Beatles to release expanded "Red" and "Blue" compilations in Dolby Atmos, including brand new song "Now and Then"

[Jim.olga]

I snagged Now and Then from YTube this morning. While not as bad as the example given - DR4, the YT is DR5, it's still far from ideal. Strange really as Love Me Do from the same source measures as DR11. Here's what N&T looks like:

View attachment 97920

It's not brickwalled in that you can see clean peaks when you zoom in.

I saw the same thing. But I used Spotify and thought maybe it was just their poor rendering.

 

[admsh]

That is not a fan mix. This was the original mix the remaining Beatles were working on during the Anthology takes, along with Free As A Bird and Real Love at that time in '95. They gave up because George thought it wasn't up to snuff with the other new tracks. Years later, soon after working on Love, Paul decided to go back and revisit it, this time I believe with the help of Jeff Lynne, as he said he would do in a well known interview, to create something similar in style to Free As A Bird and Love. That new, mostly completed track somehow made it's way YouTube for a while. (I can't find it there anymore. If it's there, it must be labeled differently so it doesn't get taken down.) It then was supposedly shelved again because I don't think that they thought the John vocal at that time was good enough due to source material.

With the recent advances with AI, now was the time to redo John's vocal, but it seems like they shelved the rest of that track that was done in the mid 2010 decade, which IMHO is way superior to the new mix, except for the vocals. Since that "better" track was on YouTube for a while, I will try to elicit the help of others to get it back there (I don't know how to do it) if others here want to hear that mix. Personally, I upmixed both the new version and that older YouTube version to 5.1, and the YT mix in surround sound, again, IMHO is far superior, except for the John vocals, (which I had to EQ a lot to make similar to the new vocals.)

From what I'm seeing online it was created by someone who goes by the name iamphoney years ago. Here's an instrumental version without the vocals. It's amazing work but doesn't look like it's real. Happy to stand corrected, just did some very quick sleuthing this morning.

Some more info on this here.

 

[nikomen]

From what I'm seeing online it was created by someone who goes by the name iamphoney years ago. Here's an instrumental version without the vocals. It's amazing work but doesn't look like it's real. Happy to stand corrected, just did some very quick sleuthing this morning.

Some more info on this here.

Possibly, but I don't think they are the same. There were many fan based incarnations of Now And Then when the original tape became available. In a previous interview that Paul gave, he stated earlier that he wanted to finish it, and was going to get Jeff Lynne to help him, which a link to is below. In this interview, at around 9:50, Paul again says he's going to get Jeff to help him finish it.

The version that was on YouTube that I'm referring to came from this bootleg album, which states that these were in fact taken from the vaults. Well, that's if you can believe a bunch of pirates Here is the photo of that album, as well as the clip that contains Paul's interview.

 

[admsh]

Possibly, but I don't think they are the same. There were many fan based incarnations of Now And Then when the original tape became available. In a previous interview that Paul gave, he stated earlier that he wanted to finish it, and was going to get Jeff Lynne to help him, which a link to is below. In this interview, at around 9:50, Paul again says he's going to get Jeff to help him finish it.

The version that was on YouTube that I'm referring to came from this bootleg album, which states that these were in fact taken from the vaults. Well, that's if you can believe a bunch of pirates Here is the photo of that album, as well as the clip that contains Paul's interview.View attachment 97969

This bootleg had two version of Now and Then on it: Now And Then (overdub remix), and Now And Then (cleaned-up demo). Neither of those were in any way close to this fan made version from youtube. While Paul mentioned finishing this with Jeff Lynne multiple times over the years, is seems that did not happen and for whatever reason he didn't work on the final track (my guess is creative differences with Paul, or maybe he just didn't want to do it since George was against it). Either way, the version posted here is really quite marvelous and IMHO better than Paul's version, but it is in fact a fan made mix in the style of the Anthology tracks produced by Jeff Lynne.

