Abbey Road 50th contents, outtakes and sound quality thread .. only

It’s really more what I wouldn’t do than what I would do, and I’m pretty much fully on board with the decisions made in these mixes... that is, until you encounter these moments that really are not in the spirit of the original production. I’d mostly want to stick to things that are era-appropriate or at least true to the original artistic intention. ADT? Totally cool. But not on tracks that didn’t already have it. Reverb? Yeah, most tracks need a touch of that somewhere, but at the same time we don’t need to make them sound like they’re playing in the Taj Mahal because 2019 technology would allow, nor do we need to gate the drum tracks and make them sound like a Bon Jovi record. LOVE-style fly-ins from other sections of tape? At that point we are in “do it because we can, not because we should” territory. We don’t need to melodyne Ringo. Obviously an extreme example, but you know.. things like that. Ultimately it comes down to a matter of personal taste and judgement.


I do want to point out that I AM totally fine with digitally extracted stereo techniques, and I think they could be employed to great effect on some of the tracks where a lot of things are combined and can’t be un-bounced, or if they were combined to begin with. It can be awfully convincing, even if attempting to turn a fully mixed mono track into good-sounding stereo. It would be even more effective if only used to further separate locked-down mix elements and give them some more flexibility in their remixes.


Is it fake stereo? Yeah. But it’s a whole lot more elaborate than hitting the phase switch on track 3 and letting it ride. To me, DES is using modern technology to artificially enhance something, but in a natural way… I hope that sort of makes sense?

For some good examples, I would seek out some of the tracks on the “Hard To Find Jukebox Hits” CDs put out by Hit Parade records. Lots of very decent results there for tracks that were previously mono-only. Let’s not forget those are made from separating mix elements in fully mixed mono recordings, not individual tracks on session tapes. And they don’t even have the master tapes or high resolution transfers to work from for that matter either!

 

I mean, The Beatles were about breaking rules, right? If you want something that sounds like the original-mix, you have... guess what? The original-mix. Lennon got stoned and spooled his tape-machine backwards, and voila, opened a can of worms for psychedelic recording-artists and folks like Hendrix. He got lazy of overdubbing his vocals, so Ken Townshend invented Automatic-Double-Tracking. He wanted to sound like the Dalai Lama, so Geoff Emerick plugged his mic into a revolving Leslie-cab. Harrison got his guitar to howl on “Doctor Robert” through coats and coats of filtering on a Fairchild-limiter. McCartney recorded his bass through a ginormous horn-speaker to get his sound on “Paperback Writer”. Emerick had to record Starr’s bass-drum and cymbals in closer-proximity with the microphone to capture his dense, unhinged playing on “She Said, She Said”. Sometimes, The Beatles would request their songs to be sped-up or slowed-down; changing transients and character — as in the case with “Rain”, when the backing-track had to be slowed down for the vocals to be recorded at pitch; changing the sonic-characteristics between those two. Lennon forced Emerick and Sir Martin to string together two different arrangements of the same song using vari-speed and a scissor. They would bounce layers upon layers of overdubs on copies of four-track tape for trails of sounds, texture; and sometimes allowing McCartney to revisit tracks, compose complex bass-lines far past sessions, á-la “With a Little Help From My Friends” — whilst plugging his guitar directly into the console. Harrison requested an eight-track console for “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, which engineers eventually stole from EMI. Lennon wanted the gnarliest recorded guitar-tone at the time, so plugged his guitar straight into an overheating console at the behest of the staff at EMI. These guys clearly overlooked countless rules, accepted-wisdom and convention to change the course of popular-music in the 20th-century.

 

And nobody can deny that they did some really cool **** 50 years ago. Seriously, the more out there the better, as far as I’m concerned. I LOVE their more experimental side, 1967 is absolutely my favorite “Beatle year”. Some people probably wouldn’t care to hear Carnival of Light or the De Lane Lea acid jams, having a general idea of what they may be like, but the brief descriptors we’ve been given over the years only serves to make those my #1 personal holy grails.

