THE BEATLES REMIXERS GROUP
Tuned to a Natural E Vol. 1
Welcome to Tuned To A Natural 'E', a collection of remixed and reworked Beatles songs created by members of the Beatles Remixers Group. For this first volume, ten members have contributed their time and talent so that you may hear these familiar songs presented in a completely different manner. You'll also be treated to a few new and exciting original mixes. As instigator of this project, my job was to sort through over one hundred submissions and select a good sampling of styles and ideas and arrange them in a somewhat cohesive and listenable manner. You'll get a little of everything here, from trance to oops, from Nero to 5.1, forward, backwards, looped and more. But if you get some joy and a few smiles out of it, as I did when I first heard many of these tracks, then I'll know it's been worthwhile. -VM
1. IT WON'T BE LONG (YEAH) - FerBeat 0:46 Mono
A nice opener, a glimpse of what's to come. "A little game with this song with the yeahs of Paul and without John."
2. LOVE ME DO - Mirror Spock 2:18 Stereo
Three tracks in this collection were donated by Mirror Spock. "I invented an experimental new technique for making stereo from mono; stereo-ized versions of songs for which there are only mono masters and no multi-tracks."
3. KOMM, GIB MIR DEINE HAND - Dauber 2:24 Stereo
"I figured I'd do this one since every so often there's a brief trend of centering vocals." Not the only stereo version of this song available, but I selected it for inclusion based on how well it oopses.
4. P.S. I LOVE YOU - Mirror Spock 2:02 Stereo
Another experimental stereo track from MS who reveals they were "made by separating frequency components by generating a stereo template made by comparison to an alternate version of the song. These alternate versions are not used in the final result, just used to separate components of the source."
5. SHE LOVES YOU - Pen Guh Win 2:18 Stereo
A tour-de-force of syncing. "This one took a billion hours and every trick in the book. The cv and 'Sie Liebt Dich' were the sources, but I had to sync them beat-by-beat."
6. I'LL GET YOU - Mirror Spock 2:03 Stereo
The last of the three MS tracks. Spock concludes his comments with: "The alternate versions employed were the Pete Best version of 'Love Me Do', and BBC tracks of 'P.S. I Love You' and 'Love Me Do.'"
7. I WANNA HOLD YOUR MIX - TradeStarr 1:17 Stereo
A bizarre mix replacing most of the words from the original track with bits lifted from dozens of other Beatles recordings. "A special thanks to my man Elliot for flipping through my 'Complete Beatles' to help find the right words and phrases."
8. BELL TRANCE - TradeStarr 3:29 Stereo
With the opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night" ringing throughout like a bell, here's a contemporary trance mix of various Beatles sounds. TradeStarr's mixes were all done on a G4 with SoundEffects and Sound Studio 2.1.1.
9. THINGS WE SAID TODAY - VM 2:32 Stereo
Sourced from the Anthology extractions, this mix combines the oops of the FL and FR channels with a blended mix of the SL and SR channels. About 30 seconds into the track the fun begins. Soon after, you're treated to McCartney's beguiling contra-harmony.
10. LEAVE MY KITTEN ALONE - VM 2:21 Stereo
Again from the Anthology extractions, this is simply the FL and FR channels combined to make a nice stereo instrumental track. Always one of my favorite Beatles rockers, this version focuses on the intense instrumental performance.
11. ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC - Pen Guh Win 2:30 Stereo
Another svelte editing and blending job here. This track uses the Anthology isolations filled out and completed with bits flown in from the cv to create a "naked" version of the song sans piano.
12. YOU'RE GONNA LOSE THAT GIRL - FerBeat 2:17 Stereo
Deftly manipulating the Anthology extractions to eliminate the piano and bongos, the result is a vocally compelling version of this sweet Lennon track. "To my ears and my vision, this naked version is pure Beatle gold, the essence of the early Beatles song."
13. I'M LOOKING THROUGH YOU - N. Romero 2:22 Mono
The first of three remarkable selections from "Rubber Soul." In all cases the tracks were manipulated with Nero6 to greatly reduce the ambient vocals found on the commercial version.
