What are some of your favorite moments in the Abbey Road Atmos mixes?
“Because” is three tracks of vocal, three tracks of three Beatles singing together. John, Paul, and George sang harmonies together and then did it three times. We also put that back into Studio Two. You get to create this beautiful sound field that wraps around you and you fall into it. It sounds unearthly.
“Sun King” is an interesting example, because you have the crickets in the back. And then the guitar on the [original] record pans left to right. But now in Dolby Atmos, I pushed the sound field further so it comes to the side of you and goes around. You’re dealing with a record that’s been around for 50 years that everyone loves, and no one’s ever said sounded bad. So it’s a bit of a tricky job. But what I like to do is follow what they wanted to do. They panned, so I follow the panning, but we pan around you, as opposed to just side to side. And that’s a really good example of immersive audio.
In “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” you have the organ in the back right. It’s simple, but very striking.
Yeah, it works well in the back. And then of course there’s that white noise in that song that goes on for years. We have that swirling around you. Yeah, that moves around. And again, if I had the whole record swirling around, it would probably make you feel a bit sick. It’s like being in a tornado — you need to be stationary to feel the tornado. If you’re in the tornado, you’re gonna be just moving round and round. You want to be stationary so you can feel the wind around you.
Giles Martin – From The Beatles in Spatial Audio: Giles Martin on How It All Works (rollingstone.com), July 28, 2021
Solid State: The Story of "Abbey Road" and the End of the Beatles
Acclaimed Beatles historian Kenneth Womack offers the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road. In February 1969, the Beatles began working on what became their final album together. Abbey Road introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to the Beatles' sound, and included "Come Together," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun," which all emerged as classics.
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