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

Hey @mikecarrera I have the same question as @Karl Denver, if it's The Beatles answer 10-4, if it's solo Beatles say you are drinking alone. They'll never unlock that code

 

Well not necessarily so. Modern remixes don't ALWAYS have centered drums and bass. Most? Prevailing? Sure, but not all. Secondly, much of the White Album was recorded on 4 track and let's face it the 8 track era was brand new for George Martin and company. Some of the mixes simply couldn't feature centered drums and bass because of the methods used back in the day. The "sandal crowd" would have cried crocodile tears if Giles and team used jiggery pokery demixing methods to artificially remix in the "modern" way. Ron

PS There's always the possibility that Paul, Ringo, Yoko and/or Olivia/Dhani may have nixed a modern-typr remix or 3 just because THEY didn't like how it sounded. There's little chance we'd ever know such a thing took place.

 

Did he say it's Beatles related? Mike's avatar is rock n roll circus, maybe another Stones box such as Let it Bleed 50?

 

@mikecarrera do you think the Beatles mono box will ever be reissued. AAA or otherwise?

 

The vocals on BOJ&Y were done live with the acoustic guitar and drums basic take, so are presumably on all takes. There was no lead vocal overdubs.

 

Thank you.

 

Because "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and "Old Brown Shoe" are on Past Masters, I think the AR50 box will include outtakes of those songs but not the remixed masters.

It's my contention that the masters of any tracks that are on PM are being held for a remixed Past Masters release that'll just be the tracks and no outtakes. Therefore the outtakes go with the set of the album (or nearest album) to their sessions.

"Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were included in the Pepper50 box (to much fanfare) because those two songs are not on Past Masters, and at that point Apple wasn't sure it would ever do a MMT deluxe music-focused box or any further deluxe boxes for that matter. After Pepper50 was a hit commercially and critically, Apple probably greenlit plans to do more box sets, as we are starting to see, and will stick to this rule so they don't make Past Masters obsolete by using all these tracks on album box sets.

 

I think that you've hit it squarely.

Makes perfect sense.
(Which, of course, gives me pause...)

 

... and means that it's unlikely to be Apple Corps' plan...

 

Mmm.. I’m not sure. I just assumed that it was, since it’s a Beatles’ thread and that’s what he has given us clues on in the past. Another reason for Mike to jump in and clarify!!

 

In case of With a Little Help from My Friends, for example, 1999 YSS mix centers the drums, but 2017 mix does not (because apparently drums in the center changed quality of Ringo's voice).

As for "demixing", they probably used it anyway but in places where it produces the least artifacts like a track that has bass guitar and a tambourine, that is easily separated. As for other methods, Giles himself said that they used ADT on some stuff - he was demonstrating it on the intro guitar of Dear Prudence, saying that they used it (the same ADT machine Beatles used) to make a "stereo" out of original mono track guitar. Apparently, they used it quite a lot as well, but also made some weird choices with it (like bass in Dear Prudence).

 

For sure. No matter what, it still comes to down to choices. Some songs probably didn't sound all that great with centered drums and bass. Other times technology could be used which enabled certain remixes to take place. Again, whether you or I or the "sandal brigade" likes the end results or not. Ron

 

Not for now, not in a long time. Regards

 

I was forgetting THAT other box set (Stones Circus one), so now you can add another box to your wants this year since it's Beatle-related (Dirty Mac), ufff to many coming out this year. (Wedding Album Box set LP and Box Set Japan exclusive was one of the first this year, Egypt Traveler's another one..)

 

But I thought that Giles “liberated” the music of the White Album with his remix??

 

The Pepper 50th box was ok. The White 50th was great, it had more cool outtakes & unreleased songs, jams, totally different takes of known songs, yada yada.

The new mixes they do on the boxes are ok, not my favorite element of this new Beatles box set trip.

Making a comp set of (then) unreleased Anthology tracks & the new boxset outtakes, its really starting to amount to a trove of good stuff.

But on Sgt Pepper 50 they left the cool tracks in the can, no Carnival of Light, newly mixed or alternate Northern Song etc.

So I'm hoping the Abbey Road 50 is done more like White 50 than Pepper 50.

Also on the White album they gave us a new music video. I realize Abbey Road doesn't have the abundance of outtakes the White album had, but I hope they give what they do have, Who Slapped John, Aint She Sweet, Ballad of J&Y, Old Brown Shoe, Come & Get it etc. AND a new video like Glass Onion !!!

I wont buy if it doesn't have that stuff, just for new mixes & artwork... maybe they'll do standalone full versions of medley songs like Mr Mustard & Bathroom Window, with endings & Intros & the whole 9 yards !.

I never would have believed I could ever say this a few years ago. But maybe the 50th Let It Be is gonna be the one to have !!! Literally a hundred extra songs !!@ all spiffed up with demixing tech, digital editing, combine good pieces of different performances to get good takes & doubling overdubs !!@

 

Ye, there is no reason for it.

 

Thanks. I just bought one on eBay for 600 CAD. Not great compared to what it was but better than what it has been selling for

 

So I’m just gonna go out on a limb and say that another mono box ain’t coming out till all the remixes are finished

 

Expect for the fact that the first two albums are unlistenable in stereo and the mono mixes are basically a need. If they weren’t why would the 87 cds have represented the in mono only

 

Hey Mike- So is the Stones Rock and Roll circus box set the secret box set you hinted at the other day? Or were you talking about something entirely different!

Thanks

 

Barely unlistenable. I’ve had them on stereo since 1981 and can play them just fine.

 

sorry, little grammatical error. to me, they are barely listenable with the vocals hard panned to the left and the instrumental on the right.

 

That is a story that has been hashed and rehashed multiple times over...

George Martin... stereo?... not intended?.... not enough time... Mono!

 

ok, that wasn't my strongest point but do you enjoy listening to PPM and WTB with the vocals hard panned to the left and the instrumental on the right?