The Beatles Love DVD-A now avail - Page 3

This is a fantastic DVD-Audio disc. I want the rest of the Beatles albums in 5.1!

I personally found some of the Yellow Submarine remixes awfully shrill sounding, unlistenable, and unbalanced. Maybe it was my system?

That's true of the CD. Check out the DVD, though, which has a separate soundtrack layer in Dolby Digital 5.1 that's much better. I don't care for all the mixing decisions, but the overall sound quality is much better than the CD -- without the harshness you describe.

Are there any full reviews of this online? The link the the WSJ article was for subcribers only.

The sound is excellent. However, I found the bass to be a bit too dominant in several of the tracks ("Get Back" comes to mind). I suppose this could be because of my frame of reference in listening to old tracks being updated, but it seems as if it is agressively been mixed to be bassy. Anyone else agree, or am I just plum loco?

Try this link. And below that is the text of the WSJ review.

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/beatles/love

Beatles Music, Reimagined With 'LOVE'
By JIM FUSILLI
November 29, 2006; Page D10

What began as a soundtrack to an evening of acrobatics, theatrics and dance is now the album "LOVE" (Apple), which features almost 80 minutes of the Beatles' music reimagined by Giles Martin and his father, George Martin, the group's producer, for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name now playing at the Mirage in Las Vegas. The package includes two discs -- one a standard CD, the other a DVD audio version with a bit more Beatles music.

With the support and approval of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, Giles Martin took apart some of the group's recordings, then put them back together again in different ways. For example, one new track uses snippets from 13 songs as it builds from the string crescendo of "A Day in the Life" -- played backward -- to the opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night" to Mr. Starr's drum burst toward the end of the "Abbey Road" album to a full version of "Get Back," with pieces from "The End," "Hello, Goodbye," "Strawberry Fields Forever" and other Beatles classics leading into the next reimagined performance. Like the entire disc, the results are fresh, seamless and musically cohesive, and "LOVE" reminds us that however iconic their music may be, the Beatles were, as the 37-year-old Mr. Martin says, "a really good band recorded by a really good producer."

The Beatles' tapes, including those that feature the band members singing and playing the songs together before effects were added, provided what Mr. Martin needed to create the new tracks. "They don't sound sepia in any way at all," he says. The Beatles "did it without a lot of smoke and mirrors. It's just them digging in and playing." With the exception of a lovely new string chart written by George Martin to enrich George Harrison's solo reading of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," every bit of music on "LOVE" was performed in the 1960s by the Beatles and the musicians they employed.

Which is good news. One measure of how good "LOVE" turned out to be is to consider how bad it could've been had the principals not resisted the temptation to use technological wizardry to eliminate minor flubs in the Beatles' recordings or bring in musicians to record new parts. Though the fidelity is remarkable, it isn't sterile in the way modern digital recordings can be in their quest for sonic perfection. For example, the version of "Get Back" that Mr. Martin used drifts out of tempo, and the three-part harmony on "Because" wavers, but "LOVE" doesn't correct those imperfections. We know, if subconsciously, that the music is the result of human endeavor.

Giles Martin, who has produced works by Jeff Beck, Kate Bush, Elvis Costello and others, admits to experimenting with correcting tempo, "but it just sounded wrong. Didn't sound like the Beatles. We're talking about musicianship here, not something you do with a mouse. Musicians have their own heartbeat. Ringo is Ringo and you're going to get the same feel when he plays. On 'Lady Madonna,' the rhythm is Paul on the piano. You can't change that."

The sprightly pop of "Lady Madonna" provides an example of how Mr. Martin worked -- and the behind-the-scenes stories he inadvertently uncovered. The original track is relatively sparse -- built on Mr. McCartney's driving left hand, the rhythm is colored by Mr. Starr's subtle brush play -- so Mr. Martin grafted "Hey Bulldog," a much heftier, full-band performance, to the song's center to give it the blast the Cirque show required. Later, Mr. McCartney told him John Lennon had written "Hey Bulldog" as a musical rebuttal to his "Lady Madonna." For another new version of an old song, Mr. Martin isolated Mr. Starr's vocal at the beginning of "Octopus's Garden," clearing away the backing instrumental track. Mr. Starr confessed to the producer that he felt alienated from the other members of the group when he wrote it. Hearing his voice alone brought back the memory.

The guiding presence of his father gave Mr. Martin the confidence to be bold, telling him when things were or weren't quite right. When he tried to tag the fade of "The Word" with an excerpt from "The End," the younger Mr. Martin says, "it kind of worked, but my Dad said, 'No, it doesn't. Not really.' So we took it out."

Dominic Champagne, director of the Cirque production, asked for a version of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" that was darker than the calliope-like original, and Giles Martin borrowed ominous sounds from "Blue Jay Way," "Helter Skelter" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" to make it so. He says, "Now it was this monstrous thing, and my Dad was there going, 'John would've loved this, the whole idea of it.'"

