article: Abbey Road is full of gremlins. Giles Martin - son of record producer George Martin - can't play any music through his mixing desk at the iconic North London studios. He re-boots his computer while two engineers crawl on the floor, plugging in cables and fiddling with various switches. At one point, someone unplugs a hard drive. "Oh God, you've just deleted the Beatles," Martin deadpans. Eventually, the equipment springs to life. The producer dismisses a workman, who has appeared to drill locks into the door, and apologises for the delay. "I just moved into this studio yesterday," he explains. With that, Martin loads up a file that contains dozens of versions of the Beatles' back catalogue. There are the original recordings, mono mixes, stereo remasters and various other snippets - all of which Martin can flick between at will. He used these tracks as a reference while producing a new DVD compilation, Beatles 1+, which sees the Fab Four's biggest hits re-imagined in stereo and 5.1 surround sound, accompanied by restored promotional videos and films. "The goal is to bring the band closer to you," says Martin. "To have that same feeling at home that I get when I put on the tapes in the studio." Rather than viewing the originals as sacred, the band appreciate their music being tweaked this way, he says. "My dad went to see John Lennon in 1980 before he died, and John said to him: 'Do you know what I'd really like to do? I'd love to record everything again.' "Dad said, 'Really? How about Strawberry Fields?' "And John said: 'Especially Strawberry Fields.'" Counter-intuitively, Martin's new mixes are often simpler than the existing stereo versions - but he has a solid explanation. Up to Yellow Submarine, the Beatles treated the mono mixes of their albums as the definitive documents. The stereo versions were created as an afterthought, often without the band's involvement. "My dad was never happy with the extreme panning that went on," explains the producer. "You'd have the band on one side and all the vocals on the other. "And you have what I call the socks and sandals brigade saying: 'The only way to listen to Sgt Pepper's is in mono.' To be honest, they're probably right, but no-one does that any more." So he set about recapturing the power of those mono recordings. "In Beatles world, if you can make something more aggressive, they want it more aggressive," Martin says, cueing up Paperback Writer to prove his point. "If you listen, this mono mix is very crunchy, very in your face," he says, as the textured harmonies give way to Paul McCartney's guitar riff. "The stereo sounds wider," Martin continues, switching seamlessly to that version, "but the problem is that all the action - the guitar and drums - are on the left speaker." "The guitar riff is what you remember about that song," he says, but it loses its oomph by being shifted to one side. Accordingly, the new mix puts the instruments into a focussed central point, while spreading
summary: Giles Martin reveals how he took The Beatles master tapes and remixed them in surround sound for the Fab Four's new video collection.