Where can I get Beatles Master tapes 4/8 tracks?

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MartyMcFly

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I have a wierd question. Is there anywhere to buy 4 or 8-track Master tapes of say The Beatles stuff. From Sgt. Pepper onward? I know that there are alot of bootleg stuff out there but it is all finalized/finished/mixed. I would give both my legs for some tapes like that. Do they sell it from EMI?
 
MartyMcFly said:
I have a wierd question. Is there anywhere to buy 4 or 8-track Master tapes of say The Beatles stuff. From Sgt. Pepper onward? I know that there are alot of bootleg stuff out there but it is all finalized/finished/mixed. I would give both my legs for some tapes like that. Do they sell it from EMI?
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I get the feeling you are yanking us. Are you Walters? :confused:
 
you can rob the EMI tape library. i believe they still have every reel of tape the beatles ever recorded on. some of the later tapes may be in the apple offices, but i'm not sure about that.
 
No Im not. I know its kinda nutty. But I was considering writing (not email) to EMI an asking their permission to have a copy(s) made of a few songs. Even 1 song. To remix. I KNOW they would say NO. But I figure what the heck.
I have read tons of stuff on the internet about bootlegs of Beatles stuff and have wondered, with all of the interest in their unreleased stuff that no one has ever gotten a hold of any Master tapes...or copies.
I do know the stories or myths or whatever of how a lot of the alternate takes got out of Abbey Road studios (EMI Studios). Disgruntled employees making copies and mixes in their spare time...Mark Lewisohn making copies while he was doing research in the vaults for his books "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions". Or about how the people driving the tapes to Mr. Lewisohn made copies before they brought them back. All that but NO ONE has ever thought to release bootlegs of the individual tracks...Like I said. Id give both my legs for them...
 
That F*#!ing B!tch will probably end up owning them...I told my old man when they were getting hitched that she was a 49er. Ya know a gold digger...And i was right...
 
I was told the local university used to have four track versions of earlier beatles
songs for the students to practice mixing. This would have been in the late 70"s. I don't know if they were the property of the instructor or the university.
they are kind of a hoot.
All instruments on one track. lead vocal on track 2. Double tracked vocal and guitar solo on track 3. bacground vocal and claps on 4 . that sort of thing.
I think a lot of the early stuff was recorded on a 3 track machine, or bounced from 2 mono machines.
there were cassette versions floating around at one point.
sorry i can't be more helpful than that.
 
Yeah I believe it was Sgt. Pepper when they first started using a 4-track and The White Album/The Beatles when they first started using a 8-track. Of course thats the era Id be looking for. (Sgt. Pepper onward) Not that Im gonna find any. Even on Sgt. Pepper they had alot of the songs mixed like you said after they did reduction mixes and so on. But what I'd really be looking for for a particular song is all the takes and reduction mixes. That way I could basically go back and seperate as much as possible all the individual instruments and vocals. Giving me the greatest degree of control when mixing/cleaning-up/enhancing.
One can dream cant they?

Oh yeah Zorf...what university and name of instructor if you remember please?
 
Except that this has already been done on the remastered version of those albums.

All indiidual tracks were dumped to a digital multitrack and lined up, and remixed.
 
SteveM said:
Maybe Heather McCartney can arrange something. :p
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hahahaha. that made my day whoever said that! as for the beatles tapes, you would have an easier time getting U.S. Military strategies in Iraq (ask geraldo) then anything Beatles that isn't released. that stuff is under lock and key and will probably never see the light of day. You will have to do your best picking things out of the finished mixes for as long as you live!
 
That and the fact that having any of their tracks to do something as you suggest would be a potential goldmine for anyone that had them which is why "no unauthorized personnel shall ever have access" to them. I know this isn't what you're really looking for, but finding the quad versions of their solo stuff (like Walls & Bridges) would give you a limited opportunity to fool with the mix. I'm not sure if Capitol did more than just the quad 8-tracks or not.

As a side note, George Martin said in a interview done around the time the first cd releases were issued that up through MMT the mono mix was what they spent the most time on with the stereo being an afterthought due to the American markets (Capitol's more than likely) demand for stereo.
 
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Another avenue that came to mind is the 5.1 version of the Love album. I don't know how much separation of the individual elements there might be, but it could possibly let you fool around with the mix of the tunes included in that project. The surround version of Yellow Submarine might allow the same experimentation.
 
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Probably way less valuable than Beatles masters, but while I was at Acoustic Control, I had Bill Smith of Electra make some four track copies of some of their masters for a NAMM show we were doing.

I have the Doors "Love Her Madly", Harry Chapin's "Taxi", Judy Collins "Amazing Grace", and Bread's "Make It With You", and a few others.

Pretty amazing when you can isolate all the cool little stuff going on in the background.
 
...I have the Doors "Love Her Madly" said:
Wow...I'd love to hear the rhythm guitar from the Doors tracks, and the whole Bread tape especially. This stuff could be very educational...the record companies could publish certain albums in this format and have a whole new reason to reissue Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt Pepper's.
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Flangerhans said:
This stuff could be very educational...the record companies could publish certain albums in this format and have a whole new reason to reissue Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt Pepper's.
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Good thinking! Just put the "EDUCATIONAL" stamp on it and we can ALL make our own mixes of those albums! :cool:

But seriously. I wish.
 
THX1136 said:
Another avenue that came to mind is the 5.1 version of the Love album.
.
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Good idea. How do you seperate them and mix them to tape? Just use the speaker outputs?
 
If you've got a dvd player that has discrete audio outs for the 5.1 you just take those to your multi-track. Panasonic makes one - DVD F87 - for right at $110 or so. If your dvd player can do DTS (which most of them can) you'd have to approach it in the following manner below.

There is an item that's used more for car stereo needs made by Scosche that can take speaker level as inputs and changes them to line level outs. It's only 4 channel, but there are single channel ones available along with stereo ones also. The Scosche runs around $25 and the single channel ones are around $7. I think MCM has the single or even stereo ones. This could be used with any amp capable of doing the 5.1 from the dvd-audio or DTS disc.
 
See...
Thats what I wish they'd do. Ive seen in the past where some artist release certain songs for a remix contest and they allow you to download the individual tracks. No one as Big as The Beatles...I swear it might have been sheryl crow or maybe Aerosmith. But Im probably remembering wrong...
I think they should release like an entire album for say a couple hundred bucks. Honestly Id easily pay $500-1000.00 for the Masters for Abbey Road. Or Sgt Peppers.
Also one poster up above said that they dont have individual tracks of Most songs by the Beatles. That is Wrong. They kept EVERYTHING. Even Reduction mixes and each and every take it took to get to those reduction mixes. So if one had access to everything...you could go back and re-seperate "Almost" everything. Certain songs excluded. But almost everything could be seperated.
I wish...
If anyones got anything email me at...:)
 
Oh, to be young and stupid. :rolleyes:

It's so much more fun than being old and stupid, I can tell you. :D ;)
 
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