Apparently, Ms. Lennon agreed. She contributed a recording of her husband singing "Strawberry Fields Forever" accompanied by only his acoustic guitar. Mr. Martin matched that with progressively more complex takes from the Beatles' recording sessions to form a haunting new version that grows more psychedelic as it flows into a wall-rattling medley of "Within You Without You" and "Tomorrow Never Knows."

What emerges on "LOVE" is the breadth and complexity of the Beatles' music. "They recorded quite a different variety of sounds, all these different textures," Mr. Martin says. Subtle deconstruction and rebuilding reveals their flights of imagination. According to Mr. Martin, "There's nothing you can do to their music to make it more avant garde."

But the Beatles' music is so familiar that it's easy to overlook it as more than a soundtrack to memory, a reminder of years past. "LOVE" encourages the listener to listen actively to the Beatles, to hear their music as fresh and innovative. Mr. Martin notes that when Mr. McCartney and Mr. Starr dropped by, they were less interested while he worked on an old section that would remain intact than when he played something he'd just cobbled together. "They wanted new things," he says.

"This isn't an anthology or a retrospective. Nor are we trying to say this is better than the original," Mr. Martin says. "The idea was to get as much of the Beatles into it as one can."

The album, he adds, "is a new, interesting way to listen to them."

It was the newest CD version I was referring to. To me, it sounds much better than the other Beatles CDs remastered in '83 (or was it '93?)

Well, all of the recordings subsequent to the 1983-1987 first wave of Beatles CD's, i.e., the original British catalogue, are better than that 80's batch. But, as mentioned, the audio layer of the Yellow Submarine DVD is quite good. Also, the mid-90's anthology series has some good performances on it, with a DTS track available. The "1" CD is fair, in terms of sound quality and "Let it Be -- Naked" has a very clean sound, but not everyone likes the all the changes made to the songs. For example, I'm glad they removed the schmaltzy orchestral accompaniment to The Long and Winding Road, but they shouldn't have taken out the verbal banter on the original Let it Be album.

I was under the impression that, with the exception of Yellow Submarine, no Beatles recordings had been remastered since their original release on CD in the mid-'80s.

Am I right? Were the versions on the "1" CD different from the versions on the first wave of CDs? What about the two Capitol box sets? Are those versions remastered?

I also have the HD841. I must admit I cannot find the option for playing the DD tracks on the Love album. It certainly doesn't show up in the DVD-A menu nor can I find an option in the player setup to default to DVD-V.

There is a way around this if you want to hear the DD track. Just rip the DVD-A as a DVD. It won't be able to copy the MLP tracks but you will be able grab the files in the VIDEO-TS directory (where the DD and DTS data lives) and burn that to another DVD. Then that is played, all the player can access are those compressed tracks.

That being said the Love album sound awesome in DVD-A. No problem with the LFE channel (I have the Samsung set front speakers to large and rear speakers to small) and I can hear the bass coming from the sub. The Samsung doesn't have any options to manipulate the levels of each channel when playing DVD-A so what you get is what is on the disc itself.

Only one problem so far which I haven't tried to duplicate yet. I was listening to Back in the USSR and then it segues into While My Guitar. Back in the USSR stopped and I heard a fragment of the While My Guitar track and then nothing. The player had frozen. I was able to get by that by pressing the next track button on the remote and it played the next track. Need to experiment a bit more but I was so engrossed in the music that I didn't have the time.


Larry

Someone with more knowledge of recording technology will have to weigh in here, but there's a difference between a "remastered" recording -- which is what "Love" is, made from early generations of the Beatles' original, unprocessed studio master tapes -- and new transfers, which I think is what those other newer releases are. Again, any transfer since about the mid 90's is going to be better than what was done with the CD's in the 80's, but there's been nothing close in quality to what Giles Martin, under guidance from Sir (Daddy) George, did with "Love." And, when it comes to the MLP technology in DVD-Audio, which is bit-by-bit identical to those aforementioned unprocessed, original studio masters, you've got one damn good round piece of 5-inch plastic.

That's the layer change point. I've heard a few reports of players stumbling on it - looks like yours is one of them.

The movie "Imagine " in the 1980s had an old Dolby Surround mix. George Martin did the remix for the Beatles tune, forget right now, who remixed the solo Lennon songs in the movie. The movie was on VHS and Laser Disc. (i have the Laser version.) The sources of other songs in surround are songs on the Anthology DVD in Dolby 5.1 and DTS. On Disc 5 is a 5.1 mix of "real Love: and "Free as a Bird." Hard days Night on DVD as surround mixs of songs, (not done well IMO).The CD "1", the songs were digitally remasteerd 24/48 before put on CD, so they sound good. than 80s CDs.Should get "yellow Submarine " on DVD one of these days.It seems that most people would most of the songs from Revelor to Abbey Road remixed to 5.1

I own a Panasonic HT-900 DVD/HTIB (Home Theater In a Box) that has DVD-Audio capability. I never had any problem listening to DVD-Audio discs until this "Love" album. When track 21 "Back in the USSR" ends, instead of moving on to the next track I get silence while the player stays in track 21 and the time counter continues counting elapsed time. The song itself ends at 2'30" and I've let it run until as long as 9 minutes! Pressing next or scan forward wakes it up and moves it to the next track 22, however.

