by jb welda » Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:23 pm
you guys are confusing the hell out of me. if a record is MONO, that means it has the identical source in each channel. a music/vocal combination with one (music or vocal) in one channel and the other in the other channel is not mono. if they were mixed together into one track and put into both channels that would be mono. as it is it is sometimes referred to as 2 track (sometimes referred to as "split channel" I think).
anyway I don't have the I roy album at hand so I cannot check if its mono or 2 track, but if it is 2 track then that to me represents either some clever packaging or some really cheap junk. the former because you can use the riddims from the music track without them being polluted with the vocals, but the latter because it means the producer/engineer didn't even bother to mix the two tracks just stuck them on the record and said that's it.
I cant bear to listen to 2 track stuff usually, I have to push the Mono button and let the gear do some work. its just too isolated a source to enjoy properly esp if your system is set up with some separation. there was a Trojan marley set, soul rebel maybe it was, that I think steve barrow put together, and it suffered from this problem although I think it was touted as a "feature" not a "bug". perhaps the original release was like that and that was the point to it.
>how to make the two separate mono tracks on "Musical Shark Attack" into one track on a CDR?
one way is just to do it on a sound editor on the computer before burning the cd. but you are letting the software do your mix for you which can turn out good or not so good. another way would be to run the 2 track into your mixer or even a preamp with a MONO switch and use the outputs that go to the amplifier (in other words the ones that contain any changes made by the board from the original recording such as increasing bass, treble, or in this case, the mix itself) to feed into the computer with the cd burner.
one love
jb