Live exclusive Q & A with Abbey Road Studio’s mastering engineer Miles Showell + some Beatles talk!

Please join Steve Westman for an exclusive live Q & A with Abbey Road Studio’s mastering engineer Miles Showell.

We will chat about his career, favorite albums, mastering process, equipment and of course we will talk Beatles and the latest news about any upcoming releases. What’s next from the Beatles and when?

Get your questions ready for Miles.

Will be fun.

[@giulianolauri740]

Same in Italy. Buffering trouble

[@stevewestman7774]

Hi everyone. Thanks for watching today. I am sorry the live stream had buffering issