A Question Regarding the Beatles Multichannel Mixes

Does anybody know how these mixes were created? Were the original multiracks converted to digital before mixing, or was everything mixed in analog?

There has been a lot of speculation that we'll see the albums released on DVD-A or multichannel SACD, based on the fact that so many multichannel mixes were created for the Anthology DVD set. But if the multichannel mixes for the Anthology were created from PCM transfers of the multitracks, wouldn't it be necessary to remix them all over again (either in analog or in DSD) to get the full benefit of SACD?

It was my understanding that it still isn't possible to do equalization, compression and other effects in DSD -- you either have to do this in the analog domain (yes!) or you have to convert to PCM and then back to DSD (yuck!). If you can't even do basic eq and compression in DSD, is it even possible to create a mutichannel mix in DSD, or does the mixing have to be done entirely in the analog domain? I'm sure it's possible -- after all, they were creating quad mixes long before digital audio was widespread -- but it would seem to be really difficult to do if you have to sync up various "pre-bounce" multitrack tapes.

 

I don't know about Anthology but Peter Cobbin did say he did the Yellow Submarine surround mixes digitally. So I'd guess he'd did the same for Anthology. I'd bet all the re-mixes would be PCM then converted to whatever format they'd want to release, dvd-a or sacd. Not the ideal method (for us) but all analog would be a lot more work.

 

Something I've always wondered about......

quite a few of the songs on both YS and the Anthology are incomplete. Some (like Think for Yourself, A Little Help from My Friends, Flying) are literally snippets. I wonder if complete 5.1 mixes were made for these songs. Seems like a lot of trouble to do an entire song when you are only going to use 10 seconds of it - and some of that underneath narration.

 

Think for Yourself for the YS film was actually a snippet from a studio outtake. It can be found as part of unreleased studio chatter tracks, there's 2, total about 20 min or so. Basically G. Martin had a tape rolling while they were in the studio mixing, just in case there would be something useful for a xmas fan club recording. Never used except for those few seconds for YS.

Funny they'd release a full Think for Yourself for the songtrack CD when there was such a small amount on the film.

 

Some of those snippets used for the new Anthology DVD sound incredible. A few of the standout snippets ...."I'll Be Back" "Ticket To Ride" "Got To Get You Into My Life" "Leave My Kitten Alone" "Rain" "Eight Days A Week" & "Your Mother Should Know" Now keep in mind I'm just talking about the incomplete songs here...there are also some wonderful ,almost 99% complete remixes also. To put it simply...What a tease!!!!!!!

 

i think my 2 faves are "A Day In The Life" and "Something". I thought I wold never want to hear ADITL again (overplayed for sure) but the MC mix is incredible. And "Something" is understated but the strings and swells in the back channels add so much depth. I got chills. I can't wait for Abbey Road in 5.1

 

I am so in awe of how great the DTS mixes sound. Its a pity the CD catalog is so poor sounding, and this is so great. I also can't wait to get the whole catalog this way!