waterloo
Member
The Rubber Soul Special Edition lands October 2. New stereo mix from Giles Martin and Sam Okell taken off the original four-track tapes, plus Dolby Atmos, high-resolution stereo, the 1965 mono and the U.S. Capitol configuration - though which of those you actually get depends on which edition you buy.
The de-mixing is the WingNut Films tooling, Emile de la Rey's team, same lineage as the Get Back restoration work. On a four-track album that's a real fix rather than a gimmick. The original 1965 stereo has Lennon in one ear and most of the band camped out in the other, which is tolerable through speakers eight feet apart and genuinely unpleasant on headphones. George Martin had a go at cleaning it up for the 1987 CD and couldn't get far, because the tape wouldn't let him. Now the tape will.
Where I get annoyed is the packaging. The Super Deluxe at the Beatles store is $235.98 for 5LP plus a 7-inch single, posters and art cards, and it does not include the Blu-ray. The Atmos mix and the session material live on that disc. So the most expensive package is the one without the surround mix in it, and if you want Atmos you buy a second thing. That is the third or fourth catalogue reissue I've seen structured this way and I still don't understand the logic. Vinyl buyers who own an Atmos setup exist. I'm one.
Worth saying too: more separation does not automatically mean a better mix. Some of these de-mixed catalogue jobs end up wide and oddly sterile, all the glue gone. For anyone who has lived with the recent Beatles Atmos mixes on a real bed and height layout rather than headphones - do they hold up, or does the whole thing collapse into a very loud centre channel?
The de-mixing is the WingNut Films tooling, Emile de la Rey's team, same lineage as the Get Back restoration work. On a four-track album that's a real fix rather than a gimmick. The original 1965 stereo has Lennon in one ear and most of the band camped out in the other, which is tolerable through speakers eight feet apart and genuinely unpleasant on headphones. George Martin had a go at cleaning it up for the 1987 CD and couldn't get far, because the tape wouldn't let him. Now the tape will.
Where I get annoyed is the packaging. The Super Deluxe at the Beatles store is $235.98 for 5LP plus a 7-inch single, posters and art cards, and it does not include the Blu-ray. The Atmos mix and the session material live on that disc. So the most expensive package is the one without the surround mix in it, and if you want Atmos you buy a second thing. That is the third or fourth catalogue reissue I've seen structured this way and I still don't understand the logic. Vinyl buyers who own an Atmos setup exist. I'm one.
Worth saying too: more separation does not automatically mean a better mix. Some of these de-mixed catalogue jobs end up wide and oddly sterile, all the glue gone. For anyone who has lived with the recent Beatles Atmos mixes on a real bed and height layout rather than headphones - do they hold up, or does the whole thing collapse into a very loud centre channel?
