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

They don't reach the unexpected highs of the WA, but end to end, I think the outtakes on this release are the most consistently listenable.

It's funny, you can know the lineups and stuff, but still somehow miss just how much they recorded more or less live. And how good they were. At least in my case!

 

ok cheers

 

You're right, it sounds like they did go back to some pre-bounce tapes for Love after first backing up all the four and eight track multi masters. It's mentioned in an article on Sound On Sound from 2007.

As far as frequencies go, there doesn't appear to be any hard cutoff on the Peppers50 tracks. Some have info up to 24~25kHz, some have info up to 30kHz and that's the same I'm seeing with Abbey Road. Come Together reaches up to around 34kHz, Oh! Darling up to 41kHz while Here Comes the Sun is around 26kHz.

 

The I Want You outtake. Was that an edit piece only? I wonder why it is essentially only one verse and then the coda. Have half the song been frankenedited out?

Love the coda with organ and lead guitar. Sounds very much like Pink Floyd around the time between Atom Heart Mother and Meddle. If i did not know of the beatles, you could have made me believe the coda was a lost PF track. Even Ringos Drumming sounds like Nick Masoms here.

 

Thanks for the info. Anything in the credits or deadwax for your Japan 3LP indicating pressing by Optimal, as I understand to be the case for both the EU 3LP and 1LP vinyl releases (as opposed to QRP for US at least for 1LP)? Or any other pressing plan for that matter?

I hate to say I have been hearing some complaints about even the ostensibly Optimal pressings on this title.

 

Yes I agree but unfortunately Ringo has nowhere near the control when it comes to cymbal tapping, which is something Mason excels at (and does quite a lot of - Us And Them being an outstanding example of this).

Which is why I was saying I so prefer the remix where the cymbals sound so much better. I just don't think Ringo's drumming on this track is some of his best, primarily because it's cymbal driven, and all of the effects only help.

Just my opinion!

 

I'm listening to the Blu ray stereo. If you like this remix this is a must listen. This is worth the box. So glad I purchased the SDE instead of the 2 CD. The disc is playing fine on my Sony Blu ray player. Excellent sound.

 

I finally got to the end!

I'm really surprised de-mixing wasn't used on the mono orchestrations. I gotta believe it was attempted, and perhaps didn't turn out so good. Seems like a no-brainer use for this tech.

 

According to interviews, and I think it's written in one of the DE books, the claim from Martin is that all of the effects, all of the boards, limiters, compressors, et al, are original, vintage, and not digitally processed.

I mean, I don't know for certain. Anybody can say anything and post it to the masses.

Do you know for a fact, with concrete evidence that plug-ins were used?

 

I doubt any of the new mixes are “totally” different. Logic would presume that one would use one mix for their base and work from there.

I believe I read that Steven Wilson starts by recreating the original stereo mix as best he can and then creates his new stereo and expand his 5.1 mixes from there.

I suppose another engineer might start with an Atmos mix and reduce the other mixes from that.

But I can’t imagine the different mixes being started from scratch. They almost certainly must have much more similarities than differences.

 

Love the remix, it's now my go-to, as are the others.

I have one complaint. It may be the first I've ever offered up! The honky-tonk piano during the "Out of college money spent..." part is barely audible! What's with that?

 

Sometimes Optimal can drop the ball. Their gold vinyl pressing of Chaos and Creation In The Backyard is noisy, and the black vinyl version is a bit better but not all that much.
Now I am scared to buy the QRP AR but it's odd since both the Sgt. Pepper remix and the White Album remix they pressed are very quiet.

 

I laughed and grinned when it came on, it’s really good!

 

I got the single vinyl from Amazon and it it is dead flat and quiet for the most part. On the lead in on side a there is a little bit of noise but when the music starts you cant hear it anymore. The gaps after the first song didnt show any noise on audacity and I couldn't hear anything. I was surprised it sounded so good.

 

Several listens later, my only major gripe remains the vocal on the "One sweet dream" section of YNGMYM.

Otherwise, this is a fine alternative to the other digital versions. The outtakes terrific... the instrumental take of 'Because' is sublime. I can't wait to check this out again with headphones.

 

"now this won't keep the Apple staff in work for the next 10 years lads, we've got all those families to look after y'know" - John on Sun King Take 20
what's he referring to? is he talking about the album, or the song?

 

Which version of the Blu-Ray -hi-res stereo, Atmos, or 5.1?

 

Ok ... now this is ridiculous.

I really wonder if Giles even bothered to listen to his Dad's supervised 1987 remaster to check simple things like ... tape speed.

I A/B'd " Carry That Weight" into " The End" and I hearing semi tone differences!!!

This is just plain goofy.

 

Listened to the 5.1 mix tonight. I liked it, but not as much as the hi-res stereo remix. Seemed like the first half second piano intro of Oh! Darling is missing or severely abbreviated. Paul’s backing vocal on Mean Mr. Mustard was a little buried. And the electric guitars on Polythene Pam sound oddly distant.

On the other hand I liked most of the choices in the medley, some of the vocal harmonies on the back half - Sun King, YNGMYM and Because, especially - sound fantastic. I was also fine with the way The End was mixed, which seems to be a sticking point for some. I didn’t find the center channel vocals overemphasized as some complained about.

Overall good, not great. I’ll be listening to the stereo remix a lot in the coming weeks, not sure if the same can be said of the surround mix just yet...

 

i'm pretty sure the 87 remasters don't matter in the long run. aren't they just supposed to be the regular albums but remastered? why does it matter where it comes from? also, in the Sound On Sound interview for the Pepper box set, Giles specifies that he was intentionally comparing speeds between various masters. One can assume that's still the case today. ALSO also, i can't say this enough, it's not a one man job. this could easily be the fault of Sam Okell or another member of the remixing team.

 

I kinda laughed at this, as a comment about future releases (such as this one), to keep the money flowing for all the dependants.

But I don't know what it's actually about.

 

I've gravitated day 2 towards the second sessions disk with The Long One and the beautiful George Martin orchestrations.

One part of the appeal of The Long One is that it hasn't been sliced and diced with plugins like the official remix. I'm not hating the remix, but given the absence of the original mix in the box, The Long One steps in to fill that space.

A great disk, very nice.

 

Is there an error in the sde book page 64 "The Ballad Of John And Yoko". Third paragraph it says "Paul's 1969 notebook of songs, in which he had written out the words of the song." and "... at the head of a page in Paul's songbook" . I'm confused. Is it supposed to say John's songbook? Or did Paul write the lyrics of John's song in his book to learn so he could sing background vocals?

 

New discovery:

The song written in John's 1968 songwriting book after 'Mean Mr Mustard' is 'Me and My Monkey,' so we have an updated page order:

"your outside is in
when inside is out..."

1. Julia
2. ?
3. ?
4. Mean Mr. Mustard
5. Come On (Me and My Monkey)
6. Bungalow Bill
7. Goodnight
8. Revolution
9. Polythene Pam
10. ?
11. THE ??? NOFFELL
12. I'm So Tired
13a. Yer Blues
13b. Dear Prudence
14. Glass Onion