Beatles

Beatles "Love" and "1" Source Information From Sean Magee

Michael Fremer  |  Nov 6, 2014

The upcoming double 180g LP sets of Love and 1 will be digitally sourced according to mastering engineer Sean Magee.

The Love double LP set was mastered from the same digital master used for the first 2007 vinyl pressing, which sounded outstanding. According to producer Giles Martin, he mixed from the original analog multitrack and two track tapes to multitrack analog tape and then mixed down from there for the surround DVD-A and the two channel mix for CD and vinyl.

The original 1 double vinyl set was a nasty sounding affair: bright, thin and dynamically compressed to appeal to "the kids" for whom dynamic range is like a case of the crabs or something. Magee says the new vinyl edition was instead sourced from the 2009 CD masters.

Do you need this compilation? I think The Beatles said it best (all together now): "All You Need is Love".... that's just my opinion.

COMMENTS
tube dog's picture
Submitted by tube dog on Thu, 2014-11-06 16:58

All we need is less Beatles reissues.Enough already.

markfig's picture
Submitted by markfig on Thu, 2014-11-06 17:10

That is awesome that you feel like you have enough Beatles records. I can't imagine what that would feel like!

(I will probably skip buying vinyl sourced from a cd master - but this release is not aimed at me.)

tube dog's picture
Submitted by tube dog on Thu, 2014-11-06 17:20

More Music Matters Blue Note reissues! Now we're talking!

soundman45's picture
Submitted by soundman45 on Thu, 2014-11-06 17:15

I hate to differ with the producer's and engineers accounts but a lot of this if not all of this was at some point mixed digitally. If you go back to the original interviews and articles in publications like Mix Magazine and others and sources, the television interviews and promotional specials you will find that of course this was originally sourced from the original analog tracks, but with the advent of cross-fading EQ-ing and differentiation of the original mixes, please don't try to sell the readers that this was totally analog sourced. It's just not true.

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Fri, 2014-11-07 10:32
"The upcoming double 180g LP sets of Love and 1 will be digitally sourced according to mastering engineer Sean Magee."

"....and then mixed down from there for the surround DVD-A and the two channel mix for CD and vinyl."

If the source was digital, I though it obvious that the "mixed down from there" would be digital.

Jack Gilvey's picture
Submitted by Jack Gilvey on Thu, 2014-11-06 18:38

No real use for a digital-master Love LP. If you're going to do it right, just listen to the DVD-A on a great 5.1 setup. Awesome. Never really enjoyed this stereo downmix.

PeterPani's picture
Submitted by PeterPani on Fri, 2014-11-07 02:45

I very much like to listen to the DVD-A, too. The vinyl record of Love sits on the shelf. But as much as I love to listen to the 5.1 - and it sounds really really great - in the end - change after listening to any original Beatles vinyl. And then you know it, all listening before was digital and not real compared to the originals.

Jack Gilvey's picture
Submitted by Jack Gilvey on Fri, 2014-11-07 10:18

Well, I do have an original Capitol mono "Beatles '65" I found at Princeton Record Exchange one day. Signed and dated by the original owner (I'm assuming) on the day he bought it.
But it sounds like drek compared to the new monos which I'm thoroughly and exclusively ensconced in as of late. Funny how diametrically opposed those are, mono vinyl and 5.1 24/96 digital, yet both can be great. I'll agree with you that the vinyl wins in the end, though, even if I can't explain exactly why. My attention span is just...longer. And I smile a lot.

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Fri, 2014-11-07 10:24
......
soundman45's picture
Submitted by soundman45 on Fri, 2014-11-07 11:22

My apologies Michael, I should have stated that this was a hybrid production. They did indeed use analog tape in the process. All I was trying to imply was that it was assembled and mixed in Pro Tools. They did indeed mix down to analog two track and multitrack using the analog two track for the stereo mixes that eventually wound up on vinyl and CD. If your readers are interested they can search and find an article in the 2007 March issue of Sound on Sound that explains the whole process.

Paul Boudreau's picture
Submitted by Paul Boudreau on Fri, 2014-11-07 15:58

The "Love" set was great fun and did sound great. I found it amazing that some Beatlefans were very grumpy about it. Oh well.

The best thing about the "1" 2LP set is that it was in fact an homage to the "White" album, at least in its packaging, in that it had a poster and four photos/portraits. Great fodder for framing the four Avedon portraits, which I did.

audiotom's picture
Submitted by audiotom on Wed, 2014-11-19 16:45

I have the 2007 Love on lp and 5.1 DVD A and I feel the lp is superior. Could be my 2 channel system is much better than my HT but it is more than competent

I kind of liked that it was produced in small numbers in 2007
but I guess we all should share

Giles did a great job on the song where they did more merging together

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