Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th Anniversary Reissue (with 5.1 surround mix)

[milt]

Here's your link

Much thanks.
Interesting thread.
I wish more members had participated.
Sorry for the totally OT

 

[marpow]

CD TWO: My God it's the Beatles, This is them, rehearsing, no mix, no overdubs, this is The Beatles, I mean for fuck sake, There are four Take 1's, it's actually them, the beginning, WOW. 18 tracks of historical importance, much more important than a 5.1 disc. Track 14, how they nailed that ending, brilliant. Track 17 and 18 do you hear how Ringo worked that kick drum, sounds like a heavy metal double kick drummer. I really get a sense of how well they worked together, calm, cool, and collected, not like Brian Wilson on Pet Sounds yelling at everybody. On to Disc 3.

 

[marpow]

CD THREE: More of The Beatles up close and personal, love it. I did notice that these tracks are all stereo, and I know they knew, they where recording for mono only, so would the original take be in Mono and Giles Martin for reasons of the 50 year issue, put them in stereo? Six Take 1's, how awesome is that, the Beatles are so cool. I think the highlight was George coaching the Indian musicians on tracks 10 & 11. Paul loves Ringo's drum intro on Track 15. On some of the tracks that have the later takes, you can hear that was it, and next you know it went to the mixing engineer to polish it up, quite fascinating. The harp on tracks on 12 & 13, with all the string instruments just about nails it. On to CD FOUR, the 1967 MONO mix, this should be special.

 

[marpow]

CD FOUR: Mono with bonus tracks. I am not a purist, if it sounds good it sounds good. I do always have a feeling with mono recordings that they have a stronger feel, like a more fit person. Stereo is certainly more fun but stretched out. The best thing about listening to this disc is the fact that I listened to CD Two and Three first. I can now hear the layers that made the final cut. For instance Track 3, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds has a sitar background, like one string that is huge in the rehearsals but way in the back on the final mono mix. Bass guitar and drums sound excellent throughout the mono mix. AS I mentioned on CD Three the harp on She's Leaving Home is so big but the final mix the vocals cover up the harp except for the opening chords, super good.
A side note I have, when listening to any mono sources, II am sitting in front of two speakers and my brain wants to tell me it's stereo, so I have to fight that. I visualize a large rectangle where the edge of the speakers and the height is a picture where all the sound is coming out of the rectangle and not the two speakers.
Track 8, Within Without You, just plain sounds good any way you can deliver it, mono has the percussion being very strong.
The bonus tracks are different and noticeable from the original released mono version to the others, A Day In The Life, way different for instance.
Well, that was a fantastic 50 year Sgt Pepper journey with four SHM CD's (from the McIntosh MVP891, run analog out into the McIntosh D150, listened through B&W speakers) that sounded fantastic, but this was not entirely about the sonics, but more about The Beatles and there efforts into Sgt Pepper. Are SHM CD's, 16bit/44.1 better than RBCD's, I certainly think so. But remember it is always master in vs master out. A compressed SHM CD will never sound as good as a original uncompressed RBCD, oops, sorry, not necessary information and worthless for The Beatles.
I am tired now and have to get ready for my real job, certainly not a reviewer of music releases.
Looking forward to the 5.1 tomorrow, bet I'll love it.

 

[jz1276]

So I finally heard the surround mix & not to brag, but the surround mix I made from the multichannel Rock Band stems blows this one away...by alot!

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

Has anyone seen this? I found it on the Target Website tonight.

A celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ mind-blowing landmark album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band celebrates its 50th anniversary in June 2017. Even after half a century, the Beatles’ groundbreaking work thrillingly evokes the sights, sounds, and mood of the sixties at their most joyously psychedelic and creative. Featuring contributions from leading authorities on the Beatles’ music, Sgt. Pepper at Fifty provides an in-depth critique of the album, by looking at the unique cultural circumstances that led to its creation; examining the rich assemblage of influences that informed its sound; exploring the landmark cover art, which continues to inspire debate and intrigue; and assessing the record’s enduring legacy as the pinnacle of British pop. In addition to 225 photos and other images, the book includes memorabilia.

Author: Mike Mcinnerney & Bill Demain & Gillian G. Gaar

Genre: Music

Book format: hardcover

Language: english

Number of Pages: 176

Street Date: June 1, 2017

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Are SHM CD's, 16bit/44.1 better than RBCD's, I certainly think so. But remember it is always master in vs master out. A compressed SHM CD will never sound as good as a original uncompressed RBCD, oops, sorry, not necessary information and worthless for The Beatles.

