Pre-fame Beatles

[CheeseLord]

Does anyone have any of this stuff, like Cry for Shadow, In Spite of All the Danger, etc. I know alot of it was released on the Anthology, but there is still alot of it out there. It's so good and very underated stuff. Not wishing for any DLC here, just hoping to convince fans who haven't yet heard this stuff to look it up. You won't regret it! It would be cool if they made a dreamscape of them recording there first 45 though....

[Backbeat60-62]

I would like the "pre-fame" Live at the Star Club shows made into DLC, but I know it wont happen. They apparently had a whole other career as a live rock band before their worldwide fame took off after adding Ringo.

[nascarfan19]

I was about about to say Anthology, but then I read the next sentence.......so, besides that, no

I am looking for Tony Sheridan tracks, though

[Malacandra]

I would like the "pre-fame" Live at the Star Club shows made into DLC, but I know it wont happen. They apparently had a whole other career as a live rock band before their worldwide fame took off after adding Ringo.

Given the fact that the Star Club shows were recorded on a home tape recorder with a single microphone, good luck separating the instrument stems!

[JoeSaintsFan]

I was about about to say Anthology, but then I read the next sentence.......so, besides that, no

I am looking for Tony Sheridan tracks, though

Well, remember that one song is on Anthology

[Backbeat60-62]

Given the fact that the Star Club shows were recorded on a home tape recorder with a single microphone, good luck separating the instrument stems!

Uh, if you read the back of the original album, it says that this was already done in the 1970s. They took the original tape, deconstructed each instrument into multi-tracks and then re-equalized and re-mixed it. I happen to like the results. I have air-guitared to the album. It is raw, gritty hard rock.

[beatlesfan99]

Uh, if you read the back of the original album, it says that this was already done in the 1970s. They took the original tape, deconstructed each instrument into multi-tracks and then re-equalized and re-mixed it. I happen to like the results. I have air-guitared to the album. It is raw, gritty hard rock.

I really love that album! It really shows their early Hard Rockin' career. My favorite song on there is Roll Over Beethoven which sounds really cool when played that fast.

[Malacandra]

Uh, if you read the back of the original album, it says that this was already done in the 1970s. They took the original tape, deconstructed each instrument into multi-tracks and then re-equalized and re-mixed it. I happen to like the results. I have air-guitared to the album. It is raw, gritty hard rock.

I have, of course, heard the results. Color me unimpressed.

Given how hard it is to separate tracks - even of excellent quality - using the most digital signal techniques, I doubt that the methods available in the '70s were capable of doing more than moving certain frequencies bands around in a false stereo pan. And that's what it sounds like.

In any case, it's moot. The Beatles themselves hated those tapes getting out there, and sued everyone who ever released them. Harrison said that they were the lousiest quality recordings of the Beatles, ever.

We know that Harmonix needs the blessings of the Beatles and their estates, so it's never going to happen. As you acknowledge.

[Backbeat60-62]

Since I know it'll be hard to read the back of a rare album unless you have a copy of it yourself, I've typed out the text from the back of the album:

"The tape had been recorded with a single microphone at 3 3/4 ips on a Grundig home tape recorder, and the verdict of almost everyone who heard it, including the Beatles, was that the sound quality was absolutely hopeless."

But with something as hot as this, a company called Lingasong Records was formed by the person who had recovered this lost tape, to deconstruct and then reconstruct this tape - said to be one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of the recording industry. The original tape in mono was then painstakingly converted into a 16-track master recording.

"Producer Larry Grossberg, Billboard reported, separated the information track-by-track using Burwen, dbx, and Dolby noise suppressors, UREI compressors and limiters, Orban Parasound and API sibilance controllers, API equalizers, Kepex noise gates, Audio Design spectrum analyzer, and an Orban stereo synthesizer.

"A special group of new Ashley parametric equalizers capable of suppressing frequencies of .05 of an octave was extremely valuable in recouping practically all the rhythm tracks and bringing out substantial lead voices and background vocals when they were apparently drowned out by general extraneous sounds..."

So despite objections by the performers that came too late to court, this release of one of "the Beatles' nightclub performance comes as a fascinating counterpoint to the sounds of Beatlemania at the Hollywood Bowl."

"Pickwick's [subsequent] acquisition of these tapes presented their studio with the same problems faced by the Lingasong people. Fortunately, most of the glaring technical atrocities were remedied by the 16-track transfer and remix. But the vocals were still less than ideally recognizable. Armed with their own battery of equalizers and noise gates, Pickwick's engineers carefully altered the original tonal balance to allow the vocals more prominence in the final mix. We happily present it to you!"

Given the fact that the Star Club shows were recorded on a home tape recorder with a single microphone, good luck separating the instrument stems!

See above!

[Malacandra]

I appreciate the time and effort it took to transcribe all of that.

I know enough about signal processing to realize, though, that the techniques they employed were precisely the ones that I would have expected them to use given the state of the art at that time. And it's not really capable of separating out instruments with any degree of precision.