 

[key_wiz]

This bootleg had two version of Now and Then on it: Now And Then (overdub remix), and Now And Then (cleaned-up demo). Neither of those were in any way close to this fan made version from youtube. While Paul mentioned finishing this with Jeff Lynne multiple times over the years, is seems that did not happen and for whatever reason he didn't work on the final track (my guess is creative differences with Paul, or maybe he just didn't want to do it since George was against it). Either way, the version posted here is really quite marvelous and IMHO better than Paul's version, but it is in fact a fan made mix in the style of the Anthology tracks produced by Jeff Lynne.

thanks for all the sleuthing on this, guys!

I didn't think it could be real as it seems way too finished. But it's definitely more Beatle-y than the new one. whoever did it should have sent his version to Paul to listen to before he took another stab at it.

 

[nikomen]

The instrumental one posted has a different start than the one I have, but that doesn't mean that he didn't author multiple versions of it, if in fact he did create it himself. Either way, I agree with you that IMHO it is far superior to the one that just came out! If others decide to make 5.1 versions of either as I did, even the newly released one needs some tweaking of even the AI vocals.

 

[key_wiz]

This bootleg had two version of Now and Then on it: Now And Then (overdub remix), and Now And Then (cleaned-up demo). Neither of those were in any way close to this fan made version from youtube. While Paul mentioned finishing this with Jeff Lynne multiple times over the years, is seems that did not happen and for whatever reason he didn't work on the final track (my guess is creative differences with Paul, or maybe he just didn't want to do it since George was against it). Either way, the version posted here is really quite marvelous and IMHO better than Paul's version, but it is in fact a fan made mix in the style of the Anthology tracks produced by Jeff Lynne.

Or Paul never really found the time/desire to actually call up Lynne and work on it. It's one thing to say in interviews that "Maybe I'll do this one day" and another to actually getting around to doing it.

It also makes sense that when Paul finally DID get around to doing something with it, that he decided to work with Giles rather than Lynne considering the recent history of Giles' involvement with Paul and Beatles material.

 

[admsh]

Or Paul never really found the time/desire to actually call up Lynne and work on it. It's one thing to say in interviews that "Maybe I'll do this one day" and another to actually getting around to doing it.

It also makes sense that when Paul finally DID get around to doing something with it, that he decided to work with Giles rather than Lynne considering the recent history of Giles' involvement with Paul and Beatles material.

Yes, definitely. Also Lynne was really George's guy, they were working together on everything at that period and I'm sure was included at Geroge's insistence (apart from being the obvious and best choice). Wouldn't be surprised if Paul just decided to do what HE wanted now that there's no one around to stop him.

I'm not a fan of Giles' as a producer or a mixer. But it is what it is...

 

[key_wiz]

Yes, definitely. Also Lynne was really George's guy, they were working together on everything at that period and I'm sure was included at Geroge's insistence (apart from being the obvious and best choice). Wouldn't be surprised if Paul just decided to do what HE wanted now that there's no one around to stop him.

I'm not a fan of Giles' as a producer or a mixer. But it is what it is...

Well, of course. No offense to Ringo, but Paul is the only creative entity left. He didn't have to make that decision. It's simply all that was left to happen.

I'm not going to speculate as to the nature of the relationship between Paul and Jeff (it must have been OK enough for Paul to bring up his name when he talked about finishing the track) but ANY producer (Even Jeff, I would think) is only going to go as far as Paul allows him to go.

Agree about Giles.

 

[Wagonmaster_91]

That’s not the official music video. That will be available tomorrow 9:00 a.m. ET.

Glad to know that. I've the seen real one now. I am more impressed with the video than song itself.

 

[LennonCobain]

On the new Blue CD, Dear Prudence follows Back In The U.S.S.R. I wonder if we’ll finally get a clean intro version of Dear Prudence or if this version of Blue will mirror The White Album (which would remove the clean fade out that Back In The U.S.S.R. has had on previous Blue releases).

 

[ar surround]

I'm not a fan of Giles' as a producer or a mixer. But it is what it is...

