All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary sets due to be announced tomorrow

One of the first albums I ever brought. I could use a new copy. 

tomcy6

Thank You for posting this information on a classic album.
This is going to become a great year for 50th anniversaries on our fave albums.

Happy Listening!

I just discovered this album this year. I must have played it about 50 times. A big Beatles fan.

@jafant A lot of classic albums released around 50 years ago. Stuff people will listen to 200 years from now.

Been a lot of “50th” releases over the past few years ... damn we are getting OLD 😢

My (original) looks well-worn ... will be interested in the SQ reports of the remix/remaster ... 

I did buy the Sgt. Peppers, bought Cd version and won the vinyl version of White Album, but passed on Let It Be. Now we are into the Beatles respective solo careers ... did get one of the recent Lennon Imagine versions ... @yyzsantabarbara at this rate we will be seeing REISSUES for 200 years 😜

Just ordered, thank you!!

Anytime I play Wah Wah from the album, the awful SQ makes me feel wah wah.

Otherwise, timeless album. I'll just keep playing my period press.
I wonder just how much better this copy is
https://better-records.com/products/harriallth_2105?_pos=2&_sid=bc1c5c44d&_ss=r

This guy has mastered the art of "sell the sizzle" and not the steak, in his descriptions of albums. 

Phil Spector made an awful mess of that album. . . call me cynical but I'd be surprised if much could be done to significantly improve it. . . 

I can stand to listen to the MoFi Gold disc of Layla and my Japanese SHM of Exile On Main Street (with the treble rounded off using Schiit Loki), to mention a couple other classics with poor SQ but I haven't found a version of ATMP that's listenable. 

It would be great if I'm proven wrong, but I'll be shocked if that's the case.  

Just checked out the official description that include this nugget:  "The new mix transforms the album by sonically upgrading it – making it sound brighter, fuller and better than ever before".

Since when is "brighter" a good thing when it comes to CDs?  Maybe this is designed to compensate for Boomer generation hearing losses but I'm 65 and the two versions of ATMP that I've bought and promptly gotten rid of were both plenty bright.  I don't view this as an encouraging sign. 

Per Dhani and Hicks:

George Harrison’s ’All Things Must Pass’: Inside New Reissue - Rolling Stone

I guess we’ll find out if we like it in August when it’s released.

A couple samples from youtube;

https://youtu.be/NvoEtEx95tk

The original CD release of ATMP was very dull and washed out. The release with the colored front album art was better. It’s one recording that needed a little sharpening up. Could be a good thing here if done well. Digital remastering has come a long way and done some nice things in  recent years with older Beatles recordings.

Have the original and the 2000? remaster. Would be interesting to compare all three.

slaw

I,too, own the original CD, the 2000 remaster with color cover in 3-D.
I am excited to compare all 3 as well. 

stuartk

Thank You for the extra information. All of these "new" mixes are geared toward the Server/Streamer generation. Let's hope the 50th edition is not overly compressed?

Happy Listening!

yyzsantabarbara

Yes! another exciting year (1970) for Classic Albums turning the big 5-0.

Happy Listening!

1971: corrected.

From the Rolling Stone article: 

 “You want to be respectful of the original,” says Hicks. “Dhani and I hate the expression ‘de-Spectorizing.’ That’s not the point of this project.”

Too bad-- that's exactly what I believe it needs! 

The article goes on: 

"In addition to celebrating the album’s 50th anniversary, Dhani Harrison says one of the goals of tweaking the mix is to make the album more sonically friendly to a new generation. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” he says. “But these mixes have to be able to stand up alongside contemporary music and with headphones. The original mixes sound flimsy on a playlist. These mixes will give this album so much more longevity with a younger generation.

Seems to me what the the "new generation" cares about most is convenience-- they're happy with Mp3's. Dhani's aim to render ATMP "more sonically friendly" for folks who don't care about SQ to begin with doesn't strike me as a recipe for satisfiying the ears of audiophiles!

It’s going to be louder for sure and will hopefully hold up and sound good.  If ever there was a recording that needed a modern remix it’s ATMP. 

Well, we'll see. . . 

On my cheap HK computer speakers, this sounds less muddy than versions I've heard so far: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWV4pFV5nX4

@stuartk 

"Seems to me what the the "new generation" cares about most is convenience-- they're happy with Mp3's. Dhani's aim to render ATMP "more sonically friendly" for folks who don't care about SQ to begin with doesn't strike me as a recipe for satisfiying the ears of audiophiles!"



Good call.

At least going by the reaction curve on the Steve Hoffman forum where the usual initial high expectancy has now tapered off to a gradual disappointment.