All that said… how far is too far when we’re working with these recordings in this day and age? When they remix Rubber Soul and decide to varispeed “Girl” because someone thinks it needs to be more uptempo, or suddenly for LIB50 the lead vocal on Dig A Pony is backwards… at what point do we need to respect the rules?

 

Please Please Me came out in 1963

 

Funny how the loudest people posting in these remixes threads readily admit that they don't understand even the basic technical aspects of remixing these recordings. Attempts at discuss the specific remixes themselves feel like a waste of time.

 

I’ll probably skip the deluxe version on this one and just get the album-only version to check out the remix. 2 LPs of outtakes that I would listen to once, maybe twice, is not interesting enough to me to spend the extra on it, even if the box is as nice as the White Album box (which I did get, and consider the Esher Demos and packaging worth every extra penny). I think my feelings on all the outtake bonus materials (Esher Demos aside, as that captures more of a cohesive event) is that I already listened to Anthology a ton in the ‘90s, and I’m kind of all set on that stuff. I think I’m in a minority among people who are interested in these anniversary editions in the first place, though?

 

Yes, but then they’d need to release two different ones in 2023, which seems unlikely for marketing reasons, right? Though that poster had both 1064 albums listed together, so I guess maybe?

Unless they do a double edition with both albums?

 

But the list proposes 2 releases in 2024 and 2025 ...

 

Yeah, I realized that and edited, but not fast enough apparently.

I guess maybe Beatles releases could get away with it. I don’t think this will happen, but I would actually kind of like the deluxe versions of the early albums to include US versions...

 

I saw that, but sure am hoping there are Tittenhurst pics in that book. That was one of the things I was most excited about, regarding the book! We did only see a few pages in that preview, so I'm hoping!

 

For the early albums I think doubling up is a good idea. The market for a "super deluxe" Please Please Me is probably much less than the first 3 SDEs that have been released or confirmed. They could, however, do much more with archival video content on the early albums.

 

Michael Fremer has some more details on gis site

Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Special Releases Coming September 27th

 

I think the rule is quite simple: play around with the soundstage and stereo-imaging, which Giles has been doing for as long as I can remember. ADT and spectral-fancy-schmancy is completely on board. Don’t mess with pitch, unless The Beatles & co. signed off on it in the sixties: e.g. “She’s Leaving Home”.

 

There is actually quite a bit of content for PPM SDE

The album in DES

A 96/24 or the original mono mix

From my boots I know there are at least 9 unique takes of I saw her standing there. 12 if you count over dubs.

9 for misery. Like 10 for there’s a place. This stuff is out there.

Pull in the singles outtakes and maybe some live/radio of the songs and you easily have a 3 disc set

 

I actually think doing deluxe issues by year is a fun idea. For each year, include whichever UK and US albums were released that year. That solves the problem of the UK albums not all having a direct US equivalent, too.

 

Ok to me this is an excellent definition of a conservative remix.

I don't understand why ADT (applied to tracks it wasn't originally) qualifies as digital "jiggery pokery", whereas digital extraction does not. You could better make the case the other way around, I think, given that the Beatles actually used ADT. In any case, the Beatles and their estates don't see this as off-limits, obviously. These particular "ground rules" of what should and should not be done don't hold up I don't think.

But you're right to say it comes down to personal taste. This is really what it's about, so I think you're on firmer ground just saying "I don't like the way it sounds".

I wish more of these comments were made in such a way that one wouldn't doubt that the commenter is living in the wider-world where these remixes are highly well-thought of, preferred, and this takes into account the ADT, which makes for a more immersive, and better, stereo experience.

 

2028 Yellow Submarine (60th anniversary of the film’s release)

 

If anyone has done this already I apologize for the duplication. Here's everything that will be available from the Abbey Road period after the box set is out. New stuff is in BOLD.

