Hello! I was looking through various Bob Dylan surround sound mixes, and I noticed some discrepancies between the polarity of various elements of the mix, and what appears to be some extra audio accidentally put in the back right channel in the Another Side of Bob Dylan and Bringing It All Back Home mixes.
Extra Audio in Back Right Channel
First, the more obvious issue is the latter one, with what seems like a lot of the info that is in the center channel (particularly vocals and harmonica) put into the back right channel, making the mix oddly leaning to the right in regards to those elements. Hear how the back two channels of "All I Really Wanna Do" or "Gates of Eden" sound, with the latter otherwise adhering to a mono aesthetic in its front channels. The back channels also sometimes inhibit these odd, phase-y sounding vocals, which I'm not sure is necessarily a mistake, per se (as they ought to be evaluated in how the surround sound mix sounds as a whole), but I think it's worth noting. I don't believe the extra audio issue is present on the Blonde on Blonde mix, though the vocals still can sound rather phase-y.
Polarity: Why It's Important
In regard to the polarity of the mix, I think it's first necessary to describe why it's important. Essentially, elements being in the same polarity across the mix is imperative to helping distinguish where elements are in a mix. As an extreme example, notice how in the release of Moby's "Dead Sun" you can't distinguish where the elements of the mix are. They sound like they're both in the right and left, but not the center. If I invert the polarity of one of the channels though, the stereo image is completely different, with much of it lingering around the center of the mix. I believe that edited version was how the mix was intended to sound. [Keep in mind that polarity is NOT the same as phase, as out-of-phase elements can itself create a sense of space through effects such as delay.]
Polarity Issues on These Bob Dylan Mixes
As a direct parallel, the back channels in the aftermath of "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream's false start suffer the same issue. If I invert the polarity of the back left channel, the reverb sounds a lot more natural. This is an issue throughout much of the album, with the opposing-polarity elements in the back left and front left channels being the most persistent issue. Did you notice how the shaker in "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" slides towards the back throughout parts of the mix? Well, it's hard to tell because of the polarity issue, but it's readily apparent if the polarity is fixed. The stomping horn blows of the song are also meant be placed in center between the front left and back left speakers, but you wouldn't be able to tell that by the way the mix was actually released.
My Takeaway: These Three Mixes Needs to Be Re-Released with Their Issues Fixed!
I could go on about this or that individual element facing the same issue, such as the front left and back left channels of "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" during its solo (it's meant to sound like this), but the fact of the matter is that this is a persistent issue across the 5.1 mixes of Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, and Blonde on Blonde. It's not an issue that can be simply fixed by inverted the polarity of a channel, as not all elements of the mix suffer from the issue. These three mixes flat-out need to be re-released with these issues fixed. I imagine fixing the issues is a rather simple endeavor if the digital mixing tapes are still present from making these 5.1 mixes. The real difficulty is these fixed versions being released commercially.