Yet again.

Sometimes I get the impression that deep down we audiophiles seem to be a childlike optimistic lot. Always hoping to rediscover that elusive magic.

Unfortunately for us the music industry doesn't work like that.

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/george-harrison-all-things-must-pass-50th-anniversary-edition...

According to Bobby Whitlock who played on the LP the original came out sounding just the way George and Phil wanted it too. That big sound they got made it a massive hit. When Harrison left Spector his sound and sales fell untill he turned to Jeff Lynn who also used the big sound approach.
Remix, remasters are usually other people's  interpretation of what the music should sound like and wanting to keep it in the public eye for financial reasons.

Dhani Harrison and Klaus Voormann in a Rolling Stone article:

Equally fascinating, the core All Things Must Pass has been subtly remixed — both to bring added sonic clarity to Spector’s lovingly dense and echo-heavy arrangements and to adhere to Harrison’s own wishes before his death in 2001. “He hated the reverb,” Dhani says. “He said this to me a million times: ‘God, that reverb!’” Voormann also recalls Harrison making similar comments to him years later about the multiple overdubs: “I remember him saying, ‘It’s too much,’” Voormann says.

George Harrison’s ’All Things Must Pass’: Inside New Reissue - Rolling Stone

@tomcy6:

Some "added sonic clarity" would be most welcome ! ! ! 

@stuartk, 

Yes it would.  Early reports are that it comes with a healthy dose of compression, unfortunately,.  Give it a listen with an open mind and make up your own mind, as always.

tomcy6

which 50th package did you purchase? CD or LP?

Happy Listening!

@jafant My freak out that my COAX driver on my Thiel CS3.7 was damaged after listening to ATMP the last 2 days may have been too quick to judgement. Yesterday, after I listened to the song HEAR ME LORD on disk 2 of the 50th anniversary release on TIDAL MQA 192khz. I was getting distortion only on this song at the 39 second mark when George starts humming. The rest of the disk sounded fine.

I played this track about 10 times last night and it happened every since time. Though it was not that much of an issue on my KEF LS50 or RAAL SR1a headphones. There was something there but not as ugly as on the Thiel CS3.7.

Well today I am playing this fabulous disk again (stream) on my Thiel CS3.7 and HEAR ME LORD has no problems.

So my take away is that to not use streaming to evaluate the health of my speakers.

yyzsantabarbara

I have the 5-CD set ordered. Yes, I concur, streaming has a digital glare to my ears. Good to read that Tidal was the culprit. 

Happy Listening!

@jafant, I’ve got the 5CD set but I’m not at home to listen to it .

I listened to the remixed album through a sound bar with sub streamed from Amazon Music and I liked it. The vocals and some of the instruments were pulled out of the wall of sound and spotlighted a little.

If you go to the Steve Hoffman Music threads that I linked in my OP, the dynamic range (DR) has been checked and all the stereo digital versions have been compressed, but it doesn’t sound ’in your face’ like the Stones’ Blue and Lonesome, for example. Some of the reverb has been removed and it sounds clearer.  The bass has been boosted and sounds boomy on some tracks (maybe all?).  That bothers some people and probably has some effect on the lower DR numbers.

Of course there are people who as soon as they saw the DR numbers said they wouldn’t buy it. Kind of like georgehifi here. The reaction over there has been largely positive. People really like the demos and outtakes too. So from what I’ve heard and read it’s a successful remix. YMMV, of course.

It sounds better to me!

ozzy

I've heard the remix and find there to be a heavy emphasis on bass with the vocals sounding very dry. To me, it appears that Dhani has attempted to "modernize" the sound instead of tastefully improving it. I'll stick with the 2014 remaster as my "go to" version, while keeping the 2001 remaster as an interesting artifact of how George tried to effect what he thought was better sound to his work.

I started listening to it on Qobuz and think it sounds great. 

tomcy6

Thank You for the follow up. I will have a few versions on CD to compare.

Happy Listening!

I purchased the Uber set. The demos & outtakes are fantastic.
The ATMOS mix seems to have the highest DR of all the versions at 11.
I like it for what it is. Another version but with enough difference to keep me interested. I also have the 2010 Hi res download (fantastic) as well as the 2017 vinyl with 2014 copyright. Amazingly quiet and flat pressing. 

I wish the out-takes/unreleased material would be offered separately. I doubt it will be---that material is part of what is selling the 5 and 8-LP boxsets, and the expanded CD boxset.

In his Analog review Fremer didn't seem to like the new remix, remaster. Check his review before you spend your money.