Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Discussion. What Can We Expect?

Same up here by Lake Ontario. Talk away!

 

I must admit hearing John and Paul's voices separated on Love Me Do was very interesting. And that was years ago.

 

I'd also like to see them go backwards with remixes of the other LPs. For two reasons: firstly, Revolver is my favourite LP and I want to see it sooner rather than later (I also think it's the one out of them all which potentially stands to benefit the most from the upgrade in sound) and secondly, the earliest LPs probably will gain from even further advances in technology to be left till last.

As Maccawings says though, it's a win-win situation whichever way they decide to play it. The only question mark for me is at which point will the Past Masters (or replacement thereof) album come out to mop up all other numbers not covered elsewhere (and in what way will Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine be covered in the grand plan?)

 

I would love for Apple to do their own Beatles streaming/download service. If you put up all of the available outtakes from EMI and other studio outtakes they have, the Beatles films with lots of extra BTS footage along with song databases which link you to handwritten lyric sheets, demos or interviews explaining the songs, it would be bliss ! I do understand that everything in these sets has to be agreed on by the four Beatle representatives and how Apple like to pick and choose what we get in these archive sets which against the days of a simple facebook post celebrating any of the 62-66 anniversaries I much prefer todays methods of releases.

 

Backwards. Revolver and Rubber Soul are hugely beloved albums, and every year that passes, selling physical media becomes harder. And like someone said, this also gives more time for technology to advance and make remixing the twin-track albums easier.

 

A friend worked some photoshop magic on me. I wish those lads would stop following me!

 

So this is in Jersey?

 

Over 20 years ago, I wrote an unsolicited email to MPL suggesting that they create their own ITunes type page attached to the official site making all outtakes and demos available to buy as single tracks or collections of numerous ones. I told them that I thought they underestimated how much fans wanted them.

NO REPLY, NO REPY AT ALL!!!!

 

Well, my little stroll across Abbey Road this past December while in the U.K. for McCartney concerts

 

And again the Harrison/McCartney interaction! It seems they got on great together mostly. Paul in his “Victorian miner” phase . Also love Glyn and Ringo hamming it up in the background.

 

Fantastic!!!

 

Who else is in the room?

 

Well it's bright and sunny out now. Looks like the forecast for the rest of the night has gotten at least a little tamer!

 

Hope so, on my way shortly to Staten Island to hear a friend play

 

Denis O'Dell , Glyn Johns, and Michael Lindsey-Hogg

 

That's not what I am saying and you know it. You are constantly posting about what a genius Giles Martin is, how future mixes should be done, etc. That would imply that you have some kind of knowledge of what you are talking about. But by your own admission (and the observations of many people here) you actually have no idea what you are talking about and are proud to be "ignorant". If that is the case, then why would anyone be inclined to take your daily barrage of posts seriously?

 

Same here in Seattle.
Beave

 

To me, they will ALWAYS have something to sell. And there will always be buyers for this kind of things.. maybe not in the millions like it used to be in the good ol' days, but The Beatles are a huge brand, like Ferrari or Coca Cola...no need to worry about that

Of course they won't release everything, for obvious reasons. And I'm sure vinyl will not be the physical media of the future: being now generated by digital sources, what's the point of it? It had a comeback lately but let's face it: it's overpriced and the youngsters who buy it often don't even have a turntable to play it..

And besides, I personally don't need to find myself fighting again with pops, scratchs, dust and jumping needledrops CD will go on, trust me.

These are great times for us fans.

 

Let me understand. He admits that he knows nothing about music production, but we are supposed to eat up his opinions about....music production. Makes perfect sense

 

The Prince song,"Let's Go Crazy" was recorded 100% completely live in the studio. At the end as everyone gets louder you can hear many microphone preamps overload.

 

Knowledge of music (Circle of 5th's, perfect pitch, etc) is not needed nor is required to mix a great record. But sometimes it helps. But when someone (Giles Martin) is asked to a 5.1 mix of clasic 4 track Beatle songs and all he does is record the stereo mix of his rear speakers pointed at the studio back wall with microphones then I have every good reason to say, "You are not qualified to do 5.1 mixes of anything. What you did is not only a waste of people's money but can be duplicated for free with a Dolby Surround setting on a Pioneer receiver from 1995..." And when the reply is the tired old, "Instruments don't come from behind."
Yea...They do if the bloody bass player has set up his bass amp behind you! Mr. Giles sir, if you have problems with panning instruments behind the listener then maybe you should stick to doing stereo mixes only. Giles "Remix" Martin made a great remix of the The Whiter Album but they need to get someone more ahhh....adventurous to do the 5.1 mix.

I think the world of Giles but sorry his 5.1 mixes are ahhh, lame.

 

What are you talking about?!

