The Beatles - White Album 50th Anniversary (Content, Sound Quality & Discussion Thread)

Interesting. I had the opposite reaction. You’re right about certain elements standing out in the new mix but in my case at least they stand out only because they’re somewhat new to my ears — due to the greater clarity. For example, the drums and certain guitar elements in many of the tracks (like “Back In The USSR”) are the focus of my attention with this new mix but I don’t think it’s because they’re pushed too far forward in the mix; it’s because I’m finally hearing them well defined. Giles acknowledges that the drums in particular can “finally be heard” clearly in some of these new mixes because when they were mixing and mastering the original, in 1968, they had to push the drums and bass back quite a bit so the vinyl records would track properly. That’s no longer a consideration.

All that said, even I wonder about certain mixing choices in this new version, particularly the almost inaudible flamenco guitar (mellotron) opening to “Bungalow Bill” and the muted-sounding opening guitar notes to “Helter Skelter.” Overall, though, I love the new mix.

 

Thanks for the opinion.

I would argue that sometimes there can be too much clarity in remixes. The result is then, to my ears, too metallic and artificial sounding.

 

I agree. The rough stereo mixes of the Hollywood Bowl concerts first surfaced on bootlegs 10 or 15 years ago and while the clarity of the bootlegs was fantastic, the mixing — the balance and placement of the various elements — was so horrid and unnatural I just hated them. But Giles’ new mix of the Hollywood Bowl tapes is a real winner. I love that album.

 

I really like some of the remixes, but just me or a little bass heavy?

*and by a little I mean a lot.

 

love love this version. IMO it beats that heavily overdubbed guitar/vocal version by a country mile

 

My honest one month experience, for what it's worth. Overall I'm very pleased.

Dear Prudence, USSR, and Obla Di. There is a lot of bass I am hearing, bang bang. I definitely prefer the original mix of those tunes.

The piano on Rocky Racoon is now maxed on the volume of your headphones, a tad ear piercing ouch.

The life force was taken out of Guitar Gently Weeps. Could be just my ears but it's a flat sound coming through on my end, sounds very loudness wars.

Now Glass Onion, Black Bird, Long, Revolution 1, Savoy Truffle, Martha, and Mother Nature are the highlights to me. Absolutely amazing stuff, it just works!

I'm listening on a pair of restored Studio 1 headphones out of my old Dynaco amp, and I can definitely say there is a big difference and some to my liking and some not.
A few EQ tweaks on my end here and there to more than a few tunes will make it more enjoyable. Dialing back the bass on a host of tracks should not be a problem.

 

Apple, please.. from now on. Give us the tapes flat. Give us a mono flat transfer. Original stereo flat transfer. then feel free to mess around with whatever. As long as I have a HiRes copy of the master, I'm ok.

 

I was having a listen to Take 2 of Helter Skelter and it appears to start almost immediately after the previous take. It occurred to me that if it was faded out a few seconds before it's actual conclusion because the band then moved straight into Take 3, they played Helter Skelter for a full 50 minutes straight!

 

With all of the deluxe box sets released late in 2018, I feel like I wasn't able to give this set the attention it deserved. In revisiting it, I was struck by the version of Across The Universe.

This may be the most frustrating song in their catalog as they never seemed to figure out how best to present it. We have the Wildlife version with the bird sounds and the female backing vocals. We have the original Let It Be version with the goopy Spector arrangement. We have the Naked version with the drone underneath. The Anthology version and now the White Album deluxe version.

I think this song would have been best presented like the song Julia. Four tracks: acoustic guitar on track one, double it on track two. Split those tracks left and right. Lead vocal on track three. Track four doubles the chorus vocal. Perhaps a McCartney harmony vocal on the fade. That's it. Spare and delicate. That's all the song needs.

But given what we have, I think I may prefer the White Album version.

 

Didn't Apple give us that already?

 

I love all the versions of the song, so I’m glad I/we have so many variations of it to enjoy .

I’m really lucky that way. If forced to pick, the original 45 of “Strawberry Fields Forever” is probably my favorite Beatles record. I can also listen to that song a bunch of ways from rough demos through the various studio incarnations.

 

I meant with each release in a box set. As a package. I have the mono set - love it. Also was referring to the stereo masters.

 

I wasn't referring to the stereo either. For the mono, we got the mono CD set and the mono vinyl separately and in a set. So I don't know what other mono Apple could give us.

 

Question:

Should the jobs of remixing the original album and selecting/mixing the outtakes be held by the same person, or should those duties be divided up?

Just curious what people think. I can't say I'm thrilled with how Giles approaches all of the outtakes. Not that I want them incredibly polished with tons of editing, but I find some of the mixes of the outtakes to be real head-scratchers.

In particular, I think the "Not Guilty" and "I'm So Tired" mixes from WA50 are poor among others, and there's the glaring omission of "Revolution 1 (Take 20)".

On the other hand, I mostly love the remix he did on the actual album.

Maybe Giles should be the original LP remixer and someone else or a team hired to locate, choose and mix the outtakes.

 

Hi - res copy - flat. Of everything. We do not have that for all releases, yet.

 

Oh, OK, I didn't realize you were talking about Hi-res.

 

On a humorous note, I work from home now, and had the 50th Anniversary CD set on while working. It wasn't on too loud and I had to dial into a conference call, not realizing "Revolution #9" had just started!

We got done the call, and my manager calls me back, asking, "What the hell was going on there?"

All sorts of things flew through my head to make up a story, but just told the truth. She laughed like hell, because our CEO was on as well!

 

Are most of you here sound Engineers that work for a label? Just wondering.

 

This is probably affected by 1) such re-releases mostly aimed at general listeners, they want to choose 'interesting' outtakes from their point of view, and 2) outtakes that are selected can be vetoed or suggested by Paul, Ringo and estates (maybe not, but who knows?)

 

Best post of the day!

 

Yes, Yoko and Olivia have veto power over the reissues, read that in Mojo issue 300.

 

We are End Consumers Who Care About What We Listen To.

And We Pay Out The Wazoo For It, both for hardware & content.

 

I care, however I’m not going say that Giles Martin sucks.

 

I have the HD Tracks download of the White Album, and I'm fine with it. His stereo imaging choices work, for the most part. With Pepper, I don't like the 1st 3 songs of his remix, but I go back to the Yellow Sub Songtrack LP for those.

 

Don't worry - there's plenty here who will say it for you. 

Cheers,
Paul