Bluray.com have this clip from the BluRay from the same set as the earlier John shot.
The 2007 remix of Help! also has new, distracting sound effects in a few places. There’s a shot of a guy firing off a rifle early in the film, and the original sound effect is appropriately loud and threatening. In the remix, it’s replaced by a quieter, wimpier noise.
I was a real misstep not to have included the original mono track of Help! on that 2007 remaster.
I can confirm that Filmography 2 bootleg DVD contains the mono soundtrack print.
https://www.discogs.com/release/14472421-The-Beatles-Filmography-2
The video quality is terrible. It’s an off-air VHS recording from AMC in the 1990s compressed to single layer DVD-R MPEG2. Rip the soundtrack and sync it with the Blu-Ray video.
Without watching the recent Blu-Ray, I can’t comment on the colour timings and whether or not they need to be adjusted. There’s and old thread on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums about the LD and MPI DVD with a side-by-side comparison of the two.
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/beatles-help-laser-disc-better-than-dvd.45432/
MPI DVD on the left and Criterion LD on the right
Both those releases feature the 1987 stereo soundtrack.
I’ve been looking for the Mono Mix of Help! for a good long while to no luck. No VHS, or laserdisc has it.
I tried buying the first issue Laserdisc but that was a dead end. Mono compatible two channel stereo.
You can find the correct mono mixes for the songs is on the Back to Basics: Help! Sessions CD.
https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/album/help-studio-sessions-back-to-basics/
The CD also has the acetates given to the film production (which includes the “You Like Me Too Much” and “Yes It Is” acetates, which didn’t make the film). There’s also the AMC Presents AHDN & Help CD bootleg from the AMC broadcasts. The AMC broadcasts themselves have found their way to bootleg series on DVD called Filmography. Help! is on Filmography 2.
https://www.discogs.com/release/14472421-The-Beatles-Filmography-2
You may also want to check out the Beatleg Forums.
This original started as a response to another older thread, but it led me down a rabbit for information. So, instead, I thought it could be of some use as its own post.
Keeping track of Beatles mixes is its own full-time hobby. There are some helpful guides out there that I’ve used which includes the excellent Daily Beatle and Maul’s Complete Home and Studio Guide. The latest version as of time of writing is here:
https://archive.org/details/the-beatles-the-complete-studio-home-recordings-november-2023-v-2
Beatles film mix variants
A lot of pre-BluRay home media remixes were done by Ron Furmanek who did most of the home media restoration work for the Beatles:
https://webgrafikk.com/blog/uncategorized/ron-furmanek-and-his-work-for-beatles/
A Hard Day’s Night
Theatrical mono - the “Can’t Buy Me Love” (George’s guitar is louder) and “Tell Me Why” use a different mono mix to the mono album versions.
Releases: AMC broadcast, 1996 AFI Restored MONO Soundtrack, 2014 Criterion Blu-ray, 2022 Criterion 4K UHD.
1982 stereo version - Universal Pictures reissued the film in 1982 with a new opening photo montage featuring “I’ll Cry Instead”. The track was featured on the 1964 US soundtrack but was not featured in the final film. The album stereo mixes replaced the original mono mixes the other songs. However, this version is also missing some sound effect cues
Releases: 1984-1990s VHS releases, 1987 Criterion LD, 1995 MPI LD, 1997 MPI DVD.
2002 Marimax Dolby Digital 5.1 - this is a controversial one. Ron Furmanek restored the original mono and restored the missing sound effects. However, Marimax decided to upscale his mono mix into 5.1(!!!) The result is awful, it’s underwhelming on DVD and sounded like mud on its theatrical re-release.
Releases: 2002 Marimax DVD and Blu-Ray.
2014 remix - Giles Martin remixed the films songs in 5.1 and stereo from the studio multi-tracks.
Releases: 2014 Criterion Blu-ray, 2022 Criterion 4K UHD.
Help!
Ticket To Ride (take 2 RM?
Another Girl (take 1 RM?)
I Need You (take 5 RM?)
Yes It Is (take 14 RM?)^
The Night Before (take 2 RM?)
You Like Me Too Much (take 8 RM?)^
You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (take 9 RM?)
You’re Going Lose That Girl (take 3 RM?)
