5.1 Beatles

[jrahrah]

I had to be the first kid on my block to get the Beatles Anthology DVD. Since it takes a bit to watch, I put on part six first, hoping to get some trippy 5.1 mixes. After hearing "A Day In The Life", I played it again to give a good listen to the mix. My observations follow.

The first thing I took notice to was that the bass was placed center as well as the percussion. I found this to be a nice affect instead of the vocals center, which at the beginning were in the right channel and echoed in the right rear. Another thing noticed was that there was very little information being sent to the sub woofer, which again was a neat twist. Despite the fact that there was definite sound separations, nothing was gimmicky; not that I don't mind sound gimmickry, but the mix was all in all, nicely done.

After Paul's middle part, where the vocals were placed L&R, John reappeared this time, vocally occupying the left wall. Through the whole song, the percussion and bass remained in the center and really hammered home the whole pulse of the song.

The one thing I find lacking on the DVD is a song list. In other words, it would have been nice to have all the music on a separate CD, just so I could listen the songs in 5.1.

Well, this will keep me busy for a while. By the way, there is a real nice mix of an alternate version of "Strawberry Fields", done in 5.1, during the end credits of part six. Hope you all have fun with this one.

 

[jrahrah]

P.S. Let us know about the good things you find.......

 

[Quadwreck]

I've just viewed the whole thing minus the bonus disc, and here's my capsule review:
The first few minutes of disc one are promising, surround screaming and a motional soundfield as a tugboat steams across the harbor, but the rest of the disc is a flat-earth disappointment. At the end-credits, "Leave My Kitten Alone" is a better 3-channel mix in DTS than the muddy stereo mix, with the cat-calls of the instrumental break popping up in the rear channels. On disc two, there is a series of short takes in the studio (both mono and stereo) with the engineer on the talkback relegated to the rear. Disc three has nothing worth mentioning, disc four has only "Rock And Roll Music" using the rear channels for the cymbals.
Disc five finally parts the clouds. "Norwegian Wood"(alternate version), "Yellow Submarine", "Tomorrow Never Knows" (alternate version) are active surround but incomplete. "Paperback Writer" has only the echo pieces in the rear, "Rain" has only the harmonies in the rear, "And Your Bird Can Sing" (alternate version) has a good surround mix and is complete. Disc six features surround mixes of "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", as well as pieces of "A Day In The Life", and "Sgt Pepper/A Little Help". Disc seven has a surround "All You Need Is Love" in totallity, segments of surround mixes of "Fool On The Hill" and "Your Mother Should Know", "I Am The Walrus" with only the radio noises in the rears, and a slowed-down "Hello Goodbye" is also surrounded.
Disc 8 starts to return to surround despair. More short takes with the talkback in the rear, brief bits of "For You Blue" jump to the rear, "Something" has only the cymbal-wash to the rear, and the brief pieces of "Golden Slumbers" have rear activity. "Free As A Bird" is good surround.
A lot of the music is three channel in DTS mode, some obviously mixed that way, others sound like they were run through DPL1. All rear channel activity is subdued volume, I would rate the surround mixing as inferior to the Yellow Submarine mixes. Hopefully these EMI engineers will not be involved in any DVD-audio mixing of the Beatles catalog.
Video quality is outstanding - it outdoes the laserdisc.

 

[beljah]

Wow! You're the first one I've seen who seems a little down on the set. I don't expect much sound-wise from the early material, it's probably best left to mono. I was watching tape 5 yesterday and George H. mentioned in one of the '95 interviews that around "Paperback Writer" they were using 8 track so that's when I'd expect things to sound a bit more lush. All I know is my VHS set is looking pretty washed out, so I'm looking forward to FedEx coming tomorrow.

