Steve, can you tell us which is the preferred mix for each Beatles album?

MMT - Horzu Why is the stereo so different on this one? SFF sounds better to me. I've been told I'm lucky to have it. I made my own cd of it and still like that better than the retail cd.

 

I have really only heard a few of the mono mixes and generally prefer the stereo versions.

The main reason is that most of the basic backing tracks were always cut live with two tracks with the those killer condensor mics. So there is an amazing realism, presence and depth there in the mix under the overdubs.

You can really here this on the earlier recordings in the middle eight like All My Loving. Listen when the limiters drop out and Ringo lays into the bass drum.

You can actually here the room echo of bass drum and the unamplified guitar picking in there created by the distance between the mics. It is like you are in the room. It gives me chills everytime.

 

...other than the "rollerskating rink" organ the Beatles' version uses for the solo.

 

it should. the horzu uses the true stereo UK EMI tapes, not the mono-reprocessed-for-stereo US capitol tapes.

you should be.

later, chris

 

Thanks Chris

 

A different mix. So Strawberry Fields Forever is a complete different mix.
I really love this mix then. I like all of them, though.

Sorry about the MMT SFF , trust me I hate that to. I wouldn't say MMT or SFF on the phone but my typing skills are less than acceptable.

Thanks Steve.

 

Gotta agree with Steve about the first pressing of Beatles For Sale. You can literally hear the room.

Evan

 

i stand corrected. thanks, Steve.

later, chris

 

Very.

What is it exactly that allows one to be able to "hear the room"? Why can you sometimes hear it more and sometimes less, even within the same recording?

 

So what mix of SFF is on the German MMT? Does this mix exist any where else in the world?

 

I don't like to brag, but I have heard the best of these LPs since joining this wonderful site. I have practically all the first pressings (or so I was assured that they were when I bought them) with most not less than in EX+ condition.

One thing though, my yellow and black large stereo Parlophone Please Please Me beats the Die Beatles handily. The former is more dynamic and has more raw energy.

Cheers,
George

 

Eh, say what?

 

It may have more "raw energy", but IMO that's from the compression in the British mix, making it less dynamic than the German version. I have a NM later 60's black & yellow copy from the first cut - I'd imagine they didn't recut the stereo version until the mid-70's.

 

'71 remix. It's also on the official CD.

 

Maybe not quite the mid-Seventies, but there is a two box -1/-1 pressing and a Pathe Marconi pressed -1/-1 as well.

 

And the UK Blue Album, IIRC.

 

It has the first true stereo mixes for "Penny Lane" & "Baby You're A Rich Man"

http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/var-1967.html
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/var-1966.html

 

i like mono better up to white album, i like mono and stereo pretty much equal

this is true for me for most 60's music, i just don't like the intense separation of grouped instruments, i think it's distracting

i have needledrops of their entire mono catalog, love em!!!!!

 

I'm just taking a guess based on the dates of the various masterings noted on the master tape boxes for many of their other albums (as seen on the MoFi box set sleeves). I have no idea why they noted this info on some of the master boxes, but not others...

 

I just listened to the CD of A Hard Days Night. I never played it before on my main system. I thought it always sounded pretty good in the car or on my iTunes (Yamaha HS 80m studio monitors/Presonus AD-DA). The CD, however, sounded lifeless on my main system. I had to crank the subwoofer +4 to get a decent bass response. Te mids did sound excellent....it just sounded flat. The Abbey road CD, on the other hand, sounds great on my system.