Can we start a 'not a fan of Giles' club? You in @nikomen ?

 

[kap'n krunch]

Can we start a 'not a fan of Giles' club? You in @nikomen ?

remember this: ALL engineers are slaves to what their CLIENTS want...I may be wrong in saying that Giles is a great MCH mixer but his hands were tied with whatever his clients wanted...

 

[nikomen]

Can we start a 'not a fan of Giles' club? You in @nikomen ?

Absolutely. Let's get his email address and we'll send him what we've done better!!!!!!!!! I think we could teach him more than a thing or two

 

[nikomen]

remember this: ALL engineers are slaves to what their CLIENTS want...I may be wrong in saying that Giles is a great MCH mixer but his hands were tied with whatever his clients wanted...

My issue with him kap'n is that for a long time he has refused to use demixing technology, and only recently embraced it in limited instances. If he wants to create boring 5.1 and Atmos mixes, that's his business, but what I really think is that he lacks imagination, rather than being afraid of not doing what the clients want. I think if he were to give Paul or anyone else more immersive and imaginative mixes like some of us have made, with our non-studio demixing technology, imagine what he could create given his studio and resources, and true original stems! I can't see Paul saying that they are too immersive an experience. Look what they did with the Love mixes. Just my 2 cents and IMHO.

 

[key_wiz]

My issue with him kap'n is that for a long time he has refused to use demixing technology, and only recently embraced it in limited instances. If he wants to create boring 5.1 and Atmos mixes, that's his business, but what I really think is that he lacks imagination, rather than being afraid of not doing what the clients want. I think if he were to give Paul or anyone else more immersive and imaginative mixes like some of us have made, with our non-studio demixing technology, imagine what he could create given his studio and resources, and true original stems! I can't see Paul saying that they are too immersive an experience. Look what they did with the Love mixes. Just my 2 cents and IMHO.

Have to agree with this. Giles seems to have been given a pretty wide latitude to do what he wants to with the remixes. He’s never once indicated that he was restricted by anything other than his own desire to stay close to the original mixes.

 

[key_wiz]

Good interview with Peter Jackson about his involvement in Now and Then

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/peter-jackson-takes-us-inside-130200129.html

 

[ar surround]

Have to agree with this. Giles seems to have been given a pretty wide latitude to do what he wants to with the remixes. He’s never once indicated that he was restricted by anything other than his own desire to stay close to the original mixes.

It seems that Giles feels quite a bit of pressure from the purists. For example, at about 13:40 in this video he talks about remixing Pepper, releasing the album, and then nervously boarding up his house.



I think that the mixes of The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be are done rather well. Pepper was a missed opportunity. The mixes on Revolver are all over the place with some being very immersive (Eleanor Rigby) while most are front-centric. The problem with that inconsistency is that the front-centric tracks sound even worse when they follow an immersive track because our brains are now tuned to an immersive presentation.

 

[MixerRog]

Checkout the neat cover of Now & Then in early Beatles style at

Rog

 

[admsh]

It seems that Giles feels quite a bit of pressure from the purists. For example, at about 13:40 in this video he talks about remixing Pepper, releasing the album, and then nervously boarding up his house.



I think that the mixes of The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be are done rather well. Pepper was a missed opportunity. The mixes on Revolver are all over the place with some being very immersive (Eleanor Rigby) while most are front-centric. The problem with that inconsistency is that the front-centric tracks sound even worse when they follow an immersive track because our brains are now tuned to an immersive presentation.

Some of his choices are mind boggling, really. It's just very odd that others can get this right but Beatles releases, of all things, are full of inconsistencies and sometimes even mistakes. There are actually things missing from some tracks, on all of these releases. If I can identify those and he can't, he's just not the right person for this job.

We are always joking about how SW should just mix everything but the truth is, when it comes to the Beatles they should have sought out the best mixer in the world. Giles' last name and closeness to the Beatles shouldn't have been enough to get this gig.

I still think the best thing he did was Love. And he did that with his dad.