What does Steve Hoffman think of the new Beatles Sgt. Pepper remix?

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Thank you.

If you know of a good link, id appreciate it. I’m off searching. Dylan said it was like static noise and sought to imitate live recordings in 1997 Time out of Mind by hanging mics.

But if I’m understanding it correctly this is during the mastering stage ...

The in car experience was perhaps the same music from FM played again at home with LP?

 

I'm confused. When did they remaster the original mono mix after the 2009 mono box? I don't recall that being part of the 2017 pepper box - was it? Or did they release it as a stand alone?

 

This is a good example of loudness war:



Dynamics can be destroyed during the mixing stage too when you limit the individual tracks or stems.

Ondra

 

The 50th anniversary box has new transfer/mastering of the original mono mix on disc 4.
Compared to the 2009 disc it has slightly more bass and treble. The difference is subtle though.

There was a dedicated thread on this topic:
Beatles "Pepper" Mono CD: 2009 or 2017?

Ondra

 

One mans "destroyed", is another mans "making something sound great". Most music lovers, musicians and the majority of sound engineers do not want dull, flat sounding masters that sound rubbish. Yes, there are countless albums out there that have been mastered badly - but most of the things people complain about on this forum are ridiculous to the point of talking out of their arses. Incorrectly claiming things are brickwalled doesn't make you an audiophile - it probably just means you don't like any music after about 1978.

 

Thanks, I will have to check it out. Did that make it on to the Hi Res discs as well?

 

I don’t know those two versions, but isn’t it all a question of, if the jacked up or flat version sounds more like real instruments in a well balanced tonality as you’d expect from a live performance? So the question is, if the bass was jacked up to a balanced level or if the unmastered version already was well balanced, right?

 

Destroyed dynamics is an objective fact. If the master is brickwalled the dynamics is gone.
Whether you like it or not is a different thing, personal taste.

Ondra

 

Unfortunately, it did not.

Ondra

 

Dude, you just might be in the wrong forum...

 

Ya -- if you can't handle people ripping apart Beatles minutiae, you may be on the wrong forum.

 

Who are these "most" music lovers and why do they prefer dynamic range compression applied in the mastering?

 

Actually “brickwalled” is more about hard limiting (e.g. cutting off the peaks - thus the “brickwall” image of a waveform) than about dynamic compression (reducing the peaks and increasing the valleys) - although both diminish dynamic range.

And you can have both simultaneously (and often do unfortunately)...

 

The irony of this post is amusing.

 

whatever my views initially, I now find it unfortunate that it is indeed crushed. I feel the approach to the remix was insightful and warranted, if only as an alternative, but sadly I won't be listening to it again for the mis-step of sacrificing too much dynamic range.
The original mono has everything I ever needed or wanted from this work. For its own shortcomings it just works for me in ways that the alternative mixes do not, including [excerpts from] Love, and Songtrack.

 

Case eloquently made.

 

This was my HD-Tracks hope. But alas, they have the same version that's on the blu ray.

 

I feel like the vinyl version is the closest we’ll get to that. Looking at the waveforms of the vinyl, it seems most of the compression is baked into the mix unfortunately.

 

The vinyl is only slightly better. It's not night and day. It's probably the stems that are crushed.

 

Only if the mix itself isn’t crushed unfortunately...(which I suspect it is).

Edit: I see now where you added the same addendum to your original post...

 

I’m glad somebody else thinks this. I’ve been villified for saying the vinyl was a only a marginal improvement over the hi-rez.

 

The more time I try to love the remix, the more issue I take with non-compression issues. Specifically: they turned down the guitars too much. That's the style of mixing right now (it also was in the Eighties; Paul even commented on it in some interviews), but the Beatles were a guitar group. Huge drums and guitars-as-secondary-instruments was not the balance they were going for; see the mono mix for proof. Also, in going back to the pre-bouncedown tapes for vocals, the vocals lose some of their sheen. I assume this sheen is partly the combination of all voices on a single track, and partly a result of whatever sonic qualities were imparted during the bouncedown process (either deliberately or as a byproduct of the equipment used).

Examples of songs with guitars-too-soft: With a Little Help from my Friends, Sgt. Pepper Reprise, A Day in the Life (most egregious)
Examples of songs with off-sounding vocals: Sgt. Pepper, Friends, Lovely Rita, Sgt. Pepper Reprise

 

The trick is to reveal more and reveal sounds previously not heard. But how do you do that if you de-emphasize panning via a mono-stereo hybrid? Unless you somehow...are able to add additional depth, maintain dynamics, and emphasize sounds not previously emphasized. Without de-emphasizing TOO MUCH...the sounds previously emphasized on the original recording. Revealing more while smashing it all together only chokes the life out of the sound.

 

I've got a decent table, a decent cart, and a decent DAC for the blu ray. So I'm hearing the best both can offer.
The vinyl is what I choose to listen to, because it IS more dynamic.
But Kite is still too loud, and ADITL is still crushed.