Giles Martin: Update the Beatles

I think this is a great pic of a rare occasion with Lennon and Starr working one on one together
and then I remembered this,...
....

 

Hey Giles, we are waiting

 

In my opinion, early 1960's RCA Nashville records engineered by Bill Porter sound audiophile amazing, and blow away a lot of the mid to latter 1960's pop rock recordings, including Beatles and Stones.

 

The Salvation Army broke ground today, " Liverpool’s Strawberry Field today as building work begins on the iconic site."
Giles Martin's mother, John Lennon's half-sister were on hand,
Ground-breaking: work begins at Strawberry Field

 

Guys
Here it is. Everytime you do a bounce - 4tr to 4tr to 4tr (sometimes), you lose a generation of sound, although the J37 machines were superb 1" 4tr. You are locked into the premix, and that can affect your stereo mix. You go back to the original tracking 4tr, and then sync the other bounces from other 4tr. You can end up with a 12 tr recording to remix, like Penny Lane or Hello Goodbye.

One thing I didn't realize was that 3/4 of With the Beatles was recorded exactly like the Please Please Me - to 2 tr, not 4tr as I thought. The album sounds so different, but it was because the Beatles were more sophisticated in the studio. I want to hold your hand/this boy was the first 4tr?

The White Album is NOT a hifi recording. Geoff Emerick bailed. It was still tracked with a REDD 5.1 console to J37 4tr. Only halfway did they move to 8tr. Lots of bounces and many takes I feel caused the album to be lazy - in sound and performance. I still love it. But it has that 'tube' analog vibe mushy thing.

The reason Abbey Road sounds so audiophile is the new console, TG4321, and 8tr recording. With George Martin, there wasn't 57 takes, and the sound and performance was more focused. It should be remixed in 5.1 by Giles. It will sound superb and punchy.

Giles knows he is under the microscope by the world. He will err on conservative. Who else would you have involved?

 

I'm glad you asked. I would prefer Steven Wilson do all of these, personally. He's shown he can be conservative with the remixing while at the same time sonically revelatory. It's because Wilson's a musician, probably.

 

“But it has that tube analog vibe mushy thing”

You seem to be saying that is a bad quality - I would say that is a good quality of the recording!

 

There were a lot more overdubs on WTB or double tracking of the vocals than PPM.

 

Wilson sticks close to the original...and his work pretty much sounds better...Giles: crush, kill, destroy the original mix...He will be remembered as the "Beatles Destructor" in my book...OK?, my OPINION....deal.

 

That's harsh.

Giles did a great job. TWA hasn't sounded better.

Thanks Giles!

 

They were already becoming a "studio band" with WTB and probably didn't realize it. The guitar tones, vocal textures (largely due to the double tracking)...the drums sounded much more "percussive" than they did on PPM.

 

I wouldn't call him "the destructor" but he *did* go a little overboard with parts of Sgt. Pepper. He stayed truer to the integrity of the original White Album but in a couple of instances, I'm a little confused at his "alterations".

 

Too bad it wasn’t recorded on 4 track.

 

two different drummers? Ringo's sound is deep and rich

 

Bought the 2LP 2018 remix yesterday. Not a huge Beatles/White Album fan but know the album well enough and have heard the standard mixes for a good part of my life, and thought GM's work was exemplary. It finally sounded more like a recording of the band and not an overt studio creation. I'm not a purist when it comes to a recording needing to recreate the sound of a live band, I love studio tomfoolery, but I think think the very real technological limitations imposed on the band and producers at times harms the presentation of the Beatles more adventurous music. They obviously made magic and transcended worlds with those limitations, but it's really nice to hear a drum kit sound like a drum kit, or better decode all those strange sounds. Even as a kid there was something I heard in the recordings of the Beatles music that I think put me off, something didn't sound quite right, maybe the music didn't sound as powerful as it could. I can't really imagine how the remix could be done much better, but I'm not a Beatles fanatic and historian. The idea of Steven Wilson "remixing/reassembling" the White Album at home on his 8k home studio is probably not a realistic or a great idea. Sure I'm going to get slaughtered for this post, but oh well......

 

Slaughtered for what...? Pretty well-rounded point of view, I thought.

 

...it actually went back to a more straightforward, less produced sound with the next album, A Hard Days Night.

 

From LOVE to Sgt Pepper to WA the SQ is superb and as a bonus, the other versions are too. Each in their own way. Glad to have variety and cannot wait for the next installment.

IMHO

 

LOL...nah, you're on the winning side....; )

 

He did wonders for the King Crimson catalog, IMHO. The old EG 1990’s Cd’s I had sounded thin and wispy. Wilson brought out the muscle in many of the albums, and they still sound great. He’s a 5.1 mixer par excellence as well.

 

Giles Martin will go down as the guy who saved the Beatles’ music from the confines of 60’s recording technology. He was the guy who freed the music from it’s time trap. He brought us closer to the Beatles in the studio.

 

Never felt I needed that honestly—their stuff always sounded great. And there’s not much he could do better with today’s technology that they couldn’t do in the 60’s, besides faster editing.

 

yes, It was pretty amazing...

 

The 50th Anniversary White Album 5.1 is on another level. It’s seriously fun. Very well done IMO.