Sound quality on Beatles recordings

I always marvel at the clarity and quality of many of The Beatles records - especially when compared to the muddy sound of many of their contemporaries. The Kinks for example. What set them apart? Was it merely the quality of their producer and engineers or a matter of them being able to spend as much time/$$$ until each one was perfect. A luxury many other bands didn't have.

And what other 60's recordings do you think come close to the SQ of The Beatles?

 

Beach Boys' LPs always sounded fantastic too say compared to the Four Seasons', which always sounded muddy and not at clear and defined.

 

Yes, Good Vibrations was impeccably produced. Like The Beatles they could afford to spend months on recording.

 

I think it was the quality of the producers and engineers, the studio and quality control. They did not just rush it because they were a pop band.

It was also the sound they were after. Some of the bands that have a muddy/grungy sound I always thought were trying to attain an amount of that.

 

George Martin had horrible ties, but they did the job.

 

A lot of the Beatles recordings don't sound that great, it's the work that made people listen.

 

Finally.. An intelligent post on another Beatles thread

 

I'm in no way an expert on the Beatles or sound, but from what I've read, EMI was a tight ship in many areas. From the equipment they used, it is amazing how "good" the end product was. One thing about the sound I NEVER liked was how thin the drum/bass was on the early recordings. Sometimes it sounded like Ringo was playing on drums with paper skins.

 

George Martin.

I really don't think they were trying for that. Grungy, yeah. But not muddy.
It is just that they had what they had to work with. Especially in Britain, where getting recording technology took a long time. Big machines on boats inching across the sea and like that.

 

Yes, some terrible recordings. The vocals on Tomorrow Never Knows sounds like monks chanting from mountaintops .

 

They seems to sound better than most of the contemporary recordings of the day.

I always thought it was pretty amazing how clear the Beatles sounded in 1964 - 1966 compared to early Stones, Kinks and many others.

Are you saying they are bad sounding even for the times/compared to others or just bad sounding?

 

Tomorrow Never Knows is a good example - the fact that it was recorded in 1966 and sounds like something from the 90's is mind blowing

 

The best sounding Beatles recording is 'Honey Don't' from Beatles For Sale. Take a listen, the clarity is incredible- it demonstrates how average the rest sounds. However, despite this, The Beatles sound better than The Kinks (up until the 2014 Anthology which has much improved sound) and other bands because of, y'know, EMI studio. And anyway, listening to The Beatles is all about listening to The Beatles, not the quality of the sound.

 

And some of the tracks sound like the tape has been played backwards!

 

It s their mixing that sucked. Basic tracks like Helter Skelter on A3 sound much better than the released version. Not saying it was a better take. The quality was incredible.

 

But how does it compare to other recordings of the day? Specifically compare 1964 - 1966 to other artists of the same period.

I agree the mixing has always been weak (and I noticed how much better BackTracks and others sounded in the late 1980's), but is it not better than others in the same era?

 

“Sound production is like a bikini. What it reveals is suggestive, but what it conceals is vital.”
(with apologies to Aaron Levenstein)

 

Actually that pic of Bardot is to me the visual equivalent of the sound quality of Beatles records. Technically imperfect, but aesthetically gorgeous.

 

All the more reason why George Martin was the 5th Beatle. To get that sound, and decipher what they wanted.....magic.

 

Bardot 'technically imperfect'? In what way??

 

What makes it all the more curios is the fact that other artists on EMI at the time often sounded better on record than a lot of the early Beatles stuff (e.g. Cliff & The Shadows, The Hollies, Gerry & The Pacemakers etc.)

 

And here I was hoping this thread would be about Beatles recordings decoded through a SQ quadraphonic matrix decoder!