The Beatles - White Album 50th Anniversary (Content, Sound Quality & Discussion Thread)

Yeah, it has full lead guitar solo just like original mono mix. Anyone knows why original (and modern) stereo mixes drop it out at one point?

 

Finished listening to it on vinyl. Pristine, flat well produced vinyl and fantastic sound. Tracks like Back in the USSR, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Helter Skelter were my favorites.

Outside of the studio release, I liked the slower instrumental version of Back in the USSR. Turned it into a heavier track.

I liked the while packaging for the vinyl in a box with the demos. I wished that the outtakes were also on vinyl as well. The packaging with the book and cds I liked as well. My favorite portion of the book was the detail of the takes along with who played what instruments.

I wished that Lady Madonna/The Inner Light along with Hey Jude/Revolution were included as well.

 

The demos are a funky mix as far as stereo imaging goes, I agree. I’ve never heard them before so I assume that’s part of the nature of the beast. The imaging varies, the sound is uniformly excellent. (4 LP)

 

Can anyone who preordered the SHM Super Deluxe from CD Japan tell me what the limited edition poster is?

 

In listening to the album over a few times I think that Everybody's Got Something To Hide is a far heavier, rockier, cacophonous cut than Helter Skelter is. John fulfilled Paul's idea of making the grittiest sounding record. Just joyously raucous.

 

Besides that there's no bass or keyboard, I think the only difference is in the drumming; the guitars sound like a stereo remix of the released take.

 

EGSTH sounds great...but one thing I have noticed is that while the bass is heavier, it's not quite as note-for-note defined as on the original mix. Anyone agree?

 

Lots of reverb or some other effect added. It sucks in my opinion.

 

There are alternations in the guitar parts as well. These are not so obvious because the guitar parts were more thought out, less space for improvisation. But the differences are there. One of them being George's use of the vibrato bar.

Ondra

 

I have to listen again.

 

It could be a marketing decision - make the CDs and Download just a bit inferior and then a certain number of people who bought the CDs or Download will later upgrade by buying the Blu-Ray disc also.

 

I think that is exactly what they are afraid of. What they did in 2009 instead of squashing the dynamics on the CDs so that the 24/44 files on the Apple USB stick would sound better is that they boosted average volume level by 0.3 dB on the USB release so that in a quick A/B test the USB version would sound slightly better but without being obviously louder.

 

I think vynil can't be mastered too loud or it will have technical problems due to format limitations. Seems like they made two masters, one for vynil and one for digital and by mistake or good will of a person responsible for preparing Bluray the vynil master appeared on the disc. Pepper didn't have a better master on Bluray, but I think the vynil was similarly more dynamic (can anyone confirm?).

 

No mistake or one person decision, Miles Showell has said he has been allowed to use the unlimited mastering in the Blu-ray this time. His words have been posted in the thread at least twice already.

 

Sorry, that sounds nuts. They don't consider it "inferior". They use a louder mastering for the most popular formats because regular listeners usually prefer their music loud.

 

That's what volume knobs are for. Regular listeners before the loudness wars hit were perfectly fine with just cranking up the volume if they wanted it louder.

 

That looks more like some slight limiting on the stereo remix version on the CD. I don't see the signs of compression, nor do I hear them. Limiting is the preferred method for making things louder these days.

 

They only need to make it sound different for Beatles freaks to buy both versions. But since they are marketing the Blu-Ray as sounding better it helps for it to actually sound better.

 

You don't have to convince me. I'm not saying they are right, just how it is.

 

They don't need to buy two different releases to have both versions, they are both included in the Deluxe set. And they are not marketing the difference.

 

I know. I’ve spent much of my life in studios, like you. The keyword here is slight limiting. Very slight actually. To claim that the cd and bluray are miles apart is just ludicrous.

 

On my stereo they sound very different. I'm not sure what the DR measurement tool is actually measuring, but that's showing a 2 dB difference between the HDTracks downloads and the Blu-Ray. Is that something that could be accounted for by "slight limiting".

 

as long as we are not getting into de8 or below it is pretty slight. There could be different eq choices between the two versions that i don’t know off.

 

I disagree. Theyre not? You have to get the 6CD to get the unlimited. How is that not marketing the difference?

 

Do you mean Blu-ray and CD?