14. WAIT - N. Romero 2:11 Mono
A nearly perfect elimination of ambient vocals from this "Rubber Soul" track. "Essentially they're based on putting the cv through the karaoke filter in Nero Wave Editor and then oopsing the result with the cv again."
15. IF I NEEDED SOMEONE - N. Romero 2:19 Mono
Emphasizing the Byrds' influence on this track, this is the instrumental backing brought forward after processing the song with Nero 6. "On some tracks where there was no dead center, I put a skewed version through Nero (i.e. dropping the volume in one channel).
16. RAIN - Rueda 2:58 Stereo
A stunning mix focusing on lead and backing vocals, accompanied only by the bass guitar and tambourine. Listen closely for background humming, noise and chatter.
17. HEY BULLDOG - VM 3:08 Stereo
The FL and FR channels from Kaleidoscope. I've always thought this was one of the boys' heaviest rockers, and this version emphasizes the strong instrumental performance of the song.
18. BEST OF RINGO DRUM MIX - TradeStarr 2:54 Stereo
A potpourri of Ringo-ism's. "As we know, Ringo hated drum solos and was only convinced to do one in 'The End' (literally and figuratively). I went through every CD and picked out all the little 'drumletts' I could find." Can you identify each one?
19. RAINNIAR - SB 2:56 Stereo
"Starting with the two 'one-channel stereo' mixes from 'Revolver Rains Again,' I reversed selected passages on the isolated vocal tracks then recombined the two different mixes by first converting to mono then combining them back into one stereo mix." Hint: use the headphones on this one!
20. BEATLE TRANCE (RAIN MIX) - FerBeat 1:29 Mono
"Another little game, this time with 'Rain,' only the 'Past Masters' version, cut and paste and all of that." Our third "Rain" entry, this one seemed to fit in fine as a coda to the previous track.
21. TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS - SB 2:53 Stereo
This version reverses most of the backwards elements of the song including the guitar solo. "I used Nero to separate the song into its left, right and center components, in order to be able to edit the backwards passages individually. Then I reassembled it all."
22. MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR - Rueda 2:45 Stereo
With this percussion heavy drums-and-guitar mix, this track loses some of the pretense of the original recording and stands out as a decent little rocker.
23. I AM THE WALRUS ORCHESTRAL MIX - VM 4:21 Stereo
Oopsing the FL & FR channels and the SL & SR channels from "Five Point Wonderful" created this stereo orchestral mix of the song. One of George Martin's most brilliant contributions to the Beatles canon is showcased here in all its glory.
24. PENNY LANE - Rueda 2:57 Stereo
This remix reduces the woodwinds and emphasizes the drums and brass accents, giving the song a bit more edge.
25. MRS. MUCH - VM 0:43 Mono
An oops of the FL & FR channels of the opening bit to "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" from "Five Point Wonderful." The artifacts here are due to the DTS decoded extractions from the DVD.
26. I WILL - BH 1:44 Mono
This oopsed version brings forward McCartney's precocious vocalized bass line.
27. OLD BROWN SHOE - BH 2:59 Mono
An oops of the demo version on "Anthology 3" emphasizing George's double-tracked guitar parts.
28. I AM THE WALRUS - FerBeat 4:37 Stereo
Down and dirty with drums and vocals, this mix is the ribald counterpart of the orchestral mix presented earlier. "The main body is the Anthology version but full of bits and pieces from FPW and an mp3 of the King Lear original radio transmission. The song every Beatles fan wants to remix. Here is mine."
29. EVOLUTION TAKE 5 - SB 3:57 Mono
A remixer's version of "Revolution 9" and a lot more fun to listen to than the original. "A mish-mash of backwards Beatles music and forward speech taken mostly from the 'Think For Yourself' rehearsal."
30. I ME MINE - Dauber 2:25 Stereo
A sweet blend of two oopsed versions of this song. "It is simply an oops of the 'Let It Be...Naked' and 'Let It Be' versions, synced together to create a stereo oops version."
