November 03, 2022

Cleaning up Beatles' Revolver: is this better? Obviously, with AI

Abbey Road studio relaunched Beatles' Revolver with a cleaner sound, based on original studio recordings; and of course with AI. Because everything was once better with Bluetooth, but everything is now better with AI.

Is the new album better than the original?

I have the feeling that the sound is indeed cleaner.

The problem with these cleanups is that I don't know if cleaner is better. 

Was this the intention of the artists? Most likely not. If the Beatles wanted clean sound, they would have made it cleaner. But no. They were playing with strange instruments and sounds, and with strange studio effects. They would speed tracks up and down by ear, turn tracks upside down, change tempo and key in the middle of a song, mix voices, styles, instruments and tracks randomly. They were super high throughout the recordings, and it shows.

Somehow, cleaning up the original Beatles' sound made me think of clarifying the colors of Degas; or sharpening a bit the lips of Mademoiselle Pogany.



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