Is Giles Martin helping or hurting The Beatles?

The recent White Album remix is not universally popular. Same with the Sgt. Pepper remixes.

What do you think overall of the job Giles Martin has done with recent Beatles' reissues and his production work on Love, NEW, Hollywood Bowl and 1+?

 

To me remixes are not the real thing. They are a clever substitute to make more money.

 

I approve. The 2 DEs have been packed with good material, and I thought "Love" was a terrific reimagining of the core songs...

 

Now you're making me hungry!

 

One member asserted that Giles had no comprehension of timbre, and that affected the mixes. Was he hired out of nepotism? Our host couldn’t do a remix?

 

From LOVE to WA outstanding editions

 

Personally I am enjoying them greatly. I'm all about some 5.1, where available. That's all I have listened to in either set to be honest, and I like them both very much. I don't see how anyone could really dislike them, especially the new white album 5.1

 

Another. WA. Thread.

 

1970-2000whenever: WE WANT MORE BEATLES
The Present: Sure, here.
Fans: BOOOOO

 

Technically, I have no clue.

But if people are unhappy with the mixes, he simply joins a long line of people in Beatles' history who have been criticized for how they approached their work.

 

I am of the opinion that no one could do the job he's been doing for the Beatles releases without offending someone...

To paraphrase an old joke:

How many engineers does it take to remix and/or remaster an album.

One hundred, one to do it and ninety-nine to say they could have done it better...

 

Thread title and poll question aren't exactly the same, but I'm loving all of the recent releases.

 

This.

 

I think that the 5.1 version of "Love" was outstanding. I wish the 5.1 versions of Pepper and The White Album were done in the same manner. However, I think that a lot of stalwarts would have stroked out.

 

Should have left the Green Party choice off. Distorts the results.

 

It's hard for someone to make sense when they're carrying around that really big axe they're trying to grind down.

 

Is he helping or hurting the Beatles?

Yes

 

No. I still don't understand how Giles came up with the hair-brained idea to leave the limiter out of the chain for the vinyl release, and NOT the digital versions (of Sgt. Pepper, anyway. I haven't heard the white album). At least leave it out for the Blu-ray (even though it's not needed anywhere). It's just completely backwards.

 

I don't think our host is interested in remixing the Beatles.
Remember kids- mastering/remastering and mixing/remixing are 2 (4?) different activities.

 

Ha ha - good post!

And accurate. People here bitched and moaned for years to get special editions and unreleased content, but they're never happy...

 

I like what Giles has done: I just wish he'd extend his skills to some other albums produced by his father, i.e Apocalypse by Mahavishnu Orchestra, Blow By Blow by Jeff Beck, and Wired also by Jeff Beck.

 

Unless #1 albums (50 years after the fact!), and lots of media attention, reviews, critical reappraisals and younger fans discovering the band for the first time are bad things, then yes Giles is helping the Beatles. But you could say that about anyone in that position of being in charge of the remixing. Giles is doing the job he was hired to do. He's not the mastermind of any of it.

 

There will always be purists who are only prepared to enjoy the original albums. It wouldn’t matter how good Giles mixes were, they would refuse to accept the possibility that they were better. Many younger people will have only heard the remixes. The songs are essentially the same as the originals so other than sound quality so really, you either like it or you don’t. If you like one, there’s a fairly good chance you will be able to appreciate the other, unless you have some other agenda like staying firmly rooted in the 60’s.