 

[daved64]

I think George might have been feeling the ill effects of his cancer......EMI didn't get an 8 track till the White Album was well under way....and The Beatles had to break into the room to get it out......so no, Paperback Writer was not done on 8 track

 

[deepsky4565]

Although its true, many mixes starting in 1965 were done by bouncing from 4 track to 4 track to effectively get more tracks. Those earlier pre bounce tapes were saved by EMI, and can be used for surround mixes, giving mixing engineers more than 4 true tracks. They were used for Yellow Submarine DVD.

Dan in Spokane

 

[daved64]

Right....they were bouncing tracks like crazy....but an actual 8 channel recorder was unheard of in EMI's domain till 1968. They were notoriously cheap. But it forced the engineers to be more "organic" in their approach.....having to think of ways to create sounds and effects (Artificial Double Tracking being one of them) rather than just pushing a button.

 

[beljah]

OK so after actually making it through the eight original chapters I can see some of the early problems in 5.1. "Love Me Do" sounds absolutely weird in this mix, but it was never intended for this kind of presentation, so I'm not surprised. I think I'll stick w/ the default stereo mix for the first three chapters. The Washington concert sounds terrible regardless of which mix I choose. I don't recall it sounding this way on VHS. The middle period material sounds really good. The only latter period that I had any complaints w/ was the Apple rooftop gig. There's a weird echo in the rear channels. Picture-wise it's really stunning, worth recommending for this fact alone.

 

[beljah]

I'm really at a loss as to why this isn't getting more input/attention. I go to forums and it's like 14 pages on the DSotM SACD and 2 on the Anthology. I know DSotM is an important album, but we're talking the Beatles' career here!

Anyway, the more I play this (2nd time through), the more I love it. The bonus disc is incredible! Hopefully, the more than reasonable price of this set (I paid $49.99 at Tower & I'm sure it's cheaper elsewhere) will encourage people who passed on the pricier VHS/LD sets.

 

[daved64]

beljah, I hear ya. As the biggest Beatles fan in the universe, I sympathize with you. Unfortunately, I think Anthology is suffering from a bit of "been there, done that". The market might be a tad Beatle-fatigued. Even I have not gone out to buy the DVD's....I have the tapes. I'm saving for my Pioneer DV-45, and don't feel like spending $75 CND (which is actually a REALLY good price, amazon.ca) on something I've already seen. I know what you're thinking....DSOTM has been re-released a gazillion times....but the fact that it's a high rez surround, as opposed to the normal 5.1 of the Anthology, has something to do with the attention it's getting. But don't worry.....wait till Pepper or Abbey Road comes out on High Rez (either format, I don't care)....THEY will get pages of postings....although I am still cheering for Revolver to be the first one...Tomorrow Never Knows in surround.....aaaaaahhhhhhh!

 

[Guy Robinson]

My big problem with this is that it's too long. When am I going to sit down and watch this more than once? It like the TLOTR's. Too many discs, not enough time. By the time they get the entire cycle complete there will be a box set released with 15 discs. I'd rather spend my time listening to good quality music in surround.

 

[DPROKOPY]

I've only gotten through episodes 1-4 so far (and I'm resisting the temptation to skip ahead and watch the bonus disc). I for one am pretty happy with what surround mixes I've heard so far (and there haven't been too many at this point, given that most of the material they're showing at this point is mono live/TV appearances).

People have been griping about the relative lack of surround use, but one has to keep in mind that the bulk of the Beatles recordings were done on 2- and 4-track technology (up through the middle of 1968, in fact). The simple fact is, there just isn't much to work with here, in terms of creating interesting surround mixes. In general, they would record bass/drums on one track, guitars on another, vocals on a third, and extra overdubs (be it more vocals, or lead guitar, or whatever) on the forth. It sounds to my ears, so far, like the basic surround mix philosophy has been to mix the bass/drums to one side, guitars to the other, vocals centered, and the overdub track toward the rear. They also seem to be creating some sort of fake stereo/surround effect during harmony group vocals on choruses, which might not sit well with the purists, but does make for a much more pleasant mix overall. And I also like what they've been doing with the "outtake" montages, putting the studio talk-back mic to the rear. Really gives one the feeling that they're sitting in Abbey Road, listening to George Martin address them from the control room.

