Tamla Motown Mono Albums

[justanothermotownfan]

Quick question for those in the know - are those mono albums "true" mono or are they just folded down from the stereo masters?

Thanks in advance.

[theboyfromxtown]

It can be either!

[westgrandboulevard]

I'm by no means as much 'in the know' as many others here, but have just spotted your new thread..which I think, and hope, will prove to be a long and very interesting one.

You mention Tamla Motown, so I wonder if you are more interested in the UK releases, and I believe that the mono and stereo versions could differ from the US ones.

Back in the day, when the albums were first released in UK , I just generally assumed that the mono and stereo album versions were featuring exactly the same tracks, just that the mono versions included the 45s along with other tracks, in mono - and that the stereo versions had separation between the speakers, to give a wider sound. So, unlike the real serious collectors, I generally bought only the stereo version if, indeed, one was available.

I started to discover that was not the case, and there were indeed noticeable differences - and I believe that was also true with the US mono/stereo albums from where, of course, they all emanated!

There are many differences to quote [[and this is where I hope all the more knowledgeable members will chime in...) but, just as one example, if you've bought "The Marvelettes : Forever More" [[and if not, why not...?!) there are some differences between the mono and stereo versions of the same albums, including the 'pink' album....

[keith_hughes]

I can't tell you much about the [[UK) Tamla Motown LPs, JAMF, but I can tell you something about the US albums. The earliest stereo albums were mixed in 1965, and Motown stopped issuing mono albums in 1968, so that's the period we're looking at.

I think in nearly all cases, the mixes for M and S were done separately, although perhaps near the end of the period some mono LPs were just folds of the stereo. [[As for the singles, after 1968 folding the stereo mix to mono was the rule rather than the exception.) Usually they used the same multi-tracks for both mixes, but evidently in a few cases the m/ts used for the mono were not suitable for mixing to stereo, so they used a different recording altogether. Random example: "Home Cookin'" by Jr Walker.

But when they mixed to stereo, they sometimes added overdubs to the original recording; sometimes they produced longer versions [["All That's Good" by the Miracles); sometimes they brought up or out parts that had been buried, or completely dropped out of the mono mix. Sometimes where they'd recorded two lead vocals on the m/t, they used one lead on the mono version and the other on the stereo.

Hope that helps, a bit, anyway!