Worst radio edit of all time

[TheBigA]

I remembered them (there are loud pops where the edits are obviously very sloppy,

This is a great example of pre-pan pot stereo, with the drums and rhythm in the right channel, and the harmonies in the left. What I heard were Cass's "oh"s punched into the mix. There was a technique they called "punch-ins," where the reel to reel is playing back, and when they got to a certain point, they'd hit "record" on one track for a brief second, then un-punch. The punch could cause a pop. That's what I think you're hearing, and because it's only in the left channel in stereo, it's more obvious than when it's mixed to mono.

I'm still trying to figure out how they created the "player piano" effect. Someone said they put thumbtacks on the piano hammers so they hit the strings in a more percussive way. It sounds a little sped up to me as well, and maybe even double-tracked.

To me, that sounds somewhat more like a muted trumpet than it does an oboe.

There are moments when it sounds like some type of keyboard, like a mellotron. There are no horns listed in the credits for that song on the album, since there are no horns on the album version. So it's hard to say.

 

[cc333]

This is a great example of pre-pan pot stereo, with the drums and rhythm in the right channel, and the harmonies in the left.

Interesting. This explains why pre-70s stereo mixes tend to be so wide!

That said, there are many examples of good mixes where punch-ins (and relatively primitive form of panning) were used and edited in such that there are no noticeable pops or clicks. The Words of Love stereo mix stands out as unusually sloppy to me (like, when the engineer punched, he unpunched too soon). Being isolated to the left channel makes it worse, but again, techniques existed even then that could fix the problem, so why did the record label release a record with such obvious and amateurish sounding mixing errors?

There are moments when it sounds like some type of keyboard, like a mellotron.

Interesting. I'm not too familiar with the sound of a mellotron, so I wouldn't know if that is indeed what it is.

There are no horns listed in the credits for that song on the album, since there are no horns on the album version. So it's hard to say.

Indeed. I wonder if any credits for the mono single exist anywhere? There's plenty of horns in that version....

c

 

[TheBigA]

I wonder if any credits for the mono single exist anywhere? There's plenty of horns in that version....

My theory is that this song wasn't originally intended as a single. They had already moved on to the third album, with a song called "Look Through Any Window." The song flopped, and they didn't have another single from the third album ready. So they went back to the second album, remixed this one song with horns being used on another session (perhaps another artist). Typically they didn't release credits for singles. There are likely lists of the musicians at the union. They kept track of who played on what to get everyone paid.

 

[Greg Strickland]

Many pop records back then were mono audio sources placed in one of three positions Left, Center ("mono") , or Right. It is possible that each mono input on an early stereo mixing console might have had a left, center, right switch instead of a pan pot for the output routing to the stereo buss mix.

It is also possible there was a limited number of tracks on the multi track recorder, and for any stereo at all they had to decide where each recorder playback track would be routed in the mix (left, center or right) and go with that. If a recorder track was used for two different items during a song, both items may have ended up on the assigned track. No way they dedicated one track for the "oh"s in the song. The middle section and portions of the rest of the song may have been spliced from different mixes of one recorded section or a section recorded another time. Just another day in the studio.

Imagine being in a recording studio with one 4 track tape recorder and one 1 track (mono) tape recorder. And a mixing console with 12 mono inputs, bass and treble controls, and rudimentary routing. In comes the band and the producer...

They just did the best they could with what they had.

Sometimes what you hear is artistic or production choice, other times it is a result of the limited technology or an error.
The Beatles used the Fairchild 660 or 670 limiter for effect, just as Cher, and T-Pain used an early version of Auto-Tune for effect.
A key point is both of these devices were and are used in a subtle way too.

Don't get mad, it is just production.

I was watching You Tube videos of bands from the '70s doing recent live shows. Live show engineers are doing a good job of using Auto-Tune in a subtle way. And some bands use none at all.

cc333- Mellotron was used on opening figure of Strawberry Fields Forever. And many other songs in its different voicings.

 

[Greg Strickland]

Strawberry Fields Forever may be one of the best edits in popular music. Much has been written about it, here is a video.
No idea if everything he says is technically correct, but the basic gist of the juxtaposition is correct

 

[TheBigA]

No way they dedicated one track for the "oh"s in the song.

I agree, that's why I say it was a "punch in" on a track that would have had the harmonies, except there were no harmonies there. So they punch it in and out quickly, and you can hear the echo cut out when they unpunch in the stereo version, but it's covered in the mono.

When you had a limited number of tracks, each track had to serve multiple functions, and some engineers did linear diagrams showing which instruments were on each trach at a particular time.

 

[CTListener]

Interesting. I'm not too familiar with the sound of a mellotron, so I wouldn't know if that is indeed what it is.

The Moody Blues used it on most of their '70s albums. Among other sounds, it produced the ethereal quasi-string section on tracks like "Isn't Life Strange."

 

[gr8oldies]

OK, why would they do that?

c

FM stations were playing the SOB version. WMEE Fort Wayne flipped from 1380 AM to 97.3 FM when Charlie with getting close to the top of the charts. The AM played SOG, the FM played SOB. (The new format on the AM, WQHK "The Hawk 1380", which was country with a big emphasis on crossovers. continued to play SOG).

 

[cc333]

I see.

I like the SOG version better, but that's just me (I don't care much for profanity).

c

 

[ThePowerCow]

KVIL used to cut out guitar solos

 

[TexasTom]

KVIL used to cut out guitar solos

Yeah, I remember them doing that back in the eighties. It was very jarring on songs like "One Lonely Night" (REO Speedwagon) and "No More Lonely Nights" (Paul McCartney) -- they just chopped the guitar solos out and the songs seemed to jump with no attempt to even make it sound like a smooth transition.

 

[KeithE4]

KVIL used to cut out guitar solos

I take it they never played Hendrix or Led Zeppelin.

 

[ThePowerCow]

And Hewy Lewis' Power of Love

 

[Jacko]

I'll throw in Santana's "Evil Ways" into the mix. I remember when the Providence AOR 94HJY installed their first computer automation in 1999. Until then, they played the near 4-minute album version. The "computer" had the under 3-minute edit, which cuts out parts of the beginning and middle organ solo, then fades out rather quickly at the end. The early fade-out caught the morning jocks Paul and Al off guard--after the song faded to silence, they quickly cracked the mics saying "we weren't ready for that!"