I Want You (She's So Heavy) Trident Session and Reduction mix
I Want You (She's So Heavy) - edit of takes 9, 20 and 32 (Rockband - drum track with barely audible unused guitar solo)
Something - studio demo mix 1
Something - studio demo mix 2 (with piano)
Old Brown Shoe - studio demo (Apple acetate)
Old Brown Shoe - studio demo
All Things Must Pass - studio demo mix 1
All Things Must Pass - studio demo mix 2
All Things Must Pass - studio demo mix 3 (Apple acetate)
The Ballad of John and Yoko - take 7
The Ballad of John and Yoko - acetate
The Ballad of John and Yoko - acetate (edit)
Old Brown Shoe - take 2
Oh! Darling - take 4
Oh! Darling session rehearsal/chat
Oh! Darling - take 26 rhythm track
Oh! Darling - take 26 with alt vocal
Octopus's Garden - session chat
Octopus's Garden - take 2 with chat from take 8
Octopus's Garden - take 9
Octopus's Garden - take 32
You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) - composite
Let It Be - take 27a (overdub)
Something session chat
You Never Give Me Your Money - session chat
You Never Give Me Your Money - take 30
You Never Give Me Your Money - take 36
Her Majesty pre take chat
Her Majesty - take 1
Her Majesty - take 2
Her Majesty - take 3
Golden Slumbers - take 1 (monitor mix)
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight - take 1
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight - take 2
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight - take 3
Golden Slumbers - pre take chat
Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight - Take 13
Here Comes the Sun - take 1 breakdown (partial)
Here Comes the Sun - take 9
Here Comes the Sun - playback and discussion
Maxwell's Silver Hammer - take 5
Maxwell's Silver Hammer pre take 8 chat
Maxwell's Silver Hammer - take 12
Maxwell's Silver Hammer - take 21
Something - take 37 (reduction mix)
Something - multitrack analysis
Oh! Darling - take 26 - Overdub Session Vocal track part 1
Oh! Darling - take 26 - Overdub Session Vocal track part 2
Oh! Darling - take 26 - Overdub Session Vocal track part 3
Oh! Darling - take 26 - Overdub Session Vocal track part 4
Oh! Darling - take 26 - Overdub Session Vocal track part 5
Come Together - take 1
Come Together - rehearsal chat
Come Together - take 4 breakdown, take 5 slate
Come Together - take 5
Come Together - take 6 (rhythm track)
Come Together - multitrack analysis
Come Together - alternate mix
The End - take 3
The End - take 7 (unedited rhythm track)
Come And Get It - demo (different mix)
Ain't She Sweet
Sun King - session chat
Sun King/Mean Mr Mustard - take 20
Sun King/Mean Mr Mustard - take 35
Polythene Pam/She Came In Through the Bathroom Window - session chat
Polythene Pam - break down and count-in
Polythene Pam/She Came In Through the Bathroom Window - take 27
Polythene Pam - vocal overdub fragment
"A Huge Melody" (aka The Long One - upgrade)
Because - rehearsal and pre take chat
Because - take 1 instrumental
Because - single vocal track
Because - vocal overdubs onto take 16
The End - take 7 (all faders up - pre orchestra)
Something - take 39 orchestra
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight - take 17 orchestra

 

I have been up and down discogs and see no reference to a black triangle cd release
Sources?

I have two UK first pressing lps in mint- shape
The mono (excluded) and blue box
But it woulb be nice to get the best digital

Shame they didn't do a bluray 24/192 of the original mix

 

This makes sense.

 

Very little snippets have been released

 

9 part harmony.

There’s a video on YouTube of somebody playing with 3 of the vocal parts - turning them on & off so that you can hear them separately & in various combinations - which is an interesting listen. It’s very unusual hearing the separate vocals; I recall thinking John’s didn’t sound too great on its own.

 

How is it nine-part harmony?

 

This is a lovely cut - john's voice seems so relaxed.
Yoko for the recent Imagine release had his voice brought up in the mix.
She said John always insisted it be low in volume.

This is less nasally.

What? The can't be serious
This isn't life o death and 99% of kids can't tell and don't appreciate nice sound.

This

I will love Giles for what he did on Love
The songs that didn't work were the ones that were 90% original

The stop start in the same key Drive My Car / What Your Doing is genious

I am sure Yoko and Olivia spend more time deciding which songs/ takes not to include on the album.
Then get a run through mix.

Ringo goes peace and love and Paul turns his harmony,the bass and his piano and guitar parts up to 11