Beatles "Let It Be" (5.1 surround & Dolby Atmos mixes out in October!)

[ar surround]

It was really interesting to learn that three of the rooftop performances were the tracks used on the album release: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". After seemingly endless attempts in the studio it's kind of amazing that the great performances came while playing it live! I'm trying to think of other studio albums where the basic tracks came from a live performance - it must be a pretty rare occurrence - and I can think of King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black". Anyone else know of any?

I too didn’t realize that about those three tracks. Discovering that they came from the live rooftop performance makes them even more special to me…and they were already very special. As you noted, it is remarkable how those songs came together when it was time for The Beatles and Preston to actually perform.

 

[himey]

Since the performance on those 3 tracks came from the rooftop, shouldn't the Atmos mix use the top channels for the focal point, and the bed channels for the ambiance?

 

[musicmemorabiliashoppellc]

It was really interesting to learn that three of the rooftop performances were the tracks used on the album release: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". After seemingly endless attempts in the studio it's kind of amazing that the great performances came while playing it live! I'm trying to think of other studio albums where the basic tracks came from a live performance - it must be a pretty rare occurrence - and I can think of King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black". Anyone else know of any?

The term I was looking for is DIRECT TO DISC (they are LIVE PERFORMANCES in every essence) a band (ROUGH TRADE) from Toronto Canada used that process for one of their albums I’m not too sure who else

If you go to EBAY look up ROUGH TRADE LIVE the back cover describes exactly what DIRECT TO DISC is all about. Hope that helped

 

[Scott M4]

The term I was looking for is DIRECT TO DISC (they are LIVE PERFORMANCES in every essence) a band (ROUGH TRADE) from Toronto Canada used that process for one of their albums I’m not too sure who else

If you go to EBAY look up ROUGH TRADE LIVE the back cover describes exactly what DIRECT TO DISC is all about. Hope that helped

The band FM (Ben Mink version) also performed a Direct To Disc album. It’s very cool but less song oriented than the Rough Trade one - which is brilliant IMO.

 

[Bill B]

Since the performance on those 3 tracks came from the rooftop, shouldn't the Atmos mix use the top channels for the focal point, and the bed channels for the ambiance?

No the top channels should be birds, planes, thunder, etc.. Things happening above the roof.

Unless you want it to sound like it did to the people listening on the street. In which case the bed channels should have cars, people talking, footsteps, etc,,

 

[JediJoker]

It was really interesting to learn that three of the rooftop performances were the tracks used on the album release: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". After seemingly endless attempts in the studio it's kind of amazing that the great performances came while playing it live! I'm trying to think of other studio albums where the basic tracks came from a live performance - it must be a pretty rare occurrence - and I can think of King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black". Anyone else know of any?

The Grateful Dead's Anthem of the Sun, for one. And their In The Dark was recorded without an audience, but in a performance venue.

"Certifiable #1 Smash" on Kevin Gilbert's The Shaming of the True is built around a live performance with the Thud band (also released as-performed on the Welcome To Joytown: Live at the Troubador album/film).

 

[Perp]

It was really interesting to learn that three of the rooftop performances were the tracks used on the album release: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". After seemingly endless attempts in the studio it's kind of amazing that the great performances came while playing it live! I'm trying to think of other studio albums where the basic tracks came from a live performance - it must be a pretty rare occurrence - and I can think of King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black". Anyone else know of any?

Your Post just had me thinking of the R.E.M. album I was playing last night…..New Adventures In Hi-Fi. Out of the 14 tracks only 4 were recorded at Bad Animals studio in Seattle Washington. The other 10 were recorded live on an 8-track recorder at various venues. Though, you wouldn’t know it.

 

[boxhead]

It was really interesting to learn that three of the rooftop performances were the tracks used on the album release: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". After seemingly endless attempts in the studio it's kind of amazing that the great performances came while playing it live! I'm trying to think of other studio albums where the basic tracks came from a live performance - it must be a pretty rare occurrence - and I can think of King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black". Anyone else know of any?

Of course there was Joe Jackson's "Big World" from 1986. It was recorded at the Roundabout Theatre, New York over 3 nights in front of a live audience. The audience was specifically instructed not to applaud until the song was completely finished which allowed them to construct the album with no crowd sounds whatsoever. Apparently Joe wanted to have the musicians get inspired by the live crowd without any of pitfalls of a live venue.

 

[newslane]

In the Get Back documentary, did anyone notice that The Beatles all referred to Brian Epstein as "Mr. Epstein." I thought that was interesting given that Lennon was only six years younger than Epstein. Perhaps they used the term "Mr." because they knew that they were being filmed. Or maybe it's because George said, "And what brings Mr. Epstein here?" when Epstein went to speak to them in the dressing room of The Cavern Club. So maybe that's just what they called him. It's just yet another nteresting bit of Beatles trivia.

Yes, I absolutely noticed that and thought it was very interesting and almost touching.

 

[newslane]

It was really interesting to learn that three of the rooftop performances were the tracks used on the album release: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". After seemingly endless attempts in the studio it's kind of amazing that the great performances came while playing it live! I'm trying to think of other studio albums where the basic tracks came from a live performance - it must be a pretty rare occurrence - and I can think of King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black". Anyone else know of any?

Even more amazing was how tight the band was considering that this was their first performance after a three-year layoff.

 

[Strilo]

It was really interesting to learn that three of the rooftop performances were the tracks used on the album release: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". After seemingly endless attempts in the studio it's kind of amazing that the great performances came while playing it live! I'm trying to think of other studio albums where the basic tracks came from a live performance - it must be a pretty rare occurrence - and I can think of King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black". Anyone else know of any?

