The Beatles’ compilation album ‘1’ has been remastered for spatial audio by Giles Martin, the son of the band’s late producer George Martin.
Giles said in an interview last year that he’s a fan of the immersive 360-degree sound technology Apple Music launched in 2021, as well as the Dolby Atmos it’s built on, but said it doesn’t “sound always enough”. law”.
He revealed he intended to remaster the Beatles’ 1967 album ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, but has since worked on the band’s biggest compilation album Number Ones, released in 2000.
Speaking to Apple Music‘s Zane Lowe about recasting “1” in spatial audio, and how his father laid the groundwork for his interest in pursuing modern audio technology.
“My father was a futurist and loved technology. When I was a kid, he built studios. He built some of the best studios in the world. (He opened AIR Montserrat.) It was one of the most successful recording locations in the 1980s. Elton John, Police, Dire Strait…Earth, Wind & Fire to Paul McCartney…everyone went in this studio. He was always looking for ways to have great sounds,” he said.
“There’s something I remember…when the CDs came he bought one of the first CD players and we were going to his friend’s house for Sunday lunch. He had three CDs, one was a Billy Joel record, there was a classic and a Japanese artist. He went, ‘This is the future of sound. The future is happening. He brought the CD player and the CDs with him and he said these things are indestructible. He banged it against the table, and it broke in the hand!
“The fact is that returning to the search for new paths is essential. The key thing with the Beatles is that when he first served Abbey Road, the golden orb was to research ways to create a perfect facsimile of the recording. When you record, you feel like you’re in a room. What happened with the Beatles, my dad and other people in the world… that’s how you create worlds that don’t exist. Hence ‘Sgt. Peppers’. These are not live recordings. These are things you can only imagine. It is the evolution of sound. It’s not just the technology; it’s also imagination, that’s the key.
He added that it’s not easy to reinvent tracks in spatial audio, especially given the way tracks were recorded, which were at the peak of technology at the time.
“When I walk into a room in Abbey Road I can get a four track. I can press play and I can hear it. How lucky am I and how many people would want to do this; how many people would want to be in that position. If you listen to ‘Ticket To Ride’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Day Tripper’, ‘Paperback Writer’… they rock, they really rock.
“That’s the thing you have to keep in mind the most; you need to make sure it doesn’t look too dissipated. You know you always need that soundstage in front of you, but with head tracking you’re like, “There’s Ringo and he’s playing over there.” It’s pretty cool.
He added: “Records don’t age, we age. We age, the discs keep the same age as the day of the recording. Spatial audio works to make music more engaging and accessible on the latest technology platforms. “You could be with the band with Dolby Atmos.”
Meanwhile, former Beatle Paul McCartney has announced his plans for a North American tour this spring, click here for more info on dates.