Is this a common problem with DVD-Audio? Should I try to get a different disc from the store or is it a problem with my player? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Gregory

I have the same problem and as somebody else noted on this thread, it's a problem with the layer change possibly. It's annoying but not fatal. I just pressed next track to play the next track

It could be an error on the disc mastering, in which case it probably affects all copies. It could just be doing something slightly unusual, but legal, and some players stumble over it.

All the DVD-Audio specs are top secret, so rather hard to investigate

Might be worth contacting the publisher, just to let them know people are having problems.

You could try a store exchange if you like, but I reckon there's a 95% chance another copy would act the same on your player.

Agreed! I'm all for removing traces of Phil Spector, but how I miss the banter...


Yeah...nothing is even close.


Same with my Denon 2900. Not a stoppage, though, a pause of a few seconds.

I went back and checked last night. All my older Beatles CDs were released in 1987. Not sure if they were "remasters" or if that was their first release on CD. Yellow Submarine was remastered in 1999. The clarity and presence are such on it that I feel like I am sitting next to George Martin in the control booth.

Yeah, the 80's cd issues of the original British releases are still the ones you'll find in stores and are horrible. The Yellow Sub "songtrack" is different from the original cd, leaving out the instrumental stuff and adding songs, and is very good (DVD is better), as is much of the Anthology stuff (the LP of Anthology 3 is outstanding, with the quality of "Because" approaching "Love") and "Naked". Nothing, however, prepared me for this latest DVD-A.

I have the same pause at the end of track 21 with my Pioner 79avi.

Just a pause, or do you need to kick it to move on to the next track, like Gregory?

Does anyone have a player where it's seamless? (On the DVD-Audio layer; this doesn't affect the DVD-Video layer).

[quote=Jack Gilvey]Agreed! I'm all for removing traces of Phil Spector, but how I miss the banter...


QUOTE]

it's interesting how we get used to these things- the banter certainly is fun, but keep in mind that much of this was snipped out of context and stuck on to the beginning or ends of songs.

[quote=sregis]
Yeah, but after all these years it's a part of the songs to me. In my mind, "Two Of Us" doesn't start with a guitar...it starts with "I Dig a Pygmy"...

I posted on the Pioneer thread but thought somebody on this thread might be able clarify for me.
When the original DVD is inserterted, the DVR simply says "Loading" and gets hung. I need to unplug the machine and force eject. I made a copy of the DVD and the copy plays fine with video and sound options.
Thoughts?

[quote=Jack Gilvey]
"...Phase one in which Doris get her oats...." Ah, yes, the mind of John Lennon.
Not to get into Beatle personality rivalries, but I think Paul removed all the banter from the original Let it Be because it was mostlyl John wisecracking. Remember his line, "...on behalf of the group, I hope we passed the audition."

I think Art Dudley, of the sadly-defunk "Listener" magazine, had a band called "Charles Haughtry and the deaf-aids". Love to know what he thinks of this.

I have been searching in vain for someone that has the same problem with the DVD-audio version of Love. I've now tried 3 disks from 2 different stores and on each disk the DVD-audio mix has the vocals turned down in the mix, almost like a karaoke disk with the vocals dialed back. I've checked my system and even taken the disk to a high end audio store and got the same result. I have a Yamaha S657 DVD player that plays other DVD-audio and SACDs fine.

When I first listened to this I thought it was odd, not the way I would have mixed it but maybe they did that on purpose for Cirque. Then I listened to the CD and the vocals were right where I expected them. Same with the DVD video sound. Its just the DD-audio were the mix is bad or different or whatever you want to call it. The vocals aren't even muffled - they sound clear - they're just not loud enough relative to the rest of the mix.

Even with the vocals mixed too low, the DVD-audio is plenty interesting. I say that because I wonder if people have been listening to the same thing I have and thinking it was fine. This is not a subtle difference - the mix on the CD is obviously different even to my wife (and the couple other non-audio buffs I've played this for).

Can anyone confirm that they have a copy of the DVD-audio where the vocals are mixed the same as on the CD? I really want to get a good copy of this, I'm hoping that there was just a production problem on a portion of the disks (although I've managed to find 3 problem disks already). I would also like to figure out if there's anybody at Apple or Capital that I can contact about this.

Thanks

Now, that's a good bit of Beatles trivia. And is "Doris" the same Doris Day that John refers to elsewhere on Let it Be?

I don't know what to tell you. The vocal levels and balance seem fine to me on the DVD-A multi-channel layer, and the DTS/DD 5.1 layers, as well. I haven't read where any professional critics or "amateur" ones on this thread have made the observation that you have.

Heh...no clue.


I'm always singing along too loud to notice. Seriously, the DVD-A vocals sound perfectly mixed to me. I've not heard a thing about this...are you sure nothing is changing in your system?

I've checked and rechecked my system. I even took it to a higher end audio store to play it on one of their systems and they got the same results. I'm playing the DVD-A through the multi-channel outputs.