Stereo recordings/mixes with practically no stereo panning at all.

Yazoo: Don't Go
The Assembly: Never Never
Marshall Crenshaw: Whenever You're On My Mind
Wham!: Bad Boys
Wham!: Freedom
Wham!: The Edge Of Heaven

like, almost every album made after 1980?

i dunno, i don't really see too many people caring that they have the ablility to "use" stereo in ingenious ways at all. dance music, some rap, some r&b. most records might as well be in mono these days. they sound like mono to me. flat as a pancake.

I totally agree, Scott. Even recently produced records I like a lot (and whose production I enjoy) seem to make pretty much zero usage of stereo. Obvious "check THIS stereo imaging out!" stuff is gimmicky, sure, but gimme something! Then again, stereo effects don't really matter when you're listening on computer speakers that are 12 inches apart or on an iPod dock...

i love heavy stereo panning.

current producers need to listen to those late 50s/60s stereo demo albums and get inspired.

dead stereo = dullsville

They did have a lot more panning earlier, that is true. But I think it's not right to say they don't use it today. Like, for instance, a lot of backing vocals dubbing is done in extreme stereo in recent recordings. Michael Jackson, who is still an important influence on modern production, had some rather wide stereo panning in his recordings, even the most recent stuff he did.

And, really, even if the stereo is not wide like it used to, it's still stereo if you put on headphones or whatever. Those songs I listed in the start here are recordings where, even in headphones, you hardly hear any stereo separation at all. Everything is in the middle.

too damn much in the middle. that's all i'm saying. and i noted that rap/r&b/dance is good at smoking up and exploring the possiblities. and on the other side of town, there are plenty of experimental artists who are using the 3D space of digital stereo sound to the fullest. but a lot of modern commercial stuff is just full blast down the middle with very little nuance/dancing in the corners. which is sad cuz there is a ton you can do with new digital toys. the sky is the limit.

I think this is one of the factors that makes contemporary pop production so uninteresting to me.

^^^ agreed.

YEAH I ONLY LISTEN TO RECORDS IN 5.1 THESE DAYS

blu-ray records are the way to go

Stereo recordings that were technically more or less mono

Not sure how I feel about this. Just listening to 10cc now and thinking it still sounds like a viable production style with a lot of panning (as opposed to the usually cited, crude '60s panning examples). The thing is, I don't know as that it's any more viable than modern production that uses the center much more. Or that it's more interesting, per se.

I'm a mono enthusiast, though. I like stereo, but I don't know how many records there are where I really love what someone did with the stereo field. "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" is a record where I think, OK, it's done beautifully. I have no desire to hear it in mono instead. Likewise, I wouldn't want to hear "More Than a Feeling" in mono, but in that case it's not because it's a really creative use of the stereo field but because a bunch of things are doubled and split left and right and that's just the texture of that record.

X-post: Personally I feel like stuff like bass, drums and lead vocals fit better in the middle than in any of the other channels, but more or less everything else should be extreme panned, perhaps also with stereo effects. And, while I list a couple of Vince Clarke productions above as virtually mono, Clark has also done his share of great stereo effect stuff, like the main synth theme in "Only You", for instance.

That is the Motown way.

There should be a thread for examples of interesting stereo stuff, I remember first listening to the drums on Sensuality by Isley Brothers on headphones, definitely messed with my head

'dead stereo = dullsville'

I think dead stereo is OK if it's wide. But effects are cooler.

But stereo is important and often underrated, particularly now that such a big percentage of the audience's music listening is done with headphones.

Myself, I made sure to play a lot with the stereo panning when I recorded those Hongroe tracks a few years back.

Hongrophonic Sound