SH Spotlight EQ SUGGESTIONS FROM SH to help the sound of Canada Beatles "HELP" - "RUBBER SOUL" CDs

Since you are all snapping up the remaining Canadian Beatles' discs that contain (by accident) the original stereo mixes of the British HELP and RUBBER SOUL albums I thought I'd make a few suggestions as to how to get them to sound better. The indifferent solid state mastering in the 1980's has made these old recordings sound unnecessarily dry, thin and mean. We can't run the tapes through an old valve Studer C-37 so.....

On the Canadian RUBBER SOUL:

Try this if you have a parametric or computer EQ:

+3@50 cycles
-2@3400 cycles
-2@10,000 cycles

This goes for every song except THINK FOR YOURSELF. In that case you need to do this to the flat CD sound:

+3@50
+3@6,000
(and maybe +1@ 3k)

Also, I think the right channel needs to come up about 2 db on almost everything. You know "Mastering By Meters" is dangerous and it looks like they evened out the meters when doing this digital transfer. The vocals on the right need to come up a bit. The music should "ride" just below the vocals, not drown them out. Do it by ear without watching the meters.

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The Canadian HELP:

Harder to remaster; each song is different.

The movie songs like ANOTHER GIRL, I NEED YOU, TICKET TO RIDE, THE NIGHT BEFORE could use this:

+3@50 cycles
-2 or -3@3400
+1 or +2@ 10,000

The song HELP sounds pretty good the way it is I guess. Maybe:

+3@50 cycles
-1@3400 cycles

Notice how YOU'RE GONNA LOSE THAT GIRL sounds SO MUCH BETTER THAN most of the other up-tempo movie songs? Just add some bass and that's it.

On side two, you're on your own. Too complicated but some of those sound much better mix wise than the movie songs.

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Have fun, people; this is not homework. This is just a way to "nudge" the music into the realm of the lifelike. Don't over do it, especially on the bass addition; there's not much down there. You don't want it to start to sound tubby! Make sure the EQ "slope" Q you chose is wide enough. Too narrow an EQ slope will result in a "notched" unnatural sound. Use the slope that occurs in nature. On a Sontec analog EQ it would be "6", on a GML it would be "1". No idea what that translates to digital EQ as I never use it.

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Disclaimer: I have not tried these EQ moves myself, only in my head while typing this (kind of like Beethoven after he went deaf). If you come up with something you think sounds better, post it here! The idea is to give these songs less of that midrangy pinched sound and more of an open lifelike tonality, at least a bit. By EQ'ing out some of the pinched mids we are naturally drawing the ear's attention to the rest of the sonic spectrum.

Oh, and if you have a Studer C-37 by any chance, send it my way...

 

No, not really. Everyone has a different machine I would suspect. You can even do this on a graphic EQ I guess. Just make a nice "mountain" or "valley" with your slope; not too thin, not too fat. Do it by ear, you'll be able to tell.

On a consumer grade analog graphic equalizer this would entail not just moving a 10k slider but move the sliders on either side a bit; form a mountain or valley depending on if you are adding or subtracting. Don't overdo it.

 

Keep the EQ the same in both channels. Different EQ in each channel will just isolate things more. Your ears want linearity.

 

trade her with one of those ultra rare Capitol "foldies"

 

David,

Why does one song sound better than another? Well, just recording and mixing choices I guess. Different days, different mic setup, different Redd EQ, different Fairchild settings, etc. Just the way it goes.

Do the movie songs need balance work? Heck, what can you do? The vocals are centered, everything else is what it is. Would I mix this way? No, but this thread is focusing on making what we have sound the best it can within reason.

 

Hopefully the mono RUBBER SOUL to make it to CD some day. Your prayers will be answered; it's a wonderful mix.






What am I thinking? MONO? Never happen.

 

Nah, too much weird EQ and tape generation loss.

 

Thousand bucks a day, dude!