The Beatles 1 and 1+

All these recent remix projects are done by Giles Martin AND Sam Okell.

I'm starting to think one of them is doing the good sounding remixes and the other is doing the problematic remixes.

 

My version of "Revolution" has the multi-track music from Rock Band combined with the isolated clean vocal from LOVE. Perfect!

The only mix on "1+" that I prefer to the old stereo maybe "Can't Buy Me Love". The rest I either prefer the original stereo or my own Rock Band multi-track remixes.

The best "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride" are the early 1990s Furmanek mixes which embarrass the new mixes. Both the Furmanek mixes have centered drums and slight stereo vocals with instruments on both sides of the stereo. The new mixes are just stupid.

 

Or maybe he felt that a crazy surround mix would distract people from the visuals.

 

Listen to some of the Anthology remixes of Revolver and Pepper, they're fantastic (albeit abridged). It completely opened my eyes to a remix for albums other than Rubber Soul, which I agree is mixed poorly.

 

I really love those stray serrated guitar notes at the end of the LOVE "Revolution" too. I have to figure out how to separate them from the cross-faded plane noises (from "Back In The USSR") so I can tack them onto whatever my favorite version is. Spectral editing, no doubt -- just have to figure out how to do it on a Mac.

 

"In My Life" is complete on the first Anthology DVD, and the remix sounds great.

 

It's painful hearing the 1+ remixes when you also hear Furmanek's superior mixes of the same songs. The Beatles catalog can be brilliantly remixed, but the guys who can do it won't.

 

I still don't understand the love for the Songtrack remixes. Am I really the only one that can hear the digital grain on them?

 

Agreed! For No One is relatively compete as well and sounds terrific. The snippet of Got To Get You into My Life is a revelation - all the horns spread out!

 

Sounds like they could have made an Anthology 4 just out of the remixes, wondered if they mixed the whole songs on ones they just used snippets.

 

They probably did mix the whole song. That's even more frustrating!

 

I wish someone would leak all the Ron Furmanek remixes from the 1990s...

 

Fixed it for you. Otherwise it sounds like the right people don't want to do it...which is so far from the truth it's mind blowing.

 

It's a trade off of flaws. Digital grain vs. flabby truncated bass, buried drums, obvious tape generation loss from all the bouncing, and odd stereo panning. For me, getting as close to the first generation session tapes and hearing what's been buried all these years is a fair trade-off. I can overlook the grain (and it IS there, no denying it.) What's been gained outweighs the digititis. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

 

I'm still partial to the original stereo mix on some of the German comps. I didn't find the remix particularly pleasing.

Not sure about "digital grain", but I found them somewhat uninspiring. Not as bad as LIBN, but a bit flat/dead sounding nevertheless. And I'm really not a fan of panning to give the impression of additional tracks, like the vocals in Think For Yourself getting wider or narrower depending on if they were solo Harrison or group, or the orchestra in All You Need Is Love panning around depending on what section is playing. I find it distracting.

 

Actually, let me revise that. I've been listening to the Scott/Barrett tapes again recently (and working on a compilation of some of the tracks), and I find the remixes done especially for that project the most interesting of all the remixes done so far, though they are less about the 'optimum' mix, and more like eavesdropping on the sessions.

Basically, they are just running the 4-track after setting levels and panning, no reverb or effects, slate announcements at the start and letting the tape run until the end with no fades. It's a pity that they don't circulate in absolute pristine quality, but I prefer this approach to the more recent 'making the record better' polished remixes of late.

Some good ones are I Feel Fine, She's A Woman, Ticket To Ride, Help!, Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out, Paperback Writer. I'd welcome more with the same approach.

 

Well, that's the rub, isn't it? The limits in number of tracks, especially in the 1963 to 1966 pre-tape bouncing period, forced them to "pre-mix" as they went along, making modern "re-mixing" nothing more than setting stereo panning, pay attention to any level moves that exist, occasional edits, and maybe adding some bass EQ boost and let McCartney's bass and Ringo's kick drum finally come to the fore. (Or not cutting the bass at all...it's never been clear to me where the perceived bass-light sound comes from.) The only "effects" in that early period I can think of offhand that might not be on the tapes and have to be recreated are the echo effects on "Paperback Writer" and "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby." And I'm not so sure about the echo effect not being on the session tape of "Everybody's..."

Reverb? Well, the chamber at EMI is still there, so....

Not much there to "do" which means the people involved would have to supplant their egos and I don't think that's ever going to happen. It seems unless the people behind the board(s) can put their own stamp on it, it won't be done. Even George Martin himself fell into that trap with his 1987 remixes of Help! and Rubber Soul.

 

The chamber is there, but sounds different than it used to.

The sound of limiting/compression is also a key factor.

 

True, but to what extent was there of compression/limiting that isn't on the session tapes already? Put it another way, off the top of my head, on the Barrett tapes I've heard, I don't really remember much difference, dynamics manipulation wise, than what were on the songs as released. ("Paperback Writer" again being the exception, and the hinge-point for where remixes would start to become very tricky.)

But, provided the EMI engineering archive still exists, one could get the requisite outboard gear and modify it as EMI did in the 1960's.

Far fetched? Maybe. Am I dreaming? Possibly. Totally impossible? I don't think so. Either way, it's fan to jaw about it.

 

Can't Buy Me Love comes to mind. Quite different in mono and stereo.

 

Any idea, off the top of your head, where it is on disc one? I'm guessing the end (I can't remember though).

 

'I Am The Walrus' is complete there, too. Well, the intro got that interview snippet of John over it, but it's possible to edit it with another audio of the song.

 

'In My Life' is quite in the beginning, it was the opener of the Anthology series.
The Director's Cut even had the song in the beginning of every episode but was omitted everywhere except on Episode 1's final version.

 

If you have the stereo and mono box sets, then 1 on Blu Ray is absolutely essential. Think of how unique it is to hear those specific songs in mono, stereo and 5.1 mixes!

 

It would be really, really hard to precisely replicate the Paperback Writer reverb/echo in a modern remix. Sounds like it was a strange combination of echo chamber, plate echo, and slap back.