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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by NGeorge, May 31, 2017.

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  1. Have you hears the Nimbus 1984 cut? It gives the UHQR a run for its money. I prefer the Nimbus.
     
  2. Electric

    Electric The Medium is the Massage

    I wish Giles would restrict himself to 're-imagining' rather than remixing.
     
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  3. AudiophilePhil

    AudiophilePhil Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    I haven't heard the Nimbus. What I have been trying to point out is that the 2017 reissue (50th Anniversary) of Sgt. Pepper is a disappointment. The UHQR using the original stereo mix sounds much better.
     
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  4. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    LOL...
     
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  5. Dr. Funk

    Dr. Funk Vintage Dust

    Location:
    Fort Worth TX
    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a fun album...........incredibly visual, musically addictive, and artistically ground breaking. I prefer the original stereo mix, but the 2017 remix is a lot of fun. :pineapple: Playing the vinyl tonight and having a good time.
     
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  6. bherbert

    bherbert Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Africa
    The Sgt Pepper remix is a fun occasional listen IMO. However, it has been pumped up a lot. I prefer the Yellow Submarine Songtrack remixes. I also prefer the Love version of A Day In The Life. It’s more natural sounding.
     
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  7. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    "Mr Kite" remains the oddity. Just silly how loud it is, which does detract somewhat from the mystique of the song.

    What continues to surprise me about this album is how much I enjoy returning to it. Once upon a time, the baroque nature was a bit much for me, and, given its fame, one expects it to get “old.”

    But it doesn’t seem to get stale. I find the richness of the album works in its favour--the layers and the longer-than-average song-length (for The Beatles) means there’s me more to get your teeth into.

    And there are enough “minor” songs to keep “discovering” new interests. Paul really pumps out the vocal on the title track, and “Good Morning” has been reborn through the remix (just two examples).
     
  8. Dan The Man1

    Dan The Man1 Never Could Be Any Other Way

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    George hated recording SP and was bored throughout because he wasn’t participating as much due to the content. Probably why he never heard the stereo imho.
     
  9. Dan The Man1

    Dan The Man1 Never Could Be Any Other Way

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    It’s “vocal” or “vocals”.
     
  10. The Bishop

    The Bishop Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dorset, England.
    I take your point, but personally, I really like the way FTBOMK crashes in after the sensitive She's Leaving Home. You know, Mr. Kite is set in a Circus Big Top and those things are always LOUD and BRASH: as was Mr. Kite himself, I imagine. I can almost smell the sawdust in this song, which, of course, is greatly aided by the incredible way they made the circus sound effects tapes. Count me in as a fan of your remix, Giles Martin.
     
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  11. john morris

    john morris Everybody's Favorite Quadron

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    When you say the best Sgt. Pepper is the 1987 CD are you referring to better bass, less harsh, bigger sound stage or something else? Are you just comparing the 1987 with the remastered or all three? What do you mean when you say best sounding? The recent one is a complete remix. If a Beatle fan is in love with the original mixes (as Steve is) then it doesn't matter how good the new mix sounds he/she is gonna hate it.

    The goal of the Abbey Road team was to reproduce these albums as closely as possible to the master. The engineers heard every version. Including the 1987 CD's and all the vinyl.
    They did something no engineer at Abbey Road had every done in mastering a Beatle album to CD or vinyl: Adjusting the azuimth of the playback head on every song transfer to get maximum bass and treble. When you adjust the playback head to get the max bass and treble out of a song this is the full bass and treble that was recorded onto tape. Anything else is not an accurate reproduction. And that includes the 1987 transfer. However, the small amount of good EQ that the Abbey Road team applied kind of poops all over the playback azuimth adjustment thing. And then the peak limiting on transient peaks, etc. Despite Abbey Road's efforts it is very possible that the 1987 Pepper is the most ummm.....Pepperish sounding Pepper CD. Not the best sounding but more like the master even if it does have less bass or treble.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2019
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  12. john morris

    john morris Everybody's Favorite Quadron

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    That is an old post. I was reading a lot of Middle English and old Modern English books at the time and some of the old spellings stuck. For example in the 1611 King James Bible (Not the 1887 Baskerville/Oxford edit everyone incorrectly calls a King James Bible) Jesus is spelled " Levus " and forth is spelled " foorth."
    The spelling in the real King James Bible is closer to it's Latin roots. 400 years ago they often had 6 or even 8 agreed spellings of a single English word. For example: Cave at one time was spelled
    " caxe. " Anyway all this old spelling unfortunately spilled into my current writings.
    The matter was brought up ALL LONG TIME AGO and was understood by all. And you are not a new member.

    Was it necessary for you to quote the whole darn post just to point out a spelling error? I welcome the grammar police but the post is more than a year old. Anyway it was a good exercise. You never want to lose the skill of making one person look real stupid in front of other people.

    I thought this nonsense was finished. Three years in Special Education with my older brother calling me stupid.

    I am sure you meant well but.....
     
