The Beatles’ remarkable catalog includes just one official live album, and the group’s immense popularity made it unlistenable. The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, recorded in 1964 and 1965 but not released until 1977, was always a frustrating listen. Try as you might, you simply cannot hear much music above the fan-belt squeal of 10,000 Beatlemaniacs.
You can’t blame the Fab Four, nor their legendary producer George Martin. Martin did what he could with the three-track tapes, but the limitations of 1970s technology did little to elevate the music above the din. Boosting the high frequencies—the snap of Ringo Starr’s hi-hat, the shimmer and chime of George Harrison’s guitar—only made the racket made by all those fans even louder.
To get a sense of what the team at Abbey Road Studios did, imagine deconstructing a smoothie so you’re left with whole strawberries, peeled bananas, and ice cubes, then mixing them again from scratch.
All of which makes the remastered version of Live at the Hollywood Bowl especially impressive. The do-over, which coincided with the August release of Ron Howard’s documentary film Eight Days a Week, squeezes astonishing clarity out of the source tapes. You can finally hear an exceptionally tight band grinding out infectious blues-based rock propelled by a driving beat, wailing guitars, and raspy vocals. This album never sounded so lucid, present, or weighty.
“What became apparent when you compared it to what came out in 1977 is how hard Ringo is hitting the drums,” says Giles Martin, George Martin’s son and the producer of the remastered album. “How hard the band were really digging in. We didn’t really know about that before. You take these layers of natural tape effects away to get to the heart of the performance, and when you get there, you actually hear the dynamics.”
Technological wizardry helped uncover the hidden sonics. But don’t think you can just run out and buy the same software to make your crappy Can bootlegs listenable. There’s no checkbox in ProTools to reverse-engineer a lousy recording. To get a sense of what the team at Abbey Road Studios did, imagine deconstructing a smoothie so you’re left with the strawberries, bananas, and ice in their original forms, just so you can blend them again from scratch.
To do that, James Clarke, a systems analyst at Abbey Road Studios, developed a “demixing” process to separate each instrument and vocal track from the cacophony. He isolated everything Ringo, Harrison, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon played and sang, separated it from the din of the crowd, and effectively created clean tracks to remaster. Fittingly, Clarke’s audio-modeling process used spectrograms—imagery you might associate with ghost-hunting—to bring the spirit of these live performances back to life.
“It doesn’t exist as a software program that is easy to use,” Clarke says. “It’s a lot of Matlab, more like a research tool. There’s no graphical front end where you can just load a piece of audio up, paint a track, and extract the audio. I write manual scripts, which I then put into the engine to process.”
Make This Bird Sing
Before tackling the project, Martin told Clarke to take a crack at a track Martin thought might give the engineer fits. “I challenged him with ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ on an acoustic guitar, and I knew just by being a mean, mean bastard that separating acoustic guitar and vocals was going to be the biggest challenge for him,” Martin says. “You have a lot of frequency crossover and distortion of signal path that goes on.”
Clarke passed that test. Then came the real challenge: Working with those three-track source tapes from the Hollywood Bowl to create digital models of each instrument, the vocals, and the enraptured crowd. From there, engineers could tweak each track to create the final mix.
Separating the kick drum and bass guitar proved relatively easy, because low frequencies don’t suffer from crossover with crowd noise. But vocals, guitars, snare drums, and cymbals share the same sonic real estate with the banshee wail of the fans. The Beatles’ virtuosity and consistency helped here. The modeling process involves using samples of each instrument to help the software determine what to look for and pull out into its own track. If the recording didn’t have a clean enough version of the track Clarke wanted to isolate, he used session recordings to build those audio fingerprints. “I went back to the studio versions to build the models,” he says. “They’re not as accurate, as there are usually temporal and tuning changes between playing in the studio and playing live, but the Beatles were pretty spot-on between studio and live versions.”