Help! (take 12 RM4)
^ songs not in finished film.
Releases: They are out there in bootleg-land. The one to get is “Last Laquers” released 2016 by Masterjedi.
1965 Theatrical mono - the only known version out there, outside of the film print is a broadcast from AMC and an AFI 1996 print. There are different mixes on the mono soundtrack to the mono album such as “Help!” having a double tracked vocal in the intro and “Ticket to Ride” has less reverb and more tambourine.
Releases: It has appeared on a few bootleg compilations.
1987 Stereo - Ron Furmanek’s stereo version of Help! produced for the Criterion LD. It uses the original 1965 stereo album mixes of the songs (Help! the 1965 album, was remixed by George Martin in 1987 for its CD debut).
Releases: 1987 Criterion LD, 1989-1990s VHS, 1995 MPI LD, 1997 MPI DVD.
2007 remix
Releases: Apple remixed the songs for DVD in stereo and 5.1 from the original studio multitracks (sadly they did not include the mono soundtrack) - 2007 DVD, 2013 Blu-ray
The Beatles at Shea Stadium
Raw concert audio - the raw concert audio track was never officially released. The “raw”
audio refers to the off-line audio feed from the concert’s mixing desk.
Releases: Released by HMC in 2007 when a tape was sold at auction. Under the title: “The Beatles and the Great Concert at Shea” CD.
1966 TV mono - the original soundtrack was the live concert audio with further overdubs done later at London’s CTS Studios on 5 January 1966. The song “Act Naturally” was replaced by the mono mix of the album version.
Releases: 1978 Media Home Entertainment Betamax, 1979 BBC broadcast.
1991 remix - the concert was remixed in 1991 using the overdubbed tapes for a canceled VHS release. It has since been leaked onto the bootleg market as “Shea!” by His Master Choice.
Releases: 2020 “Shea!” HCM DVD
2015 remix - for select screenings of Ron Howard’s Eight Days a Week documentary, a newly restored and remixed version of the film was shown after the main documentary. This was remixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell but die to a long-standing licensing dispute, there was no home media release.
Releases: This is a tough one. To date, the audio track (stereo?) has been leaked with an iPhone filming the screen as the video. So, this one is still M.I.A.
References:
http://www.maccafan.net/Gallery/SheaStadium/Shea.htm
https://webgrafikk.com/blog/uncategorized/tmoq-gazette-shea-stadium-1965/
http://lifeofthebeatles.blogspot.com/2009/07/august-15-1965-raw-shea-stadium.html
https://forum.beatlegdb.com/viewtopic.php?p=11072&hilit=2015+shea+stadium#p11072
Magical Mystery Tour
1967 TV mono - The original mono broadcast mix. With mono song mixes and a different mono mix than released on the album of the title track (RM7 with a different “roll up, roll up” overdub). This is also the soundtrack used on the 1974 US theatrical release from New Line Cinema.
Releases: This can be found on the original VHS releases pre-1988 - 1978 MEDIA/Media Home Entertainment Betamax (NTSC), 1981 MEDIA/Media Home Entertainment VHS (NTSC), 1980s Empire Films VHS (PAL Australia).
1988 “George Martin” stereo remix - George Martin is in quotes as it was actually Ron Furmanek that remixed it with Martin acting as Executive Producer.
Releases: 1988 VHS and LD with a 1992 reissue on LD.
1997 DVD mix - uses the original soundtrack with the stereo mixes from the album.
Releases: 1997 MPI DVD
2012 remix - a new Giles Martin remix in stereo and 5.1
Releases: 2012 DVD and Blu-ray
HMC also released a bootleg DVD that combines the video from the 1988 LD and the soundtrack from the MEDIA mono VHS: https://www.jpgr.co.uk/boot_hmc045.html
Yellow Submarine
The 2012 Blu-ray has its songs in the correct pitch except “Only A Northern Song” which is at a slightly slower. “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” is in stereo on the 2012 BluRay.
1968 Original International cut mono - the international cut with “Beatles to battle!” and no “Hey Bulldog”
Releases: AMC broadcast.
1987 stereo (International cut) - prepared by Ron Furmanek using stereo mixes of some songs. “Eleanor Rigby” has its stereo channels reversed. “All Together Now (reprise)”, “Only A Northern Song” and “It’s All Too Much” are in fake stereo. “Nowhere Man” is the original 1965 stereo mix.