SHM CD's are Redbook CD's, but they are made with (supposedly) higher quality materials. Neither uses a compressed codec either as both are based on 16/44.1 wav files which is the Redbook standard. The audible difference between SHM and standard CD's is very debatable and the internet is full of arguments pro and con.

 

[fredblue]

initially kinda underwhelmed, sad to say.. but tinkering about a bit, so far it seems to improve the surround somewhat (for me, on my setup) by;

1.) Lowering Front Left/Centre/Front Right -2.5dB (and a couple of tracks I almost wanted to lower the Centre a bit more but still tinkering)

2.) Lowering LFE -5.0dB (for some tracks only.. dunno.. something seems a bit weird here.. sometimes it seemed there was just a lot of boom boom in the LFE. other times a lot less activity unless you crank the master volume and then everything else in the other 5 channels was way too loud.. not sure what they were going for with the LFE in these mixes, or how much real low bass they had to work with in the original recordings but still.. I wasn't expecting the LFE to be what it seems like to me at this point, kinda like a filtered afterthought rather than any real careful tuning of sound down there.. hmm)

3.) Raising Rear Left +2.5dB (for some tracks only - if you isolate the rears you can make out on those songs where there is reverb of lead vocals in the rear it seems out of whack with a skew of that reverb to the Rear Right.. by making the Rear Left louder, for me, balances that out more.. but for other tracks seems its not necessary.. still not sure about that yet but I'll keep playing with it over the weekend and see how I get on)

hmm.. also, not talking about the surround presentation but for certain tracks there's not the same kind of warmth to the sound that there was to the 5.1 on the Love DVD-A.. everything's pristine here and certain things (especially lead vocals isolated in the Centre) are really crystal clear with some nice detail.. but some of its a bit clinical, I guess?

one of the things Greg Penny said he did when he mixed the Elton 5.1's was to run everything through vintage tube gear and used all sorts of analogue outboard gadgetry to give the mixes a kind of sound he was looking for.. I imagine so the mixes didn't end up entirely as pristine as what he was hearing just from the raw multitracks..?

maybe the people doing Sgt.Peppers in 5.1 did something similar.. but it doesn't sound like it to me, some things are a bit brittle and for want of a better description lack atmosphere.. maybe some things have been overzealously noise reduced or digitally scrubbed up? i dunno..

not gonna vote on this in the QQ Poll for a while, I need to digest everything for a bit yet.

so far, as a package it seems nice. as a set of surround mixes in its own right its a little above average but nothing to rival the best work of say Elliot Scheiner or Steven Wilson, imho, even after fiddling about with channel levels & balances etc. but I will keep on fiddling about with the channels and so on, it may grow on me.. but out of the box I'm not hugely impressed unfortunately.

 

[fredblue]

oh and I forgot to mention, the bonus tracks of Strawberry Fields & Penny Lane in 5.1 are, for me, better balanced surround than any of the album tracks (still underwhelming mixes I wish were more immersive surround but still) and I don't feel much/any particular benefit from any channel level tinkering in particular with the 2 bonuses but I will have another look with fresh ears over the weekend.

as I listened carefully to every track on this one in surround I kept thinking "what if.." this had been remixed by somebody else like Wilson or Scheiner.. or possibly with Giles Martin & Sam Okell being slightly less conservative in their approach maybe.. ah well, its Sgt Pepper in 5.1 Surround.. wow!

many of us here at QQ have been crying out for this legendary album in surround for years.. so I guess I should be thankful it happened at all.. and to a certain extent I am, just not as engaged by it as I hoped (and my expectations were already lowered somewhat by feedback at the SHF and here). maybe the team behind this will be a bit more adventurous/inventive with other/later albums in 5.1.. White album next apparently? no doubt I'll be getting that too no matter what.. and maybe Apple know that many will just buy it regardless.. so cynical

 

[ar surround]

initially kinda underwhelmed, sad to say.. but tinkering about a bit, so far it seems to improve the surround somewhat (for me, on my setup) by;

1.) Lowering Front Left/Centre/Front Right -2.5dB (and a couple of tracks I almost wanted to lower the Centre a bit more but still tinkering)

2.) Lowering LFE -5.0dB (for some tracks only.. dunno.. something seems a bit weird here.. sometimes it seemed there was just a lot of boom boom in the LFE. other times a lot less activity unless you crank the master volume and then everything else in the other 5 channels was way too loud.. not sure what they were going for with the LFE in these mixes, or how much real low bass they had to work with in the original recordings but still.. I wasn't expecting the LFE to be what it seems like to me at this point, kinda like a filtered afterthought rather than any real careful tuning of sound down there.. hmm)

