I did wonder at various points whether I was just kidding myself and this didn't really sound any better than previous efforts. I did listen to them all and compare. In the end I almost didn't hit the "post" button and was going to just put it aside, by thought what the hell. So I'm very relieved to hear that people like it. The bulk of the work was in evening out the vocals so that they are at a (more or less) constant level, because in all the other versions they go up and down "like the bleedin' Assyrian Empire". Also I "shrank" the size of the club by mixing out the most distant reflections which were muddying the sound. In the end I think that went a long way to making it more listenable. It's amazing to me still that things like this are now possible.
Heavens knows what Peter J. and his red hot sound guys will be able to achieve with the original reel... I wait in breathless anticipation.
Well until I do the whole tape, no.
I got a glimpse of that when I was isolating the chat between songs. I tried a "speech" algorithm and, wow, it suddenly sounded like Paul was speaking right there next to me. Unfortunately it is too patchy right now to use and doesn't work on singing but it did give me a premonition of what might one day be possible. Peter J. was talking in that podcast about hypothetically removing all the club ambience and making it sound like a soundboard. That is still in the future but if anyone can do it I think his guys can. Of course, you'd then face the challenge of retaining the clubish power and ferocity of the audience tape. But who knows... we shall see.Egg_Crisis wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 6:42 pm Thanks! It's great how technology keeps on getting better and better. Who knows what the next few years will bring?!
Queenie I had problems with or I would have included it. The other two are okay, they just didn't fit in due to their fragmentary nature. Later on I'll do another disc with the rest of the songs.
I listened to Stowe again and it is interesting to compare it, being so soon after the Star Club. The main difference for me is that the Vox amplifiers give a totally different and more Beatle-y sound (although I guess from the perspective of the original fans, Vox was a relatively late addition to The Beatles sound). I only begun noticing when I was demixing this set that there is something wrong with George's Fender amp. This also reminded me of a quote from Cliff Bennett in the RC article where he said he preferred to use the backstage practice amp because the stage amps were not in good condition through overuse. It sounds like either the speaker cone is slightly damaged or one of the valves is overheating, but George's guitar has a kind of buzzy, slightly distorted sound which is extremely atypical for 1962. Fender amps were then renowned for their very clean sound. As it turned out, this actually makes his guitar sound rather ahead of it's time and more like the kind of guitar sound bands started getting around 1965-66. But from his perspective, he was probably not happy about this in 1962. It may even have had something to do with his hatred of the tape, if it triggered a forgotten memory of having to put up with damaged equipment. Funnily enough John's guitar amp seems fine. It would be just like John to say, "Right, you can have the shitty one, George!"
One thing I missed on the lyrics transcript that I noticed just now: after Paul sings "I know no kiss could bring to mind a taste of honey" John sings "A waste of money!" I think I read about that somewhere once but it's the first time I have ever noticed it.harrythebannister wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 10:34 pm Nice to hear the in between song banter so loud and clear too.