Unlisted bonus tracks:
31. TUNED TO A NATURAL E - SB 0:56
32. ALL MY LOVING - Pen Guh Win 2:05
33. HELA HEBA HELLO - FerBeat 0:37
Tuned to a Natural E Vol. 2
1. I SAW HER STANDING THERE - JK 2:49 Stereo
I used various elements from the Studio 2 Sessions bootleg to create this mix. After pitch-correcting the "best" take (take 1), I took the fragment of unaccompanied clapping from take 11 and manually sequenced it. Before mixing, I edited Paul's "one, two, three, four" count-in from take 9. I then mixed all the elements together with the bass eq'd to the center to provide as much balance as possible. Finally, I added a bit of stereo reverb to each track to tie the soundstage together and approximate that Studio 2 sound.
2. MONEY - SB 2:46 Stereo
I wanted to highlight the tight performance of the rhythm section, which is why it's centered instead of on the far left, and mixed a bit louder than the vocals. Nero's indispensable karaoke filter was used to separate the tracks, and I mixed it in CEPro.
3. HOLD ME TIGHT - VM 2:29 Stereo
A lot of hand editing here. I made one pass through the vocal track to isolate Paul's lead vocals, and a second pass to isolate John & George's backing vocals, all with plain old volume control. Then I took the instrumental track, delayed it by about .1 second between R and L, to create a stereo-ish effect. Finally I mixed the vox back in to create the call-and-answer stereo image.
4. LONG TALL SALLY - FAB4JOHN2000 2:01 Stereo
The famous "Taylor and Daddy Mix." My son (6 yrs. old) and I took the Left side of the oopsed FL and FR channels of "Five Point Wonderful" and panned it hard Left. Then, panned the Center channel hard Right. The result is what it may have sounded like to The Beatles themselves before overdubs (piano) and vocal (reverb) processing
5. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER - SB 2:20 Stereo
Here are John's vocals mixed with the instrumental version from the U.S. AHDN album. I isolated the vocal track with Nero, then matched up the tempos in Sound Forge, then mixed and adjusted it in CEPro. What they might have sounded like had the Beatles been a big band jazz combo.
6. KANSAS CITY - FerBeat 2:45 Stereo
For this remix I took the stereo version from the MFSL disc and the Anthology track. There’s a different introduction and the end is the one from Anthology. In the right channel is the stereo version oopsed and in the left is the left channel of the same version. I added parts from the Anthology here and there.
7. DR ROBERT - SB 2:11 Mono
A combination of volume skewing, oopsing and Neroing which I don't quite remember, but it resulted in some clean single-tracked vocals and missing instruments. The highlight here is the clean "well, well, well, you're feeling fine" section which allows you to fully appreciate the choral arrangement of the vocals.
8. AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING - NR 2:19 Stereo
I used Nero and Cool Edit to extract channels from Revolver cv mix and Anthology DVD 5.1 mix. Then I combined the extracted elements in Wavelab, using its pitch and time-stretch tools. I used vocals, percussion and a guitar fill from Revolver cv. The backing vocals, bass, rhythm track and separated twin lead guitars are from Anthology.
9. I WANT TO TELL YOU - BM 2:20 Mono
I always loved this song apart from the horrible plinka-plinka-plinka piano part. This is an attempt to replace the piano with the much better sounding guitar part. Putting the voices on one track, music on the other, I completely cut out the piano, and tried to fill the gaps with the guitar.
10. I'M ONLY SLEEPING - BM 3:51 Stereo
After failing to isolate the backwards guitar, I decided to take small snippets of it and place them throughout the song. In this version it's very spacey, the clips aren’t intrusive, until the end where I threw them all in together.
11. YELLOW SUBMARINE - FerBeat 2:33 Stereo
Sometimes less is more, as in this remix. I wanted to emphasize the vocals of the boys and the effects to get a new version. I used the "Five Point Wonderful" set as a source again. Here you can very plainly hear the background effects created in the studio for this song.
12. ONLY A NORTHERN SONG - FerBeat 3:14 Stereo
I always like all the buried sounds in this song, the idea was bringing them to the front. Unfortunately "Five Point Wonderful" only offered approx 2:20 of the song. The end was shaped by taking the original "Yellow Submarine" and the songtrack songs, karaoke them both and put one on the left and the other on the right.
