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I enjoy very much the different remixes collected in this forum and elsewhere, but for Rubber Soul I always return to those remixes that have been derived from the 1965 version like the Disque Americ CD, like Bombers previous, or designed to resemble it soundwise. Without the 1965 treble guitar solo, Nowhere Man is not Nowhere Man to my ears. On the other hand, the Lennon voice is often a bit too harsh there, so a compromise keeping the guitar trebly but softening the voice would be desirable.

jpa wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 10:04 am I enjoy very much the different remixes collected in this forum and elsewhere, but for Rubber Soul I always return to those remixes that have been derived from the 1965 version like the Disque Americ CD, like Bombers previous, or designed to resemble it soundwise. Without the 1965 treble guitar solo, Nowhere Man is not Nowhere Man to my ears. On the other hand, the Lennon voice is often a bit too harsh there, so a compromise keeping the guitar trebly but softening the voice would be desirable.

Agree that the 1965 treble guitar solo is essential. However, IMO, the sibilance and overly treble vocals is a deal breaker in the orginal mix.

Bombers_69

"the sibilance and overly treble vocals" - yes that must be the right technical term for what I called "harsh". We really need a version with better vocal, which retains the trebly guitar, and importantly, without the 1987 reverb!

The REDD desk just had bass and treble with an optional 5k boost across the board for 'pop' sessions. The early albums seem to have the 5k boost enabled.

They also used a passive plugin EQ module called a "brilliance box" that offered boost/cut adjustments at 2.7k, 3.5k and 10k. I've found the 2.7 very effective for managing John's vocal harshness and the 10k for managing snare/cymbal/acoustic guitar presence. The 2.7 is also excellent for electric guitar presence. I don't know the actual widths of boosts/cuts you'll have to experiment. I use these points heavily in my own mixes. I read something that the 2.7 may have acted more like 2k or was switched to 2k again just experiment see what sounds better.

Tex wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 4:22 pm The REDD desk just had bass and treble with an optional 5k boost across the board for 'pop' sessions. The early albums seem to have the 5k boost enabled.

They also used a passive plugin EQ module called a "brilliance box" that offered boost/cut adjustments at 2.7k, 3.5k and 10k. I've found the 2.7 very effective for managing John's vocal harshness and the 10k for managing snare/cymbal/acoustic guitar presence. The 2.7 is also excellent for electric guitar presence. I don't know the actual widths of boosts/cuts you'll have to experiment. I use these points heavily in my own mixes. I read something that the 2.7 may have acted more like 2k or was switched to 2k again just experiment see what sounds better.

Looks like Waves makes a plugin - https://www.waves.com/plugins/redd

Bombers_1969 wrote: ↑
Looks like Waves makes a plugin - https://www.waves.com/plugins/redd

If your DAW has the virtual knob EQs you can just set your own points and widths and save that as a preset bank. I hardly use the 8 band equaliser thingy in my DAW except as bass and treble. I don't use Audacity.

Tex wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 4:22 pm The REDD desk just had bass and treble with an optional 5k boost across the board for 'pop' sessions. The early albums seem to have the 5k boost enabled.

They also used a passive plugin EQ module called a "brilliance box" that offered boost/cut adjustments at 2.7k, 3.5k and 10k. I've found the 2.7 very effective for managing John's vocal harshness and the 10k for managing snare/cymbal/acoustic guitar presence. The 2.7 is also excellent for electric guitar presence. I don't know the actual widths of boosts/cuts you'll have to experiment. I use these points heavily in my own mixes. I read something that the 2.7 may have acted more like 2k or was switched to 2k again just experiment see what sounds better.

I'm sure I read somewhere (a Paul quote?) that for the Nowhere Man guitar solo they had the channel it was being mixed through on 'full treble', and then that was routed to another channel also on 'full treble'.

So they ended up with 'full treble' X 'full treble'.

Very cool--thanks for this!

slane wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 4:23 pm

I'm sure I read somewhere (a Paul quote?) that for the Nowhere Man guitar solo they had the channel it was being mixed through on 'full treble', and then that was routed to another channel also on 'full treble'.

So they ended up with 'full treble' X 'full treble'.

Yup, Paul from the 1987 interview with Lewisohn that prefaced the Recording Sessions book. Though rather than route to another channel he said "put through another set of faders" or something. Apparently Paul's fear that his inspiration will be gone if he learns music theory also extends to proper recording terminology.

By far the best way to EQ a song is with EQ Match or Spectral Editing in the iZotope RX series. In Spectral Editing, you can select the frequency, bandwidth & amount of boost or cut easily & then preview the results. You can also easily see what has been boosted or cut by just looking at the Song's Spectrum before doing anything.

This will also eliminate your ear's effect which can very greatly from person to person by just looking at the actual Spectrum of a song. I use it all the time as my ear's are very poor now due to my age of 74 & severe Tinnitus. You can also use it to select the best source & tell if the song has been sourced from a poor mp3, radio or heavy noise reduction added once you learn what to look for in the Song's Spectrum.

EQ Match works well if you have a song that you really like the EQ on by loading the song into RX, select EQ match, Then have it learn the EQ & Store it. Then you can easily transfer that EQ to any song by using that EQ learned curve & then Render it to the song you want corrected. I used the EQ of a later Kink's song on the earlier Kinks songs that had very poor EQ IMO & was amazed how much better they sounded in just one step with EQ Match!

Rog