Releases: 1987 LD and VHS
Preview version of the 1999 re-issue with rough mix of the '99 remix (UK cut) - In 1999, YS was remixed for the film’s 30th anniversary. This was the first time the pre-bounced elements of Beatles tracks were used in a remix. A preview VHS was circulating at the time that featured the songs in a rough mix state. These tracks have been leaked on bootleg.
Releases: songs can be found on the Contemporary Sound 1& 2 (Magoocus) 2009 CDs and Back To Basics series.
1999 remix (UK cut) - remixed for the film’s 30th anniversary. This was the first time the pre-bounced elements of Beatles tracks were used in a remix.
Releases: 1999 LD and VHS, 2012 DVD and BluRay
Let It Be
A good run down of the history of Let It Be can be found here: https://webgrafikk.com/blog/documentary/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-the-let-it-be-film/
Original mono
Releases: 1979 BBC broadcast, 1981 Magnetic Video LD, Betmax and VHS, 1981 RCA CED, 1984 West German Warner VHS.
1992 MPI stereo - Ron Furmanek remixed some of the songs from the original 8-track into stereo for a planned 1992 home video release of ‘Let It Be’ that was ultimately scrapped.
Releases: HMC have since released a boot of it: https://www.giginjapan.com/beatles-let-it-be-movie-hmc/
As a side to the soundtrack, it should also be noted the various aspect ratios on each home media release.
= The film was original shot 1.37:1 for TV but was cropped to 1.85:1 for cinemas.
= Magnetic Video VHS/Beta/LD, RCA CED are cropped from a 1.85:1 print to 4:3.
= The BBC’s 1979 broadcast was letterboxed from 1.85:1 for 4:3.
= Most interesting of all is the West German VHS, which is an open matte pre-cropped version with German subtitles for the dialogue. The bootleg of the ‘92 MPI is also open matte with remastered picture.
Last updated - 2024-02-13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zHgqpTuSgk
Here’s an interview with Paul Rutan Jr. who did the restoration on the AMC A Hard Day’s Night and Help! Worth a listen as its very informative as to the lengths he went to retrieve prints of these films.
The mono audio track on AHDN came from a UK print as the original US prints had the volume turned up on them encase the film couldn’t be heard over the screaming teenagers in the audience. This meant the US prints all had clipping and distortion.
I know this is an older thread, so how does the AMC soundtrack compare to the more recent Criterion version?
i’m a bit confused because to my knowledge capturing the pcm audio of a laserdisc through optical (toslink) is bit-perfect. i mean what else can one do? increasing the capture from 16bit to 24bit wont do anything, except a higher filesize. increasing the samplerate from 44.1khz to 48khz on capture wont do anything either, in terms of quality.
i mean, the laserdisc pcm is 16bit @ 44.1khz - what more can you do?
so what do people refer to when they talk about bit-perfect and saying that a normal digital capture wont be enough?
please enlighten me 😃
Forgive the lateness of this post, I thought it may be of use to anyone still looking into this.
My understanding is Laserdisc PCM is 16bit/44.1kHz - no more. So whatever capture you do, it would be advised to keep it 44.1kHz as record at 48kHz (or higher) will create sync issues with the video.
Yes, you could set the DAW at 24bit/44.1kHz, but the only advantage of that would be if you need to use plug-in to alter the sound.
I’ve never tried to capture from toslink to DAW as my LD Player doesn’t have an optical out for digital stereo tracks. If it’s just PCM, then I would assume any DAW interface with a toslink input should receive the digital stereo signal.
DTS 5.1 audio, while coming from the same toslink output, needs a decoder to turn it form code into 5.1 channels of audio. This is normally handled by an AV receiver amp. Same deal as the RF AC3 tracks that need a demodulation to turn it into a 5.1 digital signal that would go to an AV receiver amp via toslink or coaxial. So other than using a line level convertor to convert your AV receivers speaker outputs into line level to input to an analogue 6 channel input - I couldn’t tell you how to capture an un-decoded AC3 or DTS signal to 6 channel digital PCM audio while maintaining digital all the way down the chain.