13. STRAWBERRY FIELDS SUITE - BM 6:09 Stereo
After asking the good folks in the BRG which software was needed to get into this remixing thing, I ended up with Adobe Audition 1.5. This "suite" was my first attempt at anything, I used it to find out how to operate the damn programme!
14. HEY STRAWBERRY BULLDOG - FerBeat 2:40 Stereo
Well, it's a little game.. I took the end of the Anthology version of SFF, looped it and superimposed over it a vocal of "Hey Bulldog". Then I added some noises from both songs all over it. I like the end and how the solo of "Hey Bulldog" fits with the Strawberry coda.
15. NOTICED I WAS LATE - SB 1:38 Mono
The phrase "noticed I was late" caught my ear while I was doing track isolations on A Day In The Life. Using only the vocal track from the middle "woke up" section, I switched around most of the phrases, making "noticed I was late" the hook. For the ending I added on the left channel isolation of the same part, where there's a pretty nice jam happening.
16. YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW - NR 1:42 Stereo
I used Nero & Cool Edit to separate the elements of the Anthology CD mix: drums, lv, harmonium and tack piano. Then I ripped tracks from the Anthology DVD 5.1 mix to provide bass, piano, organ, bvs and bass. Start & end bvs were extracted from MMT cv with Nero and eq'd to try and match the DVD ones. All the elements were lined up in Wavelab and timestretched in sections so they (almost) fit together.
17. IT'S ALRIGHT - SB 1:36 Stereo
Another attempt to create a new song from an old familiar one, this is a guitar loop from "Here Comes The Sun" with guitar and vocal samples mixed in. Nero, Sound Forge and CEPro were used as usual.
18. BLACKBIRD'S SON - SB 2:45 Stereo
This was a reaction to first hearing mashups and wanting to do one of my own, but Beatles only. The "Mother Nature's Son" guitar track is the background, over which I added pitch-changed vocals and bird sounds from Blackbird, and horn and guitar samples from MNS.
19. DEAR PRUDENCE - SB 5:04 Stereo
The main body of the song was created entirely by volume balance skewing and oopsing in Sound Forge, then pairing different oopsed tracks to make new stereo mixes. I couldn't decide which of three different versions I liked better, so I edited them all together. The intro was made using Nero to isolate the guitar parts, Sound Forge to cut them up, and CEPro to mix them all together.
20. LADY MADONNA - JK 2:20 Mono
Lady Madonna (vocal/piano/drums mix): My source for this mix was the Anthology 2 CD version. I separated the left and right stereo channels and from the right channel used only the vocal sections, editing out the other elements as they appeared. I then mixed the two tracks to mono, adjusting the vocal levels as necessary.
21. REVOLUCINATION - VM 6:06 Stereo
The first challenge was finding a pitch and tempo that worked without frazzling either version of the song with too much digital artifacting. Then came editing Rev to fit the arrangement of Rev 1, followed by the tedious task of syncing bar by bar, snare to snare. Then I looped a chunk of the last part to allow room for drop-ins. Then came the task of analyzing the entire "Chaos" disc for appropriate bits to add to the mix. Finally I added in various bits from Rev 9. This multi-track session needed 11 tracks to complete.
22. INSTANT KARMA - Pen Guh Win 3:14 Stereo
A quick 'n' dirty remix from the Lennon Legend DVD. I "restored" the isolated vocal track to it's previously echoey self.
23. SMILE AWAY HORNS MIX - VM 3:57 Stereo
I've experimented with this idea a few times and finally got it right. It's a tempo and pitch match of the Thrillington version time-synced with the Ram cv version. I wish I could eliminate the squonky horn, other than that it works completely.
Tuned to a Natural E Vol. 3
1. Fine Madonna - VM
A mash-up of Fine Line and Lady Madonna. I took the C channel of LM from Five Point Wonderful, pitch and tempo adjusted it, chopped it up and laid it over the L and R isolated channels of Fine Line (thanks SB!). The LM vocals are a bit louder than I would have liked, but that's to help mask the residual vocals in the first part of FL.
2. Ain't She Standing There - Ferbeat
A mash-up of Ain't She Sweet and I Saw Her Standing There. Because these two songs have different structures, I had to play a little with the vocals. I enjoy the screaming part, and the end sounds great!
