Giles Martin remastered The Beatles’ ‘1’ compilation album for spatial audio

Virgin Radio

2 Mar 2022, 17:20

He's a big fan of the medium and has proudly reworked the compilation album.

Giles Martin has reworked The Beatles' compilation album '1', and told Zane Lowe about the process.

Spatial audio is the immersive 360-degree sound technology launched in 2021 by Apple Music.

It turns out that Martin's initial plan was to remaster 'Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ instead.

The Number Ones compilation album was released in 2000.

He told Lowe about his foundations: “My dad was a futurist and loved technology. When I was a kid, he built studios. He built some of the best studios in the world. (He opened AIR Montserrat.) It was one of the most successful recording places in the 1980s. Elton John, Police, Dire Strait…Earth, Wind & Fire to Paul McCartney…everyone went to that studio.

"He was always looking for ways to have great sounds,” he said. There’s something I remember… when CDs came he got one of the first CD players and we were going around to his friend’s house for Sunday lunch. "

He continued: "He had three CDs, one was a Billy Joel record, there was a classical one, and a Japanese artiste. He went, ‘This is the future of sound. The future is happening.’ He brought the CD player and the CDs with him and he said these things are indestructible. He banged it against the table, and it broke in his hand!

“The point is: going back to looking for new ways is key. The key thing with The Beatles is that when he first served Abbey Road, the golden orb was to search for ways to create a perfect facsimile of the recording. When you record, you sound like you are in a room.

Martin added: "What happened was with The Beatles and my dad and other people around the world…is that how do we create worlds that don’t exist. Hence ‘Sgt. Peppers’. These aren’t live records. These are things you can only imagine. That’s the evolution of sound. It’s not just technology; it’s imagination as well, that’s key.”

The way the songs were originally recorded meant it wasn't an easy task to rework them.

“When I walk into a room in Abbey Road, I can get a four track. I can press play and I can hear it. How lucky I am and how many people would want to do this; how many people would want to be in that position. If you listen to ‘Ticket To Ride’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Day Tripper’, ‘Paperback Writer’…they rock, they really rock.

“That’s the thing you have to bear in mind the most; you have to make sure it doesn’t sound too dissipated. You know you still need that sound stage in front of you, but with head tracking, you feel like: ‘There’s Ringo and he’s playing there.’ That’s kind of cool.