I'm dying to hear how they handle some of the '66-'68 material, where they routinely would "bounce" between 4-track machines. I know for the "Yellow Submarine" surround mixes, as others have mentioned, EMI went back and synched up the various 4-track tapes to create new multitrack masters to work with. I'm hoping they did the same here (and, presumably, will do the same if/when they create surround mixes for SACD and/or DVD-A).

 

[Larry Geller]

""Something" has only the cymbal-wash to the rear"
WHAT???? How about THE ENTIRE ORCHESTRA in the rear!! Same for all the Abbey Road cuts. The End sounds absolutely AMAZING in 5.1 as does Something. Looks like you have to re-calibrate your system or something, because I'm hearing WAY more rear info than you seem to be. I'm listening to the DTS track. Could it be that you are using the DD track & that there's THAT MUCH difference in their quality?

 

[Bob Romano]

"Something" and "A Day IN The Life" are my two faves from this set. "Something" sounds so much fuller with the orchestra in the back along with the cymbal swells!!! And "ADITL" has a new breath of life for me. Classic Rock radio has played it to death here in Chicago so I really never needed to hear it again... until now.

Bring on Abbey Road!!!!

 

[beljah]

I'm not sure if I catch the drift on "Beatle fatigue" dave, since prior to this the last release would've been the "1" comp. If you're referring to buying the "Anthology" again aspect I can understand, but in terms of price it's less than half what I paid for the VHS set and it doesn't look washed out like that does. Guy, the set strives to tell their story which is 14 years in length. It's got to be long, if it weren't there'd be a bunch of people bitchin'. That doesn't mean you HAVE to set through it all every time you play it. I sat through the DVD set twice, but the next time I'll probably pick a volume I'm in the mood for. I know some people, myself included, that there weren't chapters set up for every song, but it's still a lot easier to access than searching for a song on VHS. Well, anyway I got what I wanted. You folks are talking about it. :lol:

 

[daved64]

Guess what I bought last night??!!!
It was $69CND at Futureshop.....I think I paid $89 for the %^$@% VHS!!!!! Of course the wife gave me the gears...."don't you already have this?"......yes honey I do....and when they release the SUPERDUPER version with an extra 3 milliseconds of footage...I'LL BUY THAT TOO!!!

As far as my remark about Beatle-fatigue......what I meant was that the general public might be tired of the same stuff being released over and over.....1 was a great collection....but we have heard those songs before....I'm sure Anthology on DVD will be great....but other than the 81 minutes of extra footage...been there, done that....now we have Get Back/Let it Be possibly coming out...I just think people might be thinking the cow is running out of latte! But me, a true Beatle fanatic....willl buy anything...wonder when the 5.1 release of Beatle Bowel Movements is coming out?
:rollin:

 

[cupboy]

I'm still hoping they will re-release the 2 movies that are currently available. Yellow Submarine needs to be full screen, Hard Day's Night needs to have an additional soundtrack (original mono), and both need dts and LPCM. There is a bit of Yellow Submarine on Anthology, and it's full screen, fortunately.

 

[JonUrban]

Full Screen??? Why would you want that. I could see it as an alternative, but it is not that wide a movie. It looks great on a "real" screen, in the proper aspect ratio.

:-jon

 

[beljah]

Congrats dave! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. But as far as fatigue, I'm experiencing far more DSotM burnout, not only from the release, but all the controversy & blah-de-blah that goes along w/ it. I've played the SACD 3 times & I think it's gonna be a few months before I'll be able to play it again.

I really love the YS DVD and can't imagine the need to redo it. It's the first place I experienced 5.1 Beatles and it looks SO much better than previous releases.

 

[Guy Robinson]

Well you guys may have convinced me. I may drop by the FS on the way home and pick this one up. It may take me 6 months to watch the entire thing but ,"Oh, Well". I guess it is a required set to have, right? I just hope the sound doesn't totally suck.