After creating spectrogram models of each instrument, he loaded the files into what he calls his “little controller program.” A few hours later, it gave him a clean track of the instrument he modeled. All of those tracks went to the mixing engineer.
From the start, Martin hoped to make the recording as lifelike and accurate as possible. “I wanted to know what it was like watching the Beatles play live,” he says.
Clarke’s process could breathe new life into other old recordings. He and Martin say a few other bands have asked them about working a little magic on the live shows in their own archives, though they wouldn’t name names.
Liven It Up
The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl is a live album, and Martin and Clark decided to leave a little crowd noise in, even though Clarke says he achieved “nearly full separation” of the music and the audience. As with Bob Dylan’s 1966 concert at “Royal Albert Hall” and Johnny Cash’s gigs at Folsom and San Quentin prisons, the recording wouldn’t have the same energy without a little cheering and screaming. In the end, the remaster dropped the crowd noise by about 3 decibels. “They could have pushed it a lot further if they wanted to,” Clarke says, “but I think they got it spot on.” After almost 40 years, you can finally hear the Beatles in The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl, and they sound glorious.
Source: https://www.wired.com/2017/03/remastering-one-beatles-live-album-finally-made-great/
And here is another review:
Review: The Beatles, "Live at The Hollywood Bowl"
September 9, 2016 By Joe Marchese
Beatles - Live at the Hollywood BowlAnd now...here they are...The Beatles!
The summers of 1964 and 1965 are now more than fifty years in the rearview mirror, yet the music made by four lads from Liverpool over three evenings at Los Angeles' famous Hollywood Bowl now sounds so fresh and so immediate, you could believe it was recorded yesterday. Such is the work of the sonic wizards on Capitol/Apple/UMe's first-time-on-CD, retitled, remixed and expanded reissue of The Beatles' Live at the Hollywood Bowl (B0025451-02, 2016).
Capitol Records first captured John, Paul, George and Ringo at the venerable Los Angeles bandshell on August 23, 1964 during the height of Beatlemania. The tapes, however, proved to be of less than optimal quality, though the label utilized less than a minute of "Twist and Shout" for the docu-album The Beatles Story. When the Fab Four returned to the venue on August 29 and 30 of the following year, their American label was once again rolling tape, but the finished results once again were deemed inadequate for commercial release.
More than a decade passed before George Martin was enlisted to review the tapes to fill the gaping hole where a live album should have existed in the band's discography. (A reported 1971 attempt by Phil Spector never panned out.) Martin found the August 29, 1965 recording to be the least useable of the three performances, selecting only "Ticket to Ride" and "Help!" from that date as well as part of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy." Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick assembled what was originally titled The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl primarily from the August 23, 1964 and August 30, 1965 tapes, and upon its release in May '77, the group's first ever authorized live album became an instant success.
Despite being the only true live album in The Beatles' catalogue, the album remained lost in the CD era and perhaps best-known for the screams of Beatlemaniacs which very nearly overwhelmed the music. Thanks to the advance of technology, the original record as conceived by the late George Martin can now be enjoyed anew. For sure, the first sound heard on Live at the Hollywood Bowl is that of screaming. The incessant howls continue throughout the entirety of the 17-track release. But what's now a cushion of historically-accurate background noise was once at the forefront, defining the record.
Giles Martin, George's son and his collaborator on The Beatles' LOVE spectacle in Vegas, has produced this new version aided by mixing engineer Sam Okell and remastering engineer Alex Wharton. The wonder of their work is evident from the very first track. "Twist and Shout" - barely a minute and a half long - threatens to explode from the speakers with joyous abandon. Though The Beatles wore no monitors and likely couldn't hear each other onstage, they played like a true, tightly-attuned band with no studio enhancement. Giles Martin's team has lowered the yelps and brought the band forward with remarkable clarity in both vocals and instrumentation. (For the record, Capitol's Voyle Gilmore produced the initial recordings.) The soundstage makes good use of stereo, lending true dimension to the 50+-year old tapes.
