Beatles 5.1-Channel Rumors

I'd been meaning to post this for a while. Wogblog just posted an update which reminded me...

http://wogew.blogspot.com/2014/01/let-it-be-release-petition.html?m=1

While the story is titled "Let It Be Release Petition" it actually notes a few potential upcoming releases.

1) Apparently "A Hard Day's Night" movie release in true 5.1 has been held up for years since Miramax (or whoever holds the name these days) owned the film and Apple Corp owned the audio. The two were not talking. Giles Martin has said that the dispute has now been resolved, leading to speculation that A Hard Days Night *might* be available on Blu-Ray with true 5.1-channel audio (unlike the Canadian edition Blu-Ray) for the 50th anniversary on June 10, 2014. All songs were recorded on 4-track tape and even sounds like the opening chord to A Hard Day's Night required three of the four tracks to create. So there is plenty of things that can be done to make good 5.1-channel mixes.

2) Of course, the release of the "Let It Be" movie would be a great opportunity for a 5.1-channel release. Those songs were recorded on 8-track tape with one of the tracks used for the audio sync pulse to sync-up the film. So, 7-tracks of audio are available for the songs including the rooftop concert.

3) The Beatles 1 on Video - Most of the songs included on Beatles 1 collection had a corresponding promotional clip filmed. This rumor calls for these videos to be released in October 2014. The rumors only say DVD but that has often meant Blu-Ray and DVD in the Beatles-world. A 5.1-channel soundtrack can easily be created for these clips as was done for the Anthology DVDs.

4) Not mentioned above is "The Beatles Live". This is something that we know Apple Corp has been working on for years where they would try to recreate a Beatles concert using available film and video sources. Obviously that would lend itself to a 5.1-channel mix but I suspect the back channels would be devoted to screaming girls. Never-the-less it would be a chance to finally hear "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl" in 5.1 (as was done with "All My Loving" on the Anthology DVDs).


That's all the rumors I have for now. Maybe Giles Martin will see this and provide some more comments OK, probably not but 2014 could be an interesting year for 5.1-channel Beatles releases. I thought it was worth a "rumor" append.

alk3997 said:

I'd been meaning to post this for a while. Wogblog just posted an update which reminded me...

http://wogew.blogspot.com/2014/01/let-it-be-release-petition.html?m=1

While the story is titled "Let It Be Release Petition" it actually notes a few potential upcoming releases.

1) Apparently "A Hard Day's Night" movie release in true 5.1 has been held up for years since Miramax (or whoever holds the name these days) owned the film and Apple Corp owned the audio. The two were not talking. Giles Martin has said that the dispute has now been resolved, leading to speculation that A Hard Days Night *might* be available on Blu-Ray with true 5.1-channel audio (unlike the Canadian edition Blu-Ray) for the 50th anniversary on June 10, 2014. All songs were recorded on 4-track tape and even sounds like the opening chord to A Hard Day's Night required three of the four tracks to create. So there is plenty of things that can be done to make good 5.1-channel mixes.

3) The Beatles 1 on Video - Most of the songs included on Beatles 1 collection had a corresponding promotional clip filmed. This rumor calls for these videos to be released in October 2014. The rumors only say DVD but that has often meant Blu-Ray and DVD in the Beatles-world. A 5.1-channel soundtrack can easily be created for these clips as was done for the Anthology DVDs.

4) Not mentioned above is "The Beatles Live". This is something that we know Apple Corp has been working on for years where they would try to recreate a Beatles concert using available film and video sources. Obviously that would lend itself to a 5.1-channel mix but I suspect the back channels would be devoted to screaming girls. Never-the-less it would be a chance to finally hear "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl" in 5.1 (as was done with "All My Loving" on the Anthology DVDs).


That's all the rumors I have for now. Maybe Giles Martin will see this and provide some more comments OK, probably not but 2014 could be an interesting year for 5.1-channel Beatles releases. I thought it was worth a "rumor" append.

Click to expand...

If they did a '1' video compilation on Blu-Ray, that would definitely be a day 1 buy for me!

But one thing I should mention concerning "A Hard Day's Night" is there is a new rumor floating around the interwebs since yesterday that Criterion will release this 50th anniversary reissue of "A Hard Day's Night" on Blu-Ray/DVD.
Criterion usually does an annual doodle on the 1st of every year dropping hints as to what releases to expect from them that year, and on top of a cliff, it looks like 4 beetles, hinting at "A Hard Day's Night".
Mind you it is strictly a RUMOUR at this point, but a Criterion Blu-Ray with a Giles Martin 5.1 mix of the songs would be HEAVEN in Blu-Ray form, so I say Bring it on!

Almost all recorded Beatles concerts were recorded in mono, only the Hollywood Bowl concerts were recorded in 3-track, so that leaves only the "Let It Be" rooftop concert possible in 5.1.

Quadwreck said:

Almost all recorded Beatles concerts were recorded in mono, only the Hollywood Bowl concerts were recorded in 3-track, so that leaves only the "Let It Be" rooftop concert possible in 5.1.

