Leftovers (Optimal Source Series)
While piecing together the OSS series, I've come across some interesting remixes of tracks, some of which I used on the OSS, some not. So, here I've all collected the mixes I didn't use in one place. Some people may prefer these mixes over the ones I chose for the OSS albums, so I've included them here to give listeners a choice. On many of these I've pasted in pieces from other mixes at the beginning and/or end, creating completely unique mixes. That's because many of them come from the Anthology DVD or Love CD, where songs are mostly incomplete or have dialog (or other songs) fading in at the beginning and/or end. There are other mixes out there that are slightly different (e.g. hi-hat intro to "All My Loving"), but the mixes below are very different and have their own merit.
Here is the lineup:
1. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand (MS OOPS + Something New - Stereo remix) - The Mirror Spock remixes contain an OOPsed version of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" with the vocals removed. Since the original Stereo version of IWTHYH had drums/bass to the left guitar on the right and vocals in the middle (a very nice Stereo mix), but the Stereo version of KGMDH had all instruments on the left and vocals on the right (the old, annoying, 2-track stereo mix), I combined the 2, using the MS OOPs with the right channel (vocals only) of KBMDH to create a new Stereo mix of this song.
2. Think For Yourself (Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
3. Nowhere Man (Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
There's not a WHOLE lot Peter Cobin could do with these 2. He separated the vocals; that's about it. Guess EMI couldn't find the original tapes of the instruments to multi-track that.
4. In My Life (Anthology DVD) - Available on the Purple Chick "Rubber Soul", this version blends well with other songs from the Yellow Submarine Songtrack (drums in the middle, vocals in stereo). In fact, I seriously considered including THIS version on the OSS RS, but opted for the US Capitol version, because it sounded a little clearer and had no noise reduction. Still, this is a VERY NICE mix.
5. Day Tripper (DESS PM2 + Anthology DVD) - This is slightly different the version from version I issued on the OSS Past Masters 2. It's actually a little better, and I DO plan to issue another replacement torrent eventually. For now, this is the first time this "fixed" mix is available. The version of the Anthology DVD is completely missing the intro before the singing starts. The stereo imaging and overall sound are very different. So, I had to be pretty creative in rebuilding the beginning using the UK mix from the Ebbetts Past Masters 2.
6. Yellow Submarine (Yellow Submarine Songtrack) - Not sure why they had to remix this one and change it so much for the release of YS on DVD, but they did. There are more sound effects, and the drums are moved to the middle. I think the song lost something when they did that.
7. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
8. With A Little Help From My Friends (Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
9. Lucy IN The Sky With Diamonds (Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
10. When I'm Sixty Four (Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
All songs from Sgt. Pepper. All sound just about as good as the Blue Box, but not better. I preferred to go with the original mixes when the re-mixes weren't noticeably better. Also, the differences in these mixes from the original are pretty slight, anyway. Kind of wish Cobin would have done what they did on the Anthology DVD with "Day In The Life" (which sounds amazing).
11. Magical Mystery Tour (HorZu + Movie MIX) - The 1988 VHS and Laser Disc release of the MMT movie had remixed music in fantastic quality. Here I used pieces of the movie version of MMT and mixed it with the LP version (which is significantly different) to create a "hybrid" version of the 2. It's not that great a mix, but it's pretty interesting.
12. Magical Mystery Tour (Movie + HorZu) - This is the straight 1988 movie version with the very end of the HorZu LP version (so it has a real ending). The source for the movie version was the Purple Chick MMT.
13. Blue Jay Way (Movie + HorZu) - Same as above, this mix is very diffent from the LP. I replaced the very end with the HorZu version, again, so it fades correctly. The movie version was also taken from Purple Chick.
14. Your Mother Should Know (VHS/Movie + HorZu) - Same as above, again, but I pulled this off the VHS movie myself. The version on the PC disc has some problems with the stereo imaging (it seems to flutter from side to side). This mix is stereo, but has the vocals in the middle at all times. Again, I pasted on the end of the HorZu version.
15. I Am the The Walrus (HorZu + Love + Anthology DVD - Mix 2) - This version is similar to the one issued on the OSS MMT (using HorZu and Love at the beginning), but is basically the Anthology DVD version once the vocals start. It's a more modern sounding mix which is very good in its own right...even if it DOES sway pretty far from the original mix in some cases.
16. Hello, Goodbye (Anthology DVD + Blue Album) - This is a more modern mix from the Anthology DVD with the Blue Album at the very end. The stereo separation is identical for the ending, so you may not be able to tell where the edit is at the end.
17. It's All Too Much (Yellow Submarine Songtrack) - A fabulous mix, but too "different" from the original for my tastes. Less distortion, so things are more audible...but I think the heavy distortion is part of the character of this song. Without it, it's VERY different. I didn't have the ability to take the 5.1 surround version from the DVD and remix it (see below), but I'd like to hear someone ELSE do that. Maybe they could restore it to sound more like the original mix.
18. Revolution (Love 5.1 + Blue Album)
19. Back In the USSR (DMM + Love 5.1)
On the regular Love CD, these 2 songs are edited for length. The full-length versions appear only on the 5.1 surround DVD-Audio disc. Here these 2 versions have been ripped from the 5.1 DVD and converted to Stereo. Then the end of one and beginning of the other were appended from other versions to make them complete. The conversion from 5.1 to stereo works VERY well on Revolution, but not so well on BITU (some instruments are hard to hear). Not exactly sure why, as I used a conversion program instead of mixing the 6 channels to 2 myself, and I don't have the equipment to listen to 5.1 surround either. I suppose someone out there could do better, but, to my knowledge, no one has tried. It was a tough choice between this version Revolution and the one from the Blue Album. The Blue Album won for me because it's a LITTLE brighter, but I could see how some may prefer this one as it splits the guitars on 2 channels so you can pick one out of the other.