...Don't you know or haven't you heard
that the shiny CD died a painful death
at the hands of the kids who download
the music for free because money is needed
for those tacky torn jeans

In Japan the compact disk is 85% of
music sales but don't believe the lies
because the truth is out there
and a 128 kbs Mp3 is CD quality so they say
with a bakers dozen of eggs dripping down
the face of the morons who repeat the endless
mantra, "MP3 is unrecognizable from a
wave file if your Hi-FI is a boombox with a
busted tweeter and a s**t load of leaky
resistors"

Hail! Hail! The compressed music format.
For our $10 ear buds 20 - 20 000 is excessive
and unnecessary as we cram our pierced ears
up against our Iphone mono low-fi speakers
Why buy a silly CD when one can stream the
the song for free except in the subways and
the Wi-Fi dead spots that litter the cities like
coachroaches

Bass is for clubs granddaddy.

 

Did I miss something? I have been mixing for 17 years professionally (I get $8 an hour except the minimum wage in Ontario is $14/hr. LOL) and I produce s****y mixes all the time. And my name is on some of the early stuff. Hopefully no one on here had run into them....

But yes I see your point. There is some German, Scandinavian guy on Utube who likes to review plugins. My problem with the "professional" (and he is!) is the mindless industrial Dance he seems to only mix. If you don't mix any real acoustic instruments then why should anybody listen to you? He would talk about how the bass sounds with said plug in.... How the Hell would you know about good bass is? None of the stuff you ever mix has ever had one acoustic or electric bass on it. Not even a sample of an electric bass played on a Midi keyboard. Again, why should anyone listen to you?

I think everybody has something to contribute. Five years ago we had a Mild Down Syndrome guy working for us on the "We can do it!" Program.
He actually did one Metal mix on his own. And I got tell you all that I was impressed. When he first arrived I played Tony the kind of over compressed mix that we don't do at the studio. His opinion was and I quote, What ret**d did that mix?" A classic comment I have never forgotten. He died of kidney complications last year. Sad. Great funny guy.....Miss him.

 

You are right about the 5.1 mixes in 1+, but you are being a little harsh on Giles Martin here. Have you heard his 5.1 mixes for Love, or the White Album? Of course he is qualified to do those mixes.

 

"How dare you question my viewpoint!" (force lightning fires from my hands like the Emperor in Star Wars Episode 6.) "Now you pay for your lack of vision.."

Putting all fun and joke aside...
What he did on 1+ was unforgivable! Sorry but a lot of people I know but were really angry. Some even got there money back! Nobody in the music business would ever mike the contents of the rear speakers, record the contents, pop them into the rear channels and then sell that to people as a supposedly 5.1 mix. It's criminal!
It's the Elephant in the room that I can't ignore. And the only reason he didn't repeat this nonsense with The White 5.1 is because:
A. He had more tracks to play with.
B. The style of music was differnet
C. The angry backlash from 5.1 fans.

Let me ask you a question. If I held up a grocery store on Monday but not the rest of the week does that mean I was a nice guy that week. Or will you just forget that a pointed a gun at the clerk on Monday? In other words Giles 1+ 5.1 mixes are the grocery store holdup on Monday.

Most 5.1 mixes are going to impress people. So I am not surprised that a lot of people who have never heard the Fab Four in 5.1 would think they were amazing. But if the 5.1 mixes are ever gonna take off they need to grab people by their stuff and yank them around. Do you know what is considered good for a 5.1 remix? 10 000 copies sold! Are you forgetting the Pepper 5.1 mixes? Heard the whole mix at a friends house. And he has one of these 7.1 B&W top of the line surround systems. The mix wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. He is like so many other young engineers mixing surround: Scared about putting too much in the rear channels.

But to be honest my 5.1 mixes are considered extreme. Not the norm.. Most are either OOP or were a limited release like the 5.1 mixes I did for Japan only. And when I can remember the name of the band in question I will post all the information on here. I spend a lot of time in pain. And the meds effect my memory.

3 years ago or so I did a real off the wall (acid trip) 5.1 mix for this band. Their stereo release was not well received at 20 000 copies. The 5.1 sold 25 copies. No joke! I hear that 5.1 version is a collectable. I do crappy mixes all the time. That's how we learn. Anyone can do a 5.1 mix. But there are pros who spealize in it:
Conrad Bosworth
Donald "The" Wealth
Steve Wilson
Gus Vanmayour

Some you may have heard of...Some not. Not everyone likes the Limelight.

And Abbey Road is yet to appear. Let's hold out breath eh. Wait and see. If Giles can pull off a real 360 degree surround sound mix and not just a stereo mix with some occasional stuff tossed in the rear channels then I will eat my words.

Again, I love Giles' stereo mixes on Pepper and The Whiter Album but the Beatles deserve only the best for a 5.1 mix. And Giles just doesn't cut it. The Beatles deserve more than just an o.k. mix.