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If you haven't tried it, you would be amazed at what can be done with the high-end spectral editing software these days. Even mono recordings can be separated convincingly.

Also don't forget that while Shea Stadium was recorded in mono, it was "goosed" later so there may be a way to have some separate tracks with that.

All this takes time and money, of course. If it were easy, The Beatles Live would have been released already.

rtbluray, I wasn't aware of the Criterion hints. That would be great news!

......Criterion usually does an annual doodle on the 1st of every year dropping hints as to what releases to expect from them that year, and on top of a cliff, it looks like 4 beetles, hinting at "A Hard Day's Night".

Click to expand...

How many people were in each beetle?

Just to add to the A Hard Day's Night 50th anniversary blu-ray rumors (from December):
https://twitter.com/mashupmartin/status/410805308492378112/photo/1

I'm sure this question has been asked before and probably addressed, if so, please link me , may I ask why the 5.1 mixes done for these films are not released on their own as 5.1 soundtracks on dvd-audio or blu-ray??

GabeL said:

I'm sure this question has been asked before and probably addressed, if so, please link me , may I ask why the 5.1 mixes done for these films are not released on their own as 5.1 soundtracks on dvd-audio or blu-ray??

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That question has many answers. First remember, as Apple works today all four shareholders plus the managing partner have to agree to anything for it to happen. So, if a different type of release is something someone is not comfortable with then it doesn't happen.

Second, if you were going to release the Beatles movie soundtracks in 5.1, then you really should release the catalog in 5.1. That presents its own problems. Abbey Road is relatively easy to mix in 5.1. The White Album takes a bit more work, Sgt. Pepper's a bit harder with a lot of syncing of different tapes, etc. So, that by itself would take time (and time is money). But, I can't imagine Help! getting a 5.1-channel release and not The Beatles (The White Album) or Abbey Road.

Third, demand. There is a lot of demand for Beatles products (see the U.S. Box for instance) but I'm not sure how many requests there are for 5.1-channel releases compared to movie releases in general. How many people care if the Let It Be film is in 5.1 versus just released?

Fourth, timing. Apple seems to have a schedule of planned releases and so they have to have products for the next decade.

Finally, when mixing for the movies, Abbey Road engineers basically only mixed half of the album in most cases (the film side). I'm sure Mr. Martin's involvement will be just the film mixes as well for AHDN. Again, it costs real money to tie up Abbey Road for remixing and the personnel salaries as well.

What you ask is certainly do-able but it does take time per song and that can add up. Maybe one day...

It kind of makes sense after MMT-Help- and Yellow sub. Regarding the "mono" issue, just listen to the Help album or the Love album. They did a terrific job on those, so why not HDN? That initial offering on BD was a disaster.

leevitalone1 said:

It kind of makes sense after MMT-Help- and Yellow sub. Regarding the "mono" issue, just listen to the Help album or the Love album. They did a terrific job on those, so why not HDN? That initial offering on BD was a disaster.

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Yes it was. If I understand correctly, Miramax had made a reasonably good 5.1-channel master based on the stereo mixes. However, since negotiations weren't going well, Apple limited Miramax to the use of the original mono mixes only. So, Miramax in a truly strange decision came up with the "plan" to remix the mono mixes into 5.1. That AHDN was/is strangely a Beatles release with very limited Apple involvement.

Hopefully, Mr. Martin will take care of that problem this time. I'm guessing he is at Twickingham to work on the dialog and any associated sound rather than the music. Although it might be that the film has already been through remixing and he was looking at a close-to finished product (that would be hopeful).

Anyway, the AHDN 5.1 mixes are a bit limited just because it's three guitars, one drum kit and a cowbell (AHDN), usually with double-tracked vocals. So, you don't get the number of instruments that are available on say Rubber Soul, even though both albums were 4-track recordings. Separating the instruments is now do-able, if Apple chooses to do so. So that the drums, bass and rhythm guitar are recorded on one track isn't that much of an obstacle anymore with time and money. I would truly enjoy hearing a good mix of And I Love Her with the lead guitar properly mixed.

Thanks for your insight and the information alk3997.

Hey everyone-
New to this blog. Feel like I've found the home I've always been looking for. I am SO hungry for insight. Collecting high-res 5.1 original studio mixes has been my passion for about 6 years, and I simply can't get enough.
One thought for Beatles fans (and forgive me if this has been addressed at some point in the past), but there is another source for additional high-res, legit 5.1 Beatles mixes. The 5-disc Anthology DVD series features several original studio songs remixed in DTS 5.1 in their full form. Songs that weren't included on Love, for example - like Paperback Writer and Rain.
Of course, there is video content that goes with it, but all you have to do is turn off your monitor, if desired.
There are other sources for high-res DTS 5.1 or Dolby Digital original mixes from other artists through this backdoor channel, as well. Peter Gabriel's "Videos" collection contains a nice greatest hits compilation on DVD. Another good one: the Paul McCartney videos DVD. They sound amazing.
Just thought I'd share something I've stumbled upon.
Btw... if anyone has some tips on how I can download DVD-A or SACD multichannel mixes, please let me know. My collection is up to about 60 discs, and I'm open to some reciprocal sharing, for sure.
Thanks, and happy listening!!

