Was listening to ‘Papa was a rolling stone’ while doing a quick component check, and noticed like other recordings from the era it was mixed hard panned.
The mix still sounded great and the hard panning of the tracks really gave the track good separation and feel.
So the question is why does it seem like no one hard pans anymore on recordings?
Phase issues when summed?
Loudness wars?
Just not cool by today’s standards?
Mixes from the 60's through 70's were so varied and deserve serious study both mono and stereo versions when available for example The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Motown and Beach Boys are readily available. Those engineers had a serious challenge making those huge often very complex tracks translate in multiple mediums from a 4" car speaker, record player all in ones to proper stereo or quad playback systems. Panning across the stereo field can be exciting but also a real challenge to be sure there is no phase cancellation or smearing. Add to that a predominant number of listeners will be using a less than optimal playback so something that sounds great in a proper 2 speaker perfect triangle setup will sound off on a boom box, car stereo, headphones or in the more common these days horrible ear buds.
As an experiment listen to the same track in your available playback options, the listening experience will vary a wide amount and not just depending on the quality which also makes a contribution. Different speaker quality, size, rooms and placements contribute greatly then try your different headphone or earphones will enhance or detract from the experience.
When I do a mix I start on a pair of smallish studio monitors and will playback on multiple options as a test including headphones, larger studio as well as home stereo speakers and a sound bar to be sure everything translates then check on a mono speaker. Since I am using Harrison MixBus I will often build a "mono" mix using an aux send. I also use an older product from
Focusrite VRM Box for comparison over multiple playback options in a range of headphones.
Music is my drug of choice and I often revisit my entry point as well as journey milestones using The Beatles "Sgt Pepper's" to refresh that experience. I recall riding my bike to buy the Lp and taking it home to listen om Mom's mono HiFi from the 50's sitting right in front of the speaker. That experience is better than any drug I would try later, it still is. When the 1st side finished I let it replay than on to side 2. Then the whole record again and again. A few years later I bought my first stereo and this was the first record I played. I still haver the Lp that is quite worn at this point and have several more copies on Lp as well as versions on CD.
