More re the arguments for and against soon.
Ken Charmer – August 2019
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