3. Mr Moonlight - VM
This version combines Lennon's cv lead vocals with the August 14, 1964 take presented on Anthology 1. The highlight here is the combination of the backing vocals from both sessions, split wide L & R, resulting in a double-tracked effect. Lennon's intro is double-tracked as well. The original idea was to make an organ-less version of this song.
4. I'm Down - FerBeat
Processing this song I found that I could bring up the harmonies of the boys. So on one side we have Paul's vocals and on the other we have the harmonies. I like John's low voice at the end.
5. Slow Down - SB
The piano didn't seem to add much to the song, so I removed it to bring up the rhythm section, particularly John's guitar.
6. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away - FerBeat
I like the way it confuses you in the beginning. A loop from Two of Us, another loop with the Sgt Pepper's drums, little Indian pieces here and there and the superb voice of John!
7. We Can Work It Out - SB
On the cv it sounds like one keyboard all the way through, but it's not. For the verses I used the isolated right channel from FPW's FLFR track, which is the final overdub of Paul's second vocal and John's second keyboard, without any of the previous backing. The middle eight is from the SLSR track, with the first vocal and keyboard overdubs.
8. 12 - Bar Unoriginal - SB
I tried to make this one a little more interesting by adding in some vocals and other assorted sounds, including three different methods attempting to replicate ADT on three of the between-vocals guitar parts.
9. I've Just Seen A Face - VM
Using SB's iso's culled from the Rubber Soul 5.1 project. I did some cut-and-paste trickery, looping the maracas where needed. I left the middle-8 as a rhythm part because I think it cooks along mightily with only the maracas supplementing the basic rhythm track.
10. Paperbaa - FFJ
My first exposure to Nero was with Mirror Spock's Mixing Impossible. I used the "Music" disc to isolate John's vocal and I mixed it with the instrumental track. It's amazing how you can notice how out-of-tune some of the backing harmonies are on this record. It really shows a "human" side to our "super heroes."
11. Love You To - SB
The guitar or bass is buried on the original mix, but stands out on the YS Songtrack remix, and the second sitar part is much clearer as well.
12. I'm Only Sleeping - FFJ & VM
FFJ: The main problem with mixing the Anthology instrumental with the CV vocals was that the Anthology version never went to the middle break. All I needed was a D minor chord to open the middle part. So, by pitching and time compressing the 1st chord of the verse (E minor) I was able to complete the backing for the whole song. VM: FJJ didn't have a great source for the vocals, so I used one of SB's extractions and synced the vocals to the instrumental backing.
13. Here There and Everywhere - SB
This track resulted from trying to remove all the vocals from the basic take, but it ended up mostly removing the ADT effects as well as the second vocal.
14. Submarine Party - BM
An elongated version of the song with various dialogue and sound effects added in to give the impression of a grand soiree onboard the Yellow Submarine.
15. For No One - SB
The cv right channel instruments spread to all three channels by syncing up the cv with some of the FPW tracks and canceling out the vocals and other instruments, how take 10 might have sounded prior to the reduction mix.
16. The Void Never Knows - ASR
A combination of the original version of Tomorrow Never Knows, called The Void, and the vocal track from the final version.
17. Across The Universe - DR
A combination of the LIB Naked track and the original Phil Spector produced mix.
18. When I'm Sixty-Four - SB
The basic take with vocal, with the bell edited off of the vocal track. A reconstruction of the SI onto take 2.
19. Happiness Is A Warm Gun - Ferbeat
I used all the versions of this song I could find to see what I could do with them, showing some hidden parts that were left buried in the mixes.
20. Something - JK
Focusing on George Martin's glorious string arrangement.
21. Pity Jude - SB
Quite a few hours syncing this one, I did it in two parts, volume balancing the fade was the toughest part
22. The End MegaMix - VM
I wanted to focus the first part on Ringo's drumming so I included a thumping bass drum loop while other drum parts are presented. I threw in a couple of references to "The End" from SPLHCB Reprise and Run For Your Life. The A7 - D7 jam was looped, leaving it wide open to drop in bits and pieces. I tried to hit all phases of the Beatles' career, and used "1" as a primary source of many of the vocal bits.