  13. john morris

    john morris Everybody's Favorite Quadron

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    EQ added to masters used to be if the master was real dull. For example: This album would so much better with just a little top end. So you would add 2 db @ 12 khz @ a Q of 0.5. And it's a little weak in the bottom end. So you give the bottom end a little boost of 40 hz @ 1.5 db @ a Q of 1. Adds a little zip which it needed and it doesn't alter the tonal balance of the album. And you don't even notice what the engineer did. Why? Because it was tiny.
    Today engineers love to reduce the cloud (90-250hz), boost the midrange at 3 khz and yank up 8 khz big and heavy. Why? Because with these three frequencies engineers do the most destruction (changes).
    Take a nice classic Rock album with a good hefty mid bass and subdued top end.
    A modern engineer will take it and:
    150 hz - 4 db @ of 1
    3 000 hz + 3 db @ of 1
    8 000 hz + 5 db @ of 1
    And put a low cut filter at 40 hz.

    And now your beloved Rock classic sounds like classic dog poop. (Real stinky mastering)
     
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  14. john morris

    john morris Everybody's Favorite Quadron

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    We assumed he boosted the eq of the track in question. Remember for some of these songs you have an earlier generation of tape so the cymbals would have more top end if they were a generation higher. (If this is the case.but we don't know this either). This also could have been done in mastering. We just don't know

    As a mastering/mixing engineer I would appreciate if members said, "Sounds like Giles might have gone crazy with the high frequency EQ." Instead of the usual, "Giles used too much eq on the drum track." Again you don't know and you are only guessing. Personally I agree with you but I am also only guessing.
     
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  15. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    Agreed on all counts. ADITL is beautiful on L O V E...it (L O V E) also has the best sounding version (by far) of All You Need is Love, IMO.
     
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  16. john morris

    john morris Everybody's Favorite Quadron

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    None of those Beatle MFSL records were flat cut. And the same EQ was applied to all. That Pepper you have couldn't be further from the master.
     
  17. Vinylsoul 1965

    Vinylsoul 1965 Senior Member

    And yes, we also know that MOST records are not a flat cut of the master tape in the real world. There is some sort of manipulation that happens to the original source (whether it is decided by the client or the engineer). I would agree that the UHQR pressing is one of my faves of the stereo Sgt. Pepper (even though it is not a flat cut of the master tape), and my least favourite was the 2017 remix. I also need to remind everyone that I think the main issues with the SQ of the remix stems from the remix itself, not just the mastering.

    I also think it would be more appropriate to say that the MFSL pressings applied a "similar EQ approach" as opposed to saying that the same EQ was applied to all. I do not have Stan's notes on how he cut the records but I am sure that the exact + and - figures are not the same.
     
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  18. AudiophilePhil

    AudiophilePhil Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    I prefer the sound of UHQR over the remixed Pepper nonetheless.
     
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  19. john morris

    john morris Everybody's Favorite Quadron

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    Fair enough..Those disks are a fine example of how good analog vinyl can get regardless of equalization.
     
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  20. john morris

    john morris Everybody's Favorite Quadron

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario

    Yes but but I believe the person in charge had a cold at the time and so the EQ were all wrong. Could be just legend. Certainly George Martin never liked them.

    Yes but in the days when vinyl ruled EQ was added for cutting reasons. If there was too much low bass to cut for example. Not because someone wanted to goose the bass of early Beatle releases. And the original cutting notes for Pepper show it was cut flat. So whomever did it at MFSL had no business adding any EQ to Pepper. What is the point of doing the audiophile cutting releases of an album if you are going to fool with the spectrum balance of the album? A MFSL record could handle more bass and more highs. No need for it. Remember this were audiophile releases.
     
  21. john morris

    john morris Everybody's Favorite Quadron

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    What exactly is wrong with the remix. It is a remix so it is going to be different. Too bright? Not wide enough?
     
  22. Vinylsoul 1965

    Vinylsoul 1965 Senior Member

    TOO MUCH COMPRESSION. The way compression was used in the mix was excessive and much of the beauty in the original sonics were lost in the process (i.e. listen to the opening of Kite for starters).

    The concept of the remix was a good one, and I actually think the stereo placement was creative and what I was hoping for. However, the heavy handed use of compression (on tracks that were probably already compressed during the original tracking) makes the remix sound ugly to me. A missed opportunity.

    Do you have proof that the original stereo Pepper was cut flat? I have not seen Harry's notes on this and if you have this information please post this. As we all know, the stereo album was recut a few times so I am assuming the "flat cut" is for only the early pressings (-1/-1)?
     
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  23. Vinylsoul 1965

    Vinylsoul 1965 Senior Member

    Stan Ricker was a fine mastering engineer. The EQ decisions on the Beatles' MOFI set were not his, but imposed by a MOFI employee...part of that story can be found here:
    R.I.P. Legendary Mastering Engineer Stan Ricker
     
  24. sathvyre

    sathvyre formerly known as ABBAmaniac

    Location:
    Europe
    Even a flat tube cut adds a slightly different frequency range and additional compression, compared to the original mastertape.
     
  25. YardByrd

    YardByrd rock n roll citizen in a hip hop world

    Location:
    Europe
    Not only the start of Kite, but the hi-hat never sits comfortably in the bed... it's dominates for the entire duration of the song...
     
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