The din of the shouting might have proven distracting, but likely it was inspirational as well. Compare the performances here to those on the two volumes of Live at the BBC; without an audience's energy, there's less sheer frisson from the band. The Hollywood Bowl, for a brief half-hour or so each night, became as intimate as the Cavern Club, bringing newly-empowered young fans close to their heroes. In these uptempo, rough and raw live takes of both Beatle originals and tried-and-true covers from Little Richard, Chuck Berry and others, there's no compensating from the band to "fill" the enormous venue - just straight-ahead, unvarnished, potent rock-and-roll.
If anyone ever doubted that the Fab Four could rock as hard as The Stones or The Who, there's ample evidence here, whether Paul's ferocious lead on "She's a Woman," George's garage licks and John's throat-shredding vocals on "Twist and Shout" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," or Ringo's loose and engaging step to the microphone for "Boys." The band modulates the then-new "Things We Said Today" like a three-act play, ratcheting up the excitement with the furious bridge, and makes sure their perfect pop harmonies are intact on "Boys," just to name one. The back-to-back punch of "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!," almost impossibly fresh and throbbing with urgency, reminds the listener even now of why The Beatles changed the game in popular music.
Four newly-remixed bonus tracks not on the 1977 release have been appended for this edition, all of which are as essential as the thirteen core songs. "You Can't Do That" and especially "I Want to Hold Your Hand" crackle with energy. Carl Perkins' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" is a sprightly dose of rockabilly, while the waltzing "Baby's in Black" is about the slowest item on this set.
An attractive 24-page booklet printed on heavy, glossy stock is enclosed within the digipak which, in one of the collection's only missteps, bears the artwork for Ron Howard's upcoming documentary film Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years rather than a Hollywood Bowl-themed cover. (The movie premieres next week, on September 16.) The booklet contains David Fricke's informative and entertaining essay as well as photos, replicas of period articles, and George Martin's liner notes for the original 1977 LP. (Of particular amusement are the concert tickets with a face value of $3.00 and $5.50!)
With this release, Beatlefans (and who isn't?) can check this long-lost LP off their CD wish lists. (A deluxe vinyl edition is also available for pre-order, arriving November 18.) An insert promises the November DVD/BD release of Ron Howard's film about the Fabs' touring years, but Live at the Hollywood Bowl happily stands on its own as a document of an era the likes of which will never be seen again. Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Live at the Hollywood Bowl is available now at the links below:
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Vinyl (due 11/18): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Source: https://theseconddisc.com/2016/09/09/review-beatles-live-hollywood-bowl/
Beatles - Live at the Hollywood BowlAnd now...here they are...The Beatles!
The summers of 1964 and 1965 are now more than fifty years in the rearview mirror, yet the music made by four lads from Liverpool over three evenings at Los Angeles' famous Hollywood Bowl now sounds so fresh and so immediate, you could believe it was recorded yesterday. Such is the work of the sonic wizards on Capitol/Apple/UMe's first-time-on-CD, retitled, remixed and expanded reissue of The Beatles' Live at the Hollywood Bowl (B0025451-02, 2016).
Capitol Records first captured John, Paul, George and Ringo at the venerable Los Angeles bandshell on August 23, 1964 during the height of Beatlemania. The tapes, however, proved to be of less than optimal quality, though the label utilized less than a minute of "Twist and Shout" for the docu-album The Beatles Story. When the Fab Four returned to the venue on August 29 and 30 of the following year, their American label was once again rolling tape, but the finished results once again were deemed inadequate for commercial release.
More than a decade passed before George Martin was enlisted to review the tapes to fill the gaping hole where a live album should have existed in the band's discography. (A reported 1971 attempt by Phil Spector never panned out.) Martin found the August 29, 1965 recording to be the least useable of the three performances, selecting only "Ticket to Ride" and "Help!" from that date as well as part of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy." Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick assembled what was originally titled The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl primarily from the August 23, 1964 and August 30, 1965 tapes, and upon its release in May '77, the group's first ever authorized live album became an instant success.
