FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

The ’68 special was recorded in monaural, but the material Elvis pre-recorded for the various production numbers was recorded in stereo. Why was the stereo version of the material not used on the ’68 DVD set?

All instrumentals and vocals for the gospel production number and almost all of the Trouble/Guitar Man show opener were pre-recorded in stereo in a recording studio. Elvis lip-synched his lead vocal during videotaping except for the lyrics of Trouble at the start of the opener.

All the instrumentals and backing vocals for the If I Can Dream show closer were pre-recorded in stereo in a recording studio, but Elvis recorded his vocal live on the set while the pre-recorded material was played. The mono recording/videotaping of the show is how the marriage of the pre-recorded material with Elvis’s on-the-set live vocal occurred. The same is true with major portions of the big Guitar Man production the pre-recorded material played.

Elvis’s vocal as performed on the set for the shooting of the show was not recorded on its own track – it exists only in the mono marriage of his on-set performance to the pre-recorded backing. His vocal cannot be isolated. Therefore, we could not take that vocal and marry it to the studio stereo recording of the instrumental and vocal backing.

We could have opted to switch to stereo for the bulk of the Trouble/Guitar man opener, as Elvis’s performance was almost all lip-synched, and all of the gospel production, all of which he lip-synched. The audio originated in a stereo pre-recording. But, with the majority of the ’68 material being in mono, we decided it would be better to keep the sound consistent throughout the DVD set rather than have what could seem like abrupt sound changes while viewing the DVDs.

Television programs weren’t presented in stereo back in those days. It’s too bad that, while the mono taping for television was being done, there was not a stereo recording being made simultaneously.

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