Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Fan created remixes and rare variations
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Ray Volution
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by Ray Volution »

You've done wonders with "If I Fell' (my favorite)!
Great clarity between the two guitars, little things I've never heard before!
Wow! Just wow!
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by Tex »

"07 - Can't Buy Me Love (2023 remix)" - Here's the previous mix that combines the instrumentation from the CD EP mono mix with the 2015 stereo mix vocals. I posted this earlier this year but in this updated version I toned down the drums a tiny bit. The EP is the ONLY place to hear what the tape actually sounds like which is NOTHING like the cruddy low-fidelity mono album master. If you've heard the stunning transfer and mastering from the CD EP tape you know what I mean. The difference is shocking.

https://go.wetransfer.com/t-OORM4FtFI9
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by alphabeatles »

Fantastic! So much definitive work going on here amongst our expert remixers.

The notes so far, tidied up:
__________________________________________

I think I have a slightly more effective work flow. I'm doing extractions from my old left/center/right isolations (instead of the stereo mixes) and I'm getting better separations of some elements although it's now 12 tracks of stems. As long as I stack the extra tracks which are mostly background "junk" (microphone leakage) in the right place it all fits back together.

I've tried the improve the clarity of the drums (now centered) and open up the vocals a little. I also added a tiny bit of harmonic enhancement to some tracks because of the master tape problems. The drums and vocals have been centered, the reverb swamp has been dialed back and the guitars are more symmetrical.

02 I Should Have Known Better - was always a bit headache inducing because the mid-range but this seems a bit better to me.

03 If I Fell - This mix has centered bass and drums and slight stereo-ized vocals. I kept the intro double-tracked to match the old stereo mix. I did make a single track intro if anyone asks. Yes, Paul's vocal goof is actually patched I'm not Giles Martin.

04 I'm Happy Just To Dance With You - This supersedes the mix from earlier this year. This is very comparable to the Ron Furmanek mix.

05 And I Love Her - I moved the bongos center and claves left. The algorithm sometimes thinks the guitar strums are percussive and grabs them as drums I can't do anything about that.

06 Tell Me Why - I was able to pull the piano bleed off the vocal track and move it to the side.

07 Can't Buy Me Love - combines the instrumentation from the CD EP mono mix with the 2015 stereo mix vocals. I posted this earlier this year but in this updated version I toned down the drums a tiny bit. The EP is the ONLY place to hear what the tape actually sounds like which is NOTHING like the cruddy low-fidelity mono album master. If you've heard the stunning transfer and mastering from the CD EP tape you know what I mean. The difference is shocking.

08 Any Time At All - This mix has centered bass and drums and stereo vocals (per the original mix). I have also taken the liberty of slowing it down slightly the original sounds sped up to my ears. I simply added 1% to the sample length.

09 I'll Cry Instead - This track is greatly improved by reducing that obnoxious tambourine and boosting the drums.

10 Things We Said Today - You can actually hear the drums now.

12 You Can't Do That - Originally I had the bongos in the middle with the drums but it sounded so congested I moved them to the left (sound-stage inversion). I may have posted this before I'm not sure. It sounds fine (I hope) so that leaves me down to two tracks to re-evaluate then I am done with this album.
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by Ray Volution »

Engonoceras wrote: Sat Nov 04, 2023 2:10 pm "07 - Can't Buy Me Love (2023 remix)" - Here's the previous mix that combines the instrumentation from the CD EP mono mix with the 2015 stereo mix vocals. I posted this earlier this year but in this updated version I toned down the drums a tiny bit. The EP is the ONLY place to hear what the tape actually sounds like which is NOTHING like the cruddy low-fidelity mono album master. If you've heard the stunning transfer and mastering from the CD EP tape you know what I mean. The difference is shocking.

https://go.wetransfer.com/t-OORM4FtFI9
At the very least, the difference between this and my old Capitol 45 is stunning. :o
Thank you!
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by Tex »

Rave O Lucien wrote: Sat Nov 04, 2023 4:39 pm At the very least, the difference between this and my old Capitol 45 is stunning. :o
Thank you!
When we listen to things like "McCartney 1..2..3" and "Anthology" and the DE outtakes we get a glimpse of just how good this material sounds on the multi-tracks before it all gets squished down, compressed, reverbed and EQ flattened into a "mix". The fidelity and dynamics get sacrificed.

I've noticed much of this album is recorded like "Please Please Me". In other words many live vocals with massive microphone leakage. The basic tracks are basically just like the twin-track recordings. You hear these two tracks panned left and center in the original stereo mixes. The only difference is they now had two extra tracks for overdubs which themselves have huge microphone leakage. It would be interesting to study the session photos and see how many sound baffles were used before, during and after this album. A lot of the songs are clearly rushed recordings not even taking time to set up proper baffles. Do It Now.
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by Ray Volution »

I don't know about the UK, but in those days the American companies would give you about 8 hours to get in, cut an album, and get out. Maybe more if you were Sinatra and owned the label. If you were the Beatles, honoring radio and TV commitments, touring the world, writing songs, and shooting a movie, getting a perfect recording sans track leakage probably wasn't a thing. Press it in mono and sell it to kids to play on their cheap record players. We're living in a golden age of musical excavation now. The archeology of playback. Dismantling those old records. Look what I've found!
Good times!
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by Tex »

"01 - A Hard Day's Night (2023 remix)" - Finally the last remix. This has centered drums as usual nothing much else except I leveled out the vocal track and did some slight EQ tweaks. The drums track was also leveled because it goes up 1.5 decibels during the solo. These jumpy levels are a product of the compressor they used in 1964 during mixing. The jumps got baked into the final mixes. This can can now fixed in the demux stems.

https://go.wetransfer.com/t-XDjZxFiZBv

I was originally going to flip the drums sound-stage (center sounds to the sides, left sounds to the middle) but it pushed the cowbell too far back and that's a big part of the track. So, I did the simpler method of copying the left half to the right to pull the drums to the center. It depends on the track which method is best.

alphabeatles your list is missing When I Get Home. They are all done/redone.
Last edited by Tex on Sun Nov 05, 2023 12:11 am, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by jpa »

Its in my ears now - enjoy very much!
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by Alessandro Rocchi »

Me too, I'm enjoying these mixes very much. Thanks a lot, Lance! 8-)
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Re: Tex's "A Hard Day's Night" album remixes.

Post by jpa »

What were the sources for these wonderful mixes?
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