Is the Beatles 1962-66 (the 'red' alb) the only record of theirs that you need?

I mean, look I’m crazy I would totally listen to that whole thing with pleasure

would/am

The bass/drum parts are always great on Beatle records. I've plowed through their albums focusing on just that element.

(I've also done that just focusing on George, or just on the harmonies - that's one thing I love about them, each part is so well done, and in a way it has to be when you're building a record from parts that only four people can play on stage - like each person becomes that much more important so they need to step up.)

Also nice touch showing only who's playing in the graphic as well

Lol at that Twitter post. I had a proper (Meehhh-owwww) laugh with that :))

yeah, that was brilliant

really brings out how funky they could be

i think "she loves you" and "love me do" are the worst of the new mixes because everything except the final mono master was lost for those recordings, while the other tracks at least had a bit more to work with

loving the drum-n-bass Rubber Soul. it's so chill! as i get older, paying attention to Paul's bass parts has become one of my favorite Beatle listening activities. i think of it mainly in terms of the post-acid period, but even here he's doing a lot of interesting stuff, always a little more than you might think is there. i think it adds a lot to the energy of the songs, subconsciously.

This is kinda mad but there is a spudload of Beatles Sessions boots on Archive.org right now, which can be downloaded.

https://archive.org/details/beatles_sessions_201912_2

very mad, will download

I hope these are still up next week when I’m back with access to a desktop computer.

is there any way to download that all together rather than file by file?

Yes indeed

When you go to the download options window, when you click on either Flac or MP3 there's a down-pointing arrow icon to the right at the top of the list that says 1593 items

Just heard the “new” part in IAtW.

And now the distracting “unburied” MMT guitar that was recently mentioned. It’s like a YouTube play-along.

This “Lady Madonna” seems to be a step in the right direction though.

I guess it’s from 2015 though.

i can't really hear that MMT guitar but my hearing in my right ear is compromised and I haven't listened to it in airpods yet

I like the mix of Ballad of John and Yoko, for sure. and I've come around on the Walrus mix but I don't think it's better than the Love mix or even the original mixes. I actually first heard that song on 45 with the extra measures in the middle of it and to this day every other version sounds weird to me.

one thing I'll say about this...now and then slots in perfectly well after the long and winding road on this comp, certainly sounds like work by the same band.

would be cool if they sold all the stems for folks to do their own mixes, Todd Rundgren no world order style

The de-mixing software allows them to break down all the component parts pretty impressively – Giles Martin shows how they did it with the Taxman (stereo mix) on YT. So I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.

If I had to guess, the bigger issue is the reverb that was initially put on John and Paul’s vocals. That is not something you can really “de-mix” per se.

the tech is very impressive but it's ultimately going to be more effective when more separation exists to begin with because then the software has to recreate less details. for revolver (and everything from with the beatles onward) they had the original four-track tapes to work with - usually a basic track of guitar/bass/drums, a vocal track, and then two tracks of overdubs, and so separating only guitar/bass/drums is still easier/more effective for the software than separating absolutely everything from the mono mix. if they still had the original two-track tape (with the vocals separate from the backing) for "love me do" and "she loves you" then the software would have to do less work to recreate the detail covered up by the vocal, but all that still exists is the final mono master for those tracks. even "twist and shout" from the same era sounds much better than the "love me do" and "she loves you" stereo mixes, which i'm attributing to them still having the original two-track tapes.

frankly the only great sounding versions of 'she loves you' are the mono ones, the loss of the master tape is fairly insurmountable though they tried. It's alright, but nothing packs the punch of the mono version and as time goes on, the more they try to make stereo versions of it the less impactful the song is. for a song that was synonymous with beatlemania in 64, it's not a song I ever hear in the wild anymore.

I’ve noticed a slight roll off of top end on some mixes - takes the sting out of “Nowhere Man” which needs to sizzle a bit on the guitars. On the other hand “Penny Lane” sits together a little more cohesively. With some weird slurping noises pushed up higher in the mix, but that’s possibly because I haven’t listened with close attention in a long time.

I think Ringo is too prominent in the mix for some of these, but if that’s the price of getting new mixes in 2023 then I can easily accept that.

Well this is one of the things that I like the most with these new mixes : hearing Ringo more/better !
Especially the bass drum.

Singing a song called “Boys,” Ringo!

that drum'n'bass rubber soul is stunning

"in my life" drums = understated ringo perfection

More Macca in the chorus of Norwegian Wood is a lovely thing. Reminds me of the mono version of I'm So Tired.

IATW is huge on big speakers !

Agreed. You Really Got a Hold On Me was a highlight for me.

I liked it at first but then I listened more closely and the hi-hats have been turned into a kind of aural mush. Compare them with the timing of the original mixes (in either mono or stereo), or indeed the Prof Stoned remix, and it's really disappointing. I'm listening on Spotify so I guess compression may have made it worse but they sound fine streaming from the original stereo mix.

I think Giles does his best work with the vocals.

"HwrghI wouldn't dance with another".

there seems to be a hoffman board consensus that there is a mistake in the Nowhere Man mix with the track holding the high hats; it's apparently off by about 20 milliseconds. I can just about hear this but don't feel it's that distracting.

I watched the Disney mini-doc on "Now and Then". It seems unlikely Paul and Ringo were ever in a studio together working on this. It kind of bums me out that the last time the remaining Beatles ever got to work on a Beatles song Ringo just delivered his part by Dropbox...

Maybe there was a standoff over who would fly

"In 2022, Ringo quit the Beatles for three days"

Let the mountain come to Macca.

"In 2022, Ringo quit the Beatles for three days"

hoffman board consensus

Sounds so unlikely, I am almost tempted to look in on the boards and check - but no.

Ha ha

The current punch-up is "Did Paul or Ringo do the drumming on "Old Brown Shoe" ? "

yeah I'm not sure why anyone thinks that's Paul. Even though the primary rhythm is kind of a shuffle, there are too many other sophisticated things happening with the drums in that song for it to be him. Also, doesn't Ringo sing along with George on that? It would be weird for him to have done vocals but no drums.

Paul played drums on … “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and… “Back in the USSR,” is that it?

Or Ken Scott Frankenstein tape take on the latter?

For a long time people thought Paul played drums on Dear Prudence but I think that's been debunked now

Paul also plays drums on Why Don't We Do It In The Road and Martha My Dear, I think.

there seems to be a hoffman board consensus that there is a mistake in the Nowhere Man mix with the track holding the high hats; it's apparently off by about 20 milliseconds.