3.) Raising Rear Left +2.5dB (for some tracks only - if you isolate the rears you can make out on those songs where there is reverb of lead vocals in the rear it seems out of whack with a skew of that reverb to the Rear Right.. by making the Rear Left louder, for me, balances that out more.. but for other tracks seems its not necessary.. still not sure about that yet but I'll keep playing with it over the weekend and see how I get on)

hmm.. also, not talking about the surround presentation but for certain tracks there's not the same kind of warmth to the sound that there was to the 5.1 on the Love DVD-A.. everything's pristine here and certain things (especially lead vocals isolated in the Centre) are really crystal clear with some nice detail.. but some of its a bit clinical, I guess?

one of the things Greg Penny said he did when he mixed the Elton 5.1's was to run everything through vintage tube gear and used all sorts of analogue outboard gadgetry to give the mixes a kind of sound he was looking for.. I imagine so the mixes didn't end up entirely as pristine as what he was hearing just from the raw multitracks..?

maybe the people doing Sgt.Peppers in 5.1 did something similar.. but it doesn't sound like it to me, some things are a bit brittle and for want of a better description lack atmosphere.. maybe some things have been overzealously noise reduced or digitally scrubbed up? i dunno..

not gonna vote on this in the QQ Poll for a while, I need to digest everything for a bit yet.

so far, as a package it seems nice. as a set of surround mixes in its own right its a little above average but nothing to rival the best work of say Elliot Scheiner or Steven Wilson, imho, even after fiddling about with channel levels & balances etc. but I will keep on fiddling about with the channels and so on, it may grow on me.. but out of the box I'm not hugely impressed unfortunately.

Regarding 1): I too have noticed some inconsistency in the center channel levels from track to track. I really wish that producers of surround sound music would ignore the center channel completely. Unless handled judiciously like Steven Wilson, the center channel can at times be problematic because the speaker is either below or above a TV set. The center speaker often sounds different when placed above the set rather than below it. Ideally the higher range drivers of the center speaker would be at the same level as those of the mains, but that's often not possible. If one does not have this problem, then count your blessings.

Regarding 2): Is the LFE channel really necessary with a music source, especially classic pop/rock? Why not just put all of the bass content in the main channels and let the user do bass management? It would be OK if they could get the LFE consistent (Dare I mention Steven Wilson again?), but it seems to not be the case with Sgt. Pepper and comes across as such with your setup. (I don't use subwoofers but rather mix the LFE into the mains and surrounds on my system.)

As an aside, I must mention that I dispensed with the LFE channel altogether on The Beatles 1+ set and tweeked up the surrounds just a bit. It sounds better to me that way...or maybe I've just been beaten down and gotten use to it.

Regarding 3): I also noticed occasional skewing of the reverb. I suspect that may have been done on purpose.

Regarding Love, I agree with your comment that it sounds warmer than this Sgt Pepper. Perhaps Love is somewhat less compressed? However I do believe that this Sgt Pepper 5.1 mix does capture the mood and impact of the 2009 mono box version, and that's probably why it sounds the way it does.

 

[IMachine]

I don't have the problems with LFE here (the new Hackett album is very boomy).
Never a boomy sound or something on the Pepper.
I raised the rears by 3db and everything sounds fine.

I use my Sub also when listening to stereo music, because it let you hear what they done in the studio.

 

[halbroome]

I have a 7.2 system, tweaked with Audyssey, and the bass sounds great to me! Paul bounces around all over the place

Yet I, too, noticed some differences between the tunes, especially at the beginning, but it seems to settle down. Everyone seems to be raving about "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" but it's George's astral sitar beaming in from outer space in "Within You Without You" that really delivers the whole 5.1 mix to me

 

[kap'n krunch]

Got this "be careful" email from yamazon:
"Hello,

We're contacting you in relation to your Amazon.co.uk order #202-6582621-0147541 for The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band box set:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/-----

We wanted to let you know that the product consists of four Audio CDs and two DVD/Blu-ray discs, which are all packaged together in a Vinyl sleeve, as well as a book. Please open the Vinyl sleeve to discover the discs.

We hope that this extensive Beatles collection gives you unprecedented insight into how The Beatles made their ground-breaking album.

Regards,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.co.uk

Please note: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that can't accept incoming e-mail. Please don't reply to this message"

Just testing to see if I am dumb....I guess

 

[~dave~~wave~]

I'm too busted to afford this, but has anyone attempted to run the stereo remix through Dolby Pro-logic II Game.