Despite being the only true live album in The Beatles' catalogue, the album remained lost in the CD era and perhaps best-known for the screams of Beatlemaniacs which very nearly overwhelmed the music. Thanks to the advance of technology, the original record as conceived by the late George Martin can now be enjoyed anew. For sure, the first sound heard on Live at the Hollywood Bowl is that of screaming. The incessant howls continue throughout the entirety of the 17-track release. But what's now a cushion of historically-accurate background noise was once at the forefront, defining the record.
Giles Martin, George's son and his collaborator on The Beatles' LOVE spectacle in Vegas, has produced this new version aided by mixing engineer Sam Okell and remastering engineer Alex Wharton. The wonder of their work is evident from the very first track. "Twist and Shout" - barely a minute and a half long - threatens to explode from the speakers with joyous abandon. Though The Beatles wore no monitors and likely couldn't hear each other onstage, they played like a true, tightly-attuned band with no studio enhancement. Giles Martin's team has lowered the yelps and brought the band forward with remarkable clarity in both vocals and instrumentation. (For the record, Capitol's Voyle Gilmore produced the initial recordings.) The soundstage makes good use of stereo, lending true dimension to the 50+-year old tapes.
The din of the shouting might have proven distracting, but likely it was inspirational as well. Compare the performances here to those on the two volumes of Live at the BBC; without an audience's energy, there's less sheer frisson from the band. The Hollywood Bowl, for a brief half-hour or so each night, became as intimate as the Cavern Club, bringing newly-empowered young fans close to their heroes. In these uptempo, rough and raw live takes of both Beatle originals and tried-and-true covers from Little Richard, Chuck Berry and others, there's no compensating from the band to "fill" the enormous venue - just straight-ahead, unvarnished, potent rock-and-roll.
If anyone ever doubted that the Fab Four could rock as hard as The Stones or The Who, there's ample evidence here, whether Paul's ferocious lead on "She's a Woman," George's garage licks and John's throat-shredding vocals on "Twist and Shout" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," or Ringo's loose and engaging step to the microphone for "Boys." The band modulates the then-new "Things We Said Today" like a three-act play, ratcheting up the excitement with the furious bridge, and makes sure their perfect pop harmonies are intact on "Boys," just to name one. The back-to-back punch of "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!," almost impossibly fresh and throbbing with urgency, reminds the listener even now of why The Beatles changed the game in popular music.
Four newly-remixed bonus tracks not on the 1977 release have been appended for this edition, all of which are as essential as the thirteen core songs. "You Can't Do That" and especially "I Want to Hold Your Hand" crackle with energy. Carl Perkins' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" is a sprightly dose of rockabilly, while the waltzing "Baby's in Black" is about the slowest item on this set.
An attractive 24-page booklet printed on heavy, glossy stock is enclosed within the digipak which, in one of the collection's only missteps, bears the artwork for Ron Howard's upcoming documentary film Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years rather than a Hollywood Bowl-themed cover. (The movie premieres next week, on September 16.) The booklet contains David Fricke's informative and entertaining essay as well as photos, replicas of period articles, and George Martin's liner notes for the original 1977 LP. (Of particular amusement are the concert tickets with a face value of $3.00 and $5.50!)
With this release, Beatlefans (and who isn't?) can check this long-lost LP off their CD wish lists. (A deluxe vinyl edition is also available for pre-order, arriving November 18.) An insert promises the November DVD/BD release of Ron Howard's film about the Fabs' touring years, but Live at the Hollywood Bowl happily stands on its own as a document of an era the likes of which will never be seen again. Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Live at the Hollywood Bowl is available now at the links below:
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Vinyl (due 11/18): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Source: https://theseconddisc.com/2016/09/09/review-beatles-live-hollywood-bowl/