Artist: The Beatles

Album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Deluxe Anniversary Edition) 24 bit / 96 kHz

From: HDtracks



This write-up seems a little strange for me. I'm used to writing about subjects in which I have experience and expertise. The Beatles? Heck, I was born in 1975 and by that time the band was broken up for five years. It goes without saying that I'm no expert in the music of The Beatles, but I know good sound and more importantly, I'm not tied to a nostalgic sound that's engrained in my head and reminds me of high school. I've listened to all The Beatles' albums many times and have enjoyed them over the years. I recently introduced my five year old daughter to The Beatles. In fact she came down to my listening room while I was jotting down notes about this album, and she identified Paul McCartney from the Sgt. Pepper's album cover on my 27" iMac.

I can't underestimate my lack of feeling for or memory of the original Sgt. Pepper's album. It's great stuff, but I couldn't name a single track from the album if my life depended on it. Sure I know the tracks well, but before writing this I had no idea they were on the Sgt. Pepper's album. All of this matters because it enables me to have an open mind and enables me to sonically analyze and enjoy the album without any baggage.

Hoping to avoid easily avoidable mistakes about the album, I did some research. I found a wonderful interview of Giles Martin talking about who, what, when, where, and why of this new release. All the naysayers will quickly conclude that remixing Sgt. Pepper's in 2017 is all about money. Fine, don't buy it and ignore the facts that I'm about to present and why I think this is the definitive stereo version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.



Who: The Beatles and the son of George Martin, Giles.

What: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Deluxe Anniversary Edition) 24 bit / 96 kHz

When: Available for download from HDtracks December 2017

Where: Abbey Road Studios, London, England



Why: This is the big question that everyone has, including me. The short answer to this question is, because it's possible. The long and much more interesting answer to why remix one of the greatest albums of all time, is because it was possible to create something better than was previously available.

Back in 1967 The Beatles and George Martin were all present for the mono mix of Sgt. Pepper's. The stereo mix was done as an afterthought without any Beatles involved. In addition, due to technological limitations of the four-track system used by The Beatles, the stereo mixes had serious limitations and didn't sound like the album created by the band (details below).



According to Giles Martin, the 2017 remix of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is unlike any previous release from The Beatles. Giles and his team went back to the original tapes, no not the tapes used for the 2009 release or even the original releases of the album. The tapes used for this remix were earlier generations of tapes that hadn't been played for 50 years and were in pristine condition. Because this is a remix, Giles was able to use the tapes of the instruments that were later used to create the final mixes everyone is used to hearing. Using the already mixed tapes, would have made this a simple remaster, not a remix.

Let me try to explain this a bit better.

All other Beatles albums:

A. Instruments were recorded to tape, sometimes one at a time or multiple instruments, in 1966 & 1967.

B. Several tapes were played through a console and the sound was mixed together, with the limitations of the four-track system in use.

C. This mixed sound was output to a master tape, from which all albums of The Beatles were made (including the 2009 remasters).



Sgt. Pepper's 2017 Remix:

A. Instruments were recorded to tape, sometimes one at a time or multiple instruments, in 1966 & 1967.

B: In 2017 Giles Martin used these tapes to create new mixes through the same equipment at Abbey Road, with some technical help from modern day tools.

C. This mixed sound was output to a high resolution 24/96 file and made available for download.



Examples & Sound Quality

Here are my top ten reasons why the 2017 high resolution remix of Sgt. Pepper's is by far the best version of this album to date.

Overall, using the original pristine tapes (not the mixed tapes used for all previous versions) in 2017 enabled better quality to be pulled from the tapes than in 1967. On the definitive mono mix of Sgt. Pepper's, the track She's Leaving Home has the pitch a half-step up from the stereo mix. This higher pitch is how The Beatles wanted it to sound (Paul wanted his voice to sound younger). Remixing enabled Giles Martin to match the pitch from the mono version on the new high resolution stereo version. The original recording of the strings in She's Leaving Home was used to create this new remix, sounding much better than what was available for the 2009 remasters. In the track Lovely Rita, Giles Martin was able to move instruments into the right channel rather than just the left channel because there were no technical limitations from the four-track system used back in 1967. This sounds much more like the mono than the 2009 stereo remasters. There is actually a good sounding kick drum in Lovely Rita's high resolution version because according to Giles Martin, remixing enables him to bring out each player individually and in this case give Ringo a big thump where it should be. On the original mixes, this drum was said to be veiled / pushed down because of the limitations of the vinyl playback medium and not wanting to knock the needle out of the groove (per Giles Martin). On Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Johns voice has really neat sounding ADT (artificial double-tracking). But this was only in the mono version of the album, again because of technical limitations. On the new high resolution version the ADT effect was brought into the stereo version as it should have been all along. Sgt. Pepper's Reprise was remixed to get the organ off to the left side, out of the center. This is how it should have been. Giles used meticulous notes of the recording sessions to closely follow what the band had wanted. Giles doesn't like album clean-ups with modern technology because they don't sound good. He likes the dirt. Thus, the high resolution Sgt. Pepper's isn't one of those poor sounding clean up jobs. It's the definitive version. On A Day in the Life, the strings are much more dynamic because of Giles going back to the original tapes (not master tapes already mixed). Also on A Day in the Life, Ringo's drums are much closer to the mono version. They sound like an explosion rather than the totally flat, zero impact drums on the 2009 stereo remasters. According to Giles, John's voice and George's bass are much deeper and precede on the 2017 remix as well. The 2017 high resolution remix of Sgt. Pepper's like a stereo version of the mono, that The Beatles slaved over, but better.



Other notes, the above list is a mix of technical / objective reasons and subjective reasons such as, it sounds better. There is no accounting for taste, but I believe most music aficionados / audiophiles will prefer this high resolution remix of Sgt.Pepper's. I listened to the album over and over after downloading it from HDtracks. I clicked between the mono and stereo 2009 releases (both 16 and 24 bit), and this new 24/96 version. The difference was immediately apparent and better. This isn't like the difference between putting one's speaker cables on maple blocks versus the floor. This is a real sonic difference that can't be denied. Perhaps some people won't like it, but they can't deny the better sonic quality over the 2009 remasters.

I used to listen to the 24/44.1 stereo version of this album from the green apple USB storage device released in 2009. That was my definitive version. The 2009 mono releases sounded like my dad's music. Something about them just didn't thrill me. Now, in the 24/96 stereo version of Sgt. Pepper's Giles Martin managed to take the artistic direction of the mono versions and create the new definitive version. Not just a remaster, but a remix from the original-original tapes.

Well done.

Technical Note: At 5:05 of track 13, A Day in the Life, there is very loud 16.026 kHz sound that plays for roughly four seconds. The tone is down -10.71 dB and very audible. When I first heard it, I felt like a dog being trained with a dog whistle. This 16k tone is present in the 2009 remaster of the album, but it's closer to -35 dB down and much less audible.

The image at left shows the 16 kHz tone at 5:05 of the track, as does the video below.





Listen to Giles Martin explain the remix and provide examples of why I believe this is the definitive version of Sgt. Pepper's

Where to Buy: HDtracks

Link: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Deluxe Anniversary Edition) 24 bit / 96 kHz