Chat Board - What is Re-Processed Stereo?

Print Page | Close Window

What is Re-Processed Stereo?

Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
Forum Name: Chat Board
Forum Description: Chat away but please observe the chat board rules
URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5353
Printed Date: 03 August 2025 at 7:35am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: What is Re-Processed Stereo?

Posted By: Fetta
Subject: What is Re-Processed Stereo?
Date Posted: 18 January 2010 at 10:54am

I am putting "Them featuring Van Morrison" into my hard drive and one of the tracks ("Stormy Monday")says Re-Processed Stereo. I was wondering what that meant?

-Fetta

Replies:

Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 18 January 2010 at 1:12pm

It means "fake stereo" from a mono source. They usually either slightly offset the mono mix in the two different channels to create a sort of stereo ambiance, or they make one channel very bass heavy and the other very treble heavy.

Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 18 January 2010 at 4:07pm

Later on the labels "improved on" muddy-tinny fake stereo by using a comb filter, which sometimes gave almost convincing results. This is a device that puts even octaves on one channel and odd octaves on the other. I have some that were processed this way, and you'd have to listen carefully with earphones to realize it was faked.

RCA for a while would either leave one channel dry and put reverb on the other, or use different reverbs on L&R. Truly awful.

One really annoying side effect of some of these methods of creating fake stereo is that they messed with the phase, causing weird cancellation if summed into mono. One song that really suffered from this on almost every compilation it's ever appeared on is "Baby Be Mine"--Jellybeans. I don't know if the mono source tape got lost and this echo-y, phase-y source was all that was left or what.

Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 18 January 2010 at 5:08pm

Is re-processed stereo the same as electronic stereo?

Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 18 January 2010 at 7:34pm

eriejwg wrote:

Is re-processed stereo the same as electronic stereo?

Yes, John. In Pat's parlance, reprocessed, fake and electronic stereo are all variations of the same "spin stereo from a mono source" trick, and are all designated with that scarlet letter of sound quality, the (E) symbol.

I have one, count 'em, ONE 45 in my entire collection that is actually labeled as "electronic stereo." http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh240/YahShure/Steam-WhatImSayingIsTruestereoDJ.jpg - "What I'm Saying Is True" was Steam's follow-up flop to the #46 "I've Gotta Make You Love Me." I'm guessing that the latter's relatively poor chart success prompted the Mercury brass to order the Steam assemblage to come up with another "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye." And they did. "What I'm Saying Is True" was a virtual clone of their #1 hit, and if the complete lack of originality didn't kill the record, its much-too-buried vocals did the trick. It got about two weeks of airplay on KDWB, then vanished forever. I do actually like the record, but it was a dead duck before it ever got off the drawing board.

What's odd is that the stereo/mono DJ 45 of "I've Gotta Make You Love Me" (Mercury DJ-182) was in true stereo. Commercial copies of the non-LP "What I'm Saying Is True" were mono. True mono, to be precise.

Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 18 January 2010 at 8:37pm

To Hykker:

Of course you own the Taragon release 'The Very Best Of Red Bird & Blue Cat Records' with the first-time true stereo "Baby Be Mine"...right?

Andy

Posted By: TomDiehl1
Date Posted: 19 January 2010 at 12:53am

Yah Shure wrote:

I have one, count 'em, ONE 45 in my entire collection that is actually labeled as "electronic stereo." http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh240/YahShure/Steam-WhatImSayingIsTruestereoDJ.jpg - "What I'm Saying Is True" was Steam's follow-up flop to the #46 "I've Gotta Make You Love Me." I'm guessing that the latter's relatively poor chart success prompted the Mercury brass to order the Steam assemblage to come up with another "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye." And they did. "What I'm Saying Is True" was a virtual clone of their #1 hit, and if the complete lack of originality didn't kill the record, its much-too-buried vocals did the trick. It got about two weeks of airplay on KDWB, then vanished forever. I do actually like the record, but it was a dead duck before it ever got off the drawing board.

What's odd is that the stereo/mono DJ 45 of "I've Gotta Make You Love Me" (Mercury DJ-182) was in true stereo. Commercial copies of the non-LP "What I'm Saying Is True" were mono. True mono, to be precise.

That Steam 45 is one of my favorite records of all time....i have both the stock and promo copies of the 45.... really annoyed me that the "stereo" side was in really horrible faked stereo. I bought it hoping for a true stereo copy of the song, but it never happened....even when the seller swore to me it was true stereo.... when i got the 45 and found out it was fake stereo, the seller did give me a refund, and still let me keep the 45. I have the song on a Japanese best of CD where it isn't 100% mono but to human ears is as close to mono sound as one can detect (cancelling out the channels does show it does have a very light echo on it).

-------------
Live in stereo.

Posted By: KentT
Date Posted: 15 February 2010 at 8:43pm

At least with the Mercury Rechanneled Stereo discs, playing only the Left channel gets you true mono. The Right channel was very reverbed. Nice that you can get mono out of one if needed.

-------------
I turn up the good and turn down the bad!

Posted By: BradOlson
Date Posted: 16 February 2010 at 5:29am

But then, there are cases when rechanneled pressings are mostly true stereo such as the Mitch Miller Greatest Hits LP that 7 out of the 12 tracks are true stereo.