I'm in the same boat.
I can only afford the stereo two-CD deluxe.
It sounds great to me with surround processing.
I prefer NEO music, no center channel or LFE, but there's plenty in the tracks to process however you like.

The 2.0 is awesome with in-ear monitors or headphones.
That's how I listened to it on the first pass, delighting in hearing little details for the first time, especially in the vocals.

I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up and start enjoying it if you're interested.
Then you can make an informed decision if its worth another $100 to you for the 5.1 and extras.

In lieu of the box set, I've dug out my Anthology coffee table book, DVDs, CDs and Lewisohn's Official Abbey Road Session Notes for the first time in a decade.
Lots to chew on there.

 

[halbroome]

Got this "be careful" email from yamazon:


Just testing to see if I am dumb....I guess

I was fooled at first -- should have read more reviews, I suppose -- and I bet a lot more people complained, not knowing where the CDs etc. were!

So this had to have been an attempt to stop the complaints

 

[ar surround]

I have a 7.2 system, tweaked with Audyssey, and the bass sounds great to me! Paul bounces around all over the place

Yet I, too, noticed some differences between the tunes, especially at the beginning, but it seems to settle down. Everyone seems to be raving about "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" but it's George's astral sitar beaming in from outer space in "Within You Without You" that really delivers the whole 5.1 mix to me

I haven't had a problem with the LFE on Sgt Pepper either, but I mix it in with the fronts (4-12" woofers) and surrounds (4-10" woofers.) No need for separate subwoofers in my case. But I know of some people who have struggled a bit with optimal placement and level setting of their subwoofer. You have two subs which I understand makes balancing a system a bit easier. One salesman I know of uses four subs in his system.

 

[fredblue]

I have a 7.2 system, tweaked with Audyssey, and the bass sounds great to me! Paul bounces around all over the place

Yet I, too, noticed some differences between the tunes, especially at the beginning, but it seems to settle down. Everyone seems to be raving about "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" but it's George's astral sitar beaming in from outer space in "Within You Without You" that really delivers the whole 5.1 mix to me

bass in the main channels is ok by me, its whats in the LFE that's a bit underwhelming and head-scratching (ok, I cheated, I ran the 6-ch files thru the computer to isolate them.. and at times not much noteworthy is in there, fair enough I guess if there's nothing much v.low in the original that warrants routing through the Low Frequency Effects channel.. but at other times it seems to be just really indistinct boom boom thud thud.. not necessarily what some of the best 5.1 mixes' LFE channels comprise.. maybe more what I would expect from techno/dance/trance type stuff remixed into 5.1 i dunno.. at least if there's no higher frequency stuff buried in the LFE channel on Sgt. Pepper that's a good thing!! ).

the most telling thing, at this point, is that normally when a new surround thing arrives if I really get into it I play it several times in quick succession and want to keep playing it again and again (the latest Tull SW 5.1, Songs From The Wood is such a disc, the surround mixes are imho to die for, I might reach for it again in a minute tbh.. but with this Sgt. Pepper 5.1 I've played it a couple of times and one or two tracks plus the 1 x bonus tracks a couple of times more.. and I'm not massively inclined to revisit it tonight.. shame.. I played the hell out of that Love DVD-A in 5.1 when I got it.. and while I realise its a very different animal to this Sgt. Pepper 5.1 mix, I would rather play Love in Surround right now for a great MultiChannel Music fix of The Beatles than this... sigh.

 

[fredblue]

Got this "be careful" email from yamazon:
"Hello,

We're contacting you in relation to your Amazon.co.uk order #202-6582621-0147541 for The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band box set:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/-----

We wanted to let you know that the product consists of four Audio CDs and two DVD/Blu-ray discs, which are all packaged together in a Vinyl sleeve, as well as a book. Please open the Vinyl sleeve to discover the discs.

We hope that this extensive Beatles collection gives you unprecedented insight into how The Beatles made their ground-breaking album.

Regards,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.co.uk

Please note: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that can't accept incoming e-mail. Please don't reply to this message"

Just testing to see if I am dumb....I guess

guess a number of people sent theirs back to Amazon thinking they had received a box set with the LP in error..

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

By the way, "Happy 50th Anniversary Sgt. Pepper's LHCB!" artyartyarty

Maybe, it is time to finally open my box set? Nah!!! :ugham:

 

[EMB]

Not listed in your faves: Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues.

Correct, but released in the USA in 1968, not '67 (and with altered cover design based on the UK).

ED