Yeah the first album that came to mind was R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which was largely recorded in sound checks for various shows on the band's Monster tour. I think How the West Was Won, E-Bow, Electrolite and Zither were recorded at Bad Animals in Seattle. Everything else was live at sound checks.

 

[marcb]

It was really interesting to learn that three of the rooftop performances were the tracks used on the album release: "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony". After seemingly endless attempts in the studio it's kind of amazing that the great performances came while playing it live! I'm trying to think of other studio albums where the basic tracks came from a live performance - it must be a pretty rare occurrence - and I can think of King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black". Anyone else know of any?

How about starting a thread on this question before it completely derails this thread?

 

[H.A.L.]

Back in the Mid-70’s to early 80’s I think some bands did what they called DDM or something like that meaning that they recorded direct in studio to lacquer or whatever the process was called…can’t remember the process name or bands that did it but I know at least a few Canadian bands did.

hope that helps

The Talking Heads captured their studio performances on digital for at least one album, forget which, and maybe more. Live straight to digital.

 

[watsontr]

Even more amazing was how tight the band was considering that this was their first performance after a three-year layoff.

And with only one column speaker on it's side for foldback?

 

[TheAbsentMind]

Yeah the first album that came to mind was R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which was largely recorded in sound checks for various shows on the band's Monster tour. I think How the West Was Won, E-Bow, Electrolite and Zither were recorded at Bad Animals in Seattle. Everything else was live at sound checks.

If memory serves, Peter Buck wrote liner notes for the original deluxe edition from 1996 and opened them with “this is a new phase R.E.M.” album. It’s been ages since I had it in my hands and only read it once but it immediately struck me… so I’m pretty sure it isn’t faulty memory. At least that’s what my brain thinks.

 

[Cassetto]

Wasn’t Cowboy Junkies Trinity Sessions recorded live on a single bidirectional mic? Similar to how many of the old Living Stereo LP’s were recorded. Someone, somewhere once mentioned a rejected 5.1 mix of Trinity Sessions existed and that just seemed crazy, that someone would reprocess that album to fake surround sound. As for Direct To Disc albums, I have a couple EP’s by The Roy Ayers Quartet with Sonny Sharrock that were Japanese Direct To Discs from the early 70’s, Tower Of Power also did one, there were numerous jazz and pop vocal releases and more recently one appeared from 4/5th of Sonic Youth about 15 years ago (Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley and Jim O'Rourke's “Melbourne Direct”) and there was a label in the late 00’s that released a handful of them. Also, Jack White currently does a series of direct to lathe “Live At Third Man” 12” releases in limited runs. For the uninitiated, the complication with direct to disc releases is that you have one lathed acetate to make stampers from, which means it’s typically a one smallish pressing and your done, ‘stop the presses before the pressing quality suffers’ kinda situation, which makes them necessarily limited run and some quite rare. Sheffield Labs did a fair number and also did CD editions of some of those, which would necessitate mastering from the vinyl where no tape existed (unless they ran tape simultaneously through the live sessions). I once found a mariachi album in a dollar bin and kept it for years because the cover was so ridiculous (kind of a conversation piece). When the joke got old, I put it up on eBay and it sold for around $500.

 

[DuncanS]

Wasn’t Cowboy Junkies Trinity Sessions recorded live on a single bidirectional mic? Similar to how many of the old Living Stereo LP’s were recorded. Someone, somewhere once mentioned a rejected 5.1 mix of Trinity Sessions existed and that just seemed crazy, that someone would reprocess that album to fake surround sound. As for Direct To Disc albums, I have a couple EP’s by The Roy Ayers Quartet with Sonny Sharrock that were Japanese Direct To Discs from the early 70’s, Tower Of Power also did one, there were numerous jazz and pop vocal releases and more recently one appeared from 4/5th of Sonic Youth about 15 years ago (Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley and Jim O'Rourke's “Melbourne Direct”) and there was a label in the late 00’s that released a handful of them. Also, Jack White currently does a series of direct to lathe “Live At Third Man” 12” releases in limited runs. For the uninitiated, the complication with direct to disc releases is that you have one lathed acetate to make stampers from, which means it’s typically a one smallish pressing and your done, ‘stop the presses before the pressing quality suffers’ kinda situation, which makes them necessarily limited run and some quite rare. Sheffield Labs did a fair number and also did CD editions of some of those, which would necessitate mastering from the vinyl where no tape existed (unless they ran tape simultaneously through the live sessions). I once found a mariachi album in a dollar bin and kept it for years because the cover was so ridiculous (kind of a conversation piece). When the joke got old, I put it up on eBay and it sold for around $500.

Yes "The Trinity Sessions" was recorded using an Calrec Ambisonic Mic, as was "Whites Off Earth Now!!". The MoFi SACD of "Whites Off Earth...." has a multi-channel layer with a surround 'mix' created using the GPS-Audio algorithm, it is very disappointing!

 

[humprof]

If I'm not the last person on earth to hear about St. Vincent's famous cover of "Dig a Pony," then I'm at least the 197,707th. (Thanks, Stephen Colbert.) Who's next in line?

 

[timbre4]

If I'm not the last person on earth to hear about St. Vincent's famous cover of "Dig a Pony," then I'm at least the 197,707th. (Thanks, Stephen Colbert.) Who's next in line?

I guess that’s me. I’ve known of her for years but never heard this. Wow, stripped down Jeff Buckley style reading is electric! It’s been fun watching her with the band.

 

[rtbluray]

Restored “Let it Be” film coming soon?!