'Abbey Road' 50th Anniversary | Page 8 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I’m not listening to any of it until I buy the box which will happen next time I get paid.

A/B Penguin Remix Notes:

I thought I’d write an opus instead of separate posts but big thanks to @Choking Smoker  for inspiring me to do an in-depth mix review/opinion/nerd-out.

I always have to hear “past” the production of a mix at first, and sometimes that’s useful: it balances between emotional and critical impact before my ears accept the intent of the mix. Overall, Giles’ intent is clarity and his priority is vocals and strings, with bass guitar remixing coming close behind. Just about everything else can sink or swim unless it’s an important component where Giles felt he couldn’t stray too far from the standard; which for me is the 2019 CD stereo remaster (an easy choice). The PCM mix overall I like better, its a bit smoother, the CD audio is too compressed of course. The DTS is difficult to judge in stereo headphones but it’s similar to the way the White Album sounded on DTS/stereo headphones to me. I wouldn’t be surprised that the CD audio is a mixdown from a DTS master and that’s why it’s so centred because I had a similar thought to the last two albums.

Giles it seems went in with the intent to rebalance the panning first and remix later and that’s affected his choices. It’s a mixed result; I like clarity but it’s done at the expense of warmth and saturation here, and it comes off as a cold mix. Giles can do better work than this, we’ve heard it on Love, whatever you think of those experiments they definitely sounded alive. I fear disappointment at the prospect of a Giles remix of LIB now, and I wish Steven Wilson was doing it.

An interesting conclusion from comparing this remix with 2009 is how dated it’s made that remaster as a stereo mix. That’s not a criticism of either, it just reflects the way people thought about using stereo fields when it was first becoming popular compared to now. These days it’s practically a dogma that vocals and bass and kick are all centred but back then, rhythm section on one side, vocals on the other was thought best for clarity. Also revealing is the tricky question of “glue” instruments like rhythm guitar and keyboards. It sounds to me that in widening their portion of the mix they also flatten and in some cases thin out their sound, see IWY(SSH) and Polythene Pam .

Come Together – Rhythm guitar on the left is distinctly quieter and less clear in the verses than 2009, which is a very odd result. But drums are given a full stereo treatment which really works.

Something – The big difference here is how the bass is positioned at right-of-centre to the side instead of all the way over. Once again the rhythm guitar is shunted off to the side. At least he does a smoother job of riding the lead guitar level in the final phrase than the 2009 remaster, depending on whether you like/care about that.

Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – Centring the bass again, making the mix a little less “scooped” than 2009, but oddly drops the synth level way down in the last verse, it sounds like it’s coming from another room.

Oh! Darling – Giles moves the vocals and bass to side-by-side in the centre from the odd left-of-centre position of 2009.

Octopus’s Garden – The guitars get a much-needed stereo pan, but the bass is reduced to a “felt” volume. Also missing is the 2009 stereo pan of the middle eight gargles and overall the loudness of all vocals is brick-wall stupid-level, the rhythm section melting into an over-compressed sludge underneath.

I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – Speaking of the aforementioned sludge, oh dear. With all his digital weaponry, Giles just seems to have given up on clarity here, which is a really weird result on this remix. I’m probably most annoyed by the treatment of rhythm guitar again but even the bass has more definition and tone in the 2009 remaster…one of the great bass performances of all time let alone the late ’60’s and it just disappears into the white noise along with the organ. What the eff were you thinking of, Giles.

Here Comes The Sun – Aside from the welcome re-balance of vocals, the synth is blended more into the guitars which I think is an improvement: the original on the Blue Album mix of the 70’s really jumped out at you and even on 2009 is quite separated.

Because – This turned out ok, except curiously the dead spot at G# on the bass guitar’s E string wasn’t altered. It’s low but not particularly low especially by modern standards and you’d think it would be a prime candidate for repair in the digital age but no. Just to confirm that, it’s not the normal sound you expect at that frequency, unless it be phase cancellation which is inconceivable.

You Never Give Me Your Money – Giles eschews the vocal panning of the original, choosing to emphasise the guitars in the mix, the right-panned guitar is much more prominent. And for some reason we needed more bug sound effects to introduce:

Sun King – Oddly, not a great deal of difference here, just a little cleaner. The guitars are chimier and the kit sounds wonderful. Giles wise to not reinvent the wheel here.

Mean Mr. Mustard (yes he does) – More vocal re panning, which has the effect of masking the rhythm guitar which isn’t moved from its formerly distinct place.

Polythene Pam – The acoustic guitar feels punchier in the 2009 mix because it is extreme left in the stereo field, so as not to fight the low mid thwack of Ringo’s toms. Making it compete with the toms by widening its share of the stereo field is not a good choice.

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window – yes the vocal is lovely Giles, turn it down.

Golden Slumbers – Little to say about this one except that it really benefits from the cleanup of Ringo’s kit, you can actually hear the hi-hats and its definitely a less boofy mix compared to 2009 which is saying a lot with that massive orchestral sound.

Carry That Weight – Another standout kit sound on this track but it’s pretty much the same mix as GS except the guitars are missing in action, eclipsed by the orchestra and I miss that little bit of Leslie at the end, poking through the 2009 mix.

The End – There’s something weird about the panning of the lead guitars on the CD audio, it sounds a bit..wonky. The 3rd guitar (whoever it is) is a bit left of centre instead of centred equally between the left and right side. The DTS audio enforces this separation and it doesn’t sound as odd. Either way, the vocals are too present in the mix, it definitely doesn’t gel in the same way the 2009 remaster for me.

Her Majesty – a nice pan across as the song floats by.

Ahhh Girl said
Here comes the most insignificant, utterly unnecessary, silly comment that will probably be uttered about this release…

Reveal Spoiler

The book smells really good.

  

Okay but its true.