TheSurroundOfMusic said:

Hey everyone-
New to this blog. Feel like I've found the home I've always been looking for. I am SO hungry for insight. Collecting high-res 5.1 original studio mixes has been my passion for about 6 years, and I simply can't get enough.
One thought for Beatles fans (and forgive me if this has been addressed at some point in the past), but there is another source for additional high-res, legit 5.1 Beatles mixes. The 5-disc Anthology DVD series features several original studio songs remixed in DTS 5.1 in their full form. Songs that weren't included on Love, for example - like Paperback Writer and Rain.
Of course, there is video content that goes with it, but all you have to do is turn off your monitor, if desired...

Click to expand...

First, welcome to the forum!!

You might find this thread very interesting:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...hology-Help!!-etc&highlight=beatles+anthology

Go down to the #9 (appropriate) append and you'll have a list of (almost) all of the released Beatles 5.1. Looks like I may need to update the list to include Magical Mystery Tour Blu-Ray and a few other songs but most of the 5.1-channel songs are there.

The "problem" with including the Love mixes is that, with the exception of most of Yesterday and Help!, all of them are "fattened" in some way with other titles, so it's hard to include those as mixes of the actual songs. That is not to say I don't enjoy "Love" tremendously - I really enjoy the DVD-A. Saw the show in Vegas and it was one of the shows I'd go back to. It's still my only 25.5 channel sound experience.

Thanks, alk3997!
I should have figured that Anthology was addressed previously in this goldmine of a website! Completely understand that the Love mixes are "fattened," but, like you, I still love them.
I hope my observations about the McCartney Years DVD weren't lost in the discussion- or the Peter Gabriel "Videos" Greatest Hits DVD. Both feature non-fattened DTS 5.1 versions from the original tracks. My guess is that there are a lot of people who are not aware that these songs were ever remixed professionally from the source material, because they've been searching for the albums. The Peter Gabriel stuff is lossless, high-resolution audio DTS 96/24, and I'm pretty sure the McCartney stuff is 96/24, too.
Thanks again!
Oh, and by the way, is there a section of the forum where I can go to learn about trading with fellow enthusiasts from my library, perhaps via download? I have a lot to offer, and truly appreciate the information that I've found so far, here.

You'll have to be careful about downloading discussions. Check the forum rules.

Yes, both Peter Gabriel and The McCartney Years have been discussed. Check the forum sections for DVD-Video titles. I remember reading recently that the original Peter Gabriel release was improperly mastered and the corrected version recently appeared as part of a live disc package (a second disc in the package).

I listen to both in the car and at home. However, I have to point out that DTS 96/24 is a lossy format. It actually fits in the same bitrate as regular DTS. So while it generates a 96/24 signal, the bits that go into the encoder are not the same as the bits that come out of the decoder (lossy).

For what it is worth, DTS-MA HD on Blu-Ray is the first DTS format that is lossless. It has a significantly higher bitrate than 96/24.

Now having said that, most ears can't tell the difference between DTS 96/24 and DTS-HD MA if the mastering is done properly.

Back to OT.

alk3997:

Thanks again for the input and insight. Didn't realize they could advertise it as "lossless" if it wasn't. And for the record, I have no intention of breaking the rules, etc. My intention was merely to be helpful to anyone who may not have been aware of those releases. I'll check the other forum sections for the topics you addressed to make sure I have my ducks in a row. In the meantime, I'm just happy to have found such a terrific source of information.
Have a great weekend!

You, too. I think you might also find the sections on creating DVD-Audio discs to be interesting. It certainly has cost me enough money over the years purchasing authoring software.

TheSurroundOfMusic said:

Thanks, alk3997!

I hope my observations about the McCartney Years DVD weren't lost in the discussion- or the Peter Gabriel "Videos" Greatest Hits DVD. Both feature non-fattened DTS 5.1 versions from the original tracks. My guess is that there are a lot of people who are not aware that these songs were ever remixed professionally from the source material, because they've been searching for the albums. The Peter Gabriel stuff is lossless, high-resolution audio DTS 96/24, and I'm pretty sure the McCartney stuff is 96/24, too.
Thanks again!

Click to expand...

Just Ordered The Mccartney Years............surely not the best selection of his library, but enough good stuff in 5.1 to make Snood :51banana:

Thank You SurroundofMusic :banana:

When this thread started, the rumor list was:

1) A Hard Day's Night Blu-Ray
2) Let It Be Blu-Ray
3) Beatles 1 Videos
4) Beatles Live! Collection of live performances

A Hard Day's Night Blu-Ray is now official (no longer a rumor) and scheduled for June. That leaves 3 on the rumor list for 2014. What I'm still hearing is that the Beatles 1 Videos (on DVD and Blu-Ray) will be the October release followed by The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1964 (iTunes only) in December.

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...itierion-DVD-BluRay-with-Giles-Martin-5-1-mix

I'm chomping at the bit to replace my RCA CED videodisc of Let it Be, which is in glorious mono.