The Beatles, Abbey Road 50th anniversary reissue

Hifi - 2020.02.26
the beatles George Martin nagra Abbey roads tapes
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Following the release of :
The Beatles, Abbey Road 50th anniversary reissue
A super opportunity to listen again and again to The Beatles.
While I was reading George Martin’s fascinating biography, the following part actually stroke me as so accurate for us who do love music and sound, thus often being referred to, today, as audiophile.
Maybe this idiom was not fashionable when George Martin wrote his book, he is referring to « Hi-Fi buff ».
I believe George Martin’s thoughts are very much true today and also a good deal to reflect upon for both musicians, sound engineers and record producers as well as Hi-Fi Buff or audiophiles.

George Martin with Jeremy Hornsly
“All you Need is Ears”
St. Martin’s Press New York

Book
Page 75

“The real hi-fi buff, of course, does know a lot about acoustics. He will study recordings in great depth, far more than I do – but then, I am not a hi-fi buff. He will have special speakers in his living-room, and make everything subservient to that. He’ll put the chairs in special positions, and he’ll make sure the carpets is the right size and depth and so on. I’m sure his wife has a terrible time. …
…if people get their kicks that way, it’s fine by me, and as a producer I have to cater for them. It’s easy to sneed at them, but in a way they are our pioneers. We have to think of them when we’re making records, and thank goodness we do, because without them we would still have rotten sound. Pick up a copy of The Gramophone and look at the reviews of the latest recordings. Today, standards, generally have become so high that if the critic is to differentiate between one record and another he must go into these technical factors. He may have been listening to two different performances of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto and he’ll write something like: “This one has a lovely gradation of tone from the pianist The orchestra is finely balanced, and I love the conductor’s reading because he takes the tempo exactly right. However , the recording is muddy” Or he might write “The sound quality was superb. The living presence came over on this recording. You could hear the third flute come over on this recording. You could hhear the third flute player coughing in the pause”…

George MAring with Jeremy Hornsly
“All you Need is Ears”
St. Martin’s Press New York

The book also reflects upon music recording and the evolution of the technicalities, a true inspiration.

the beatles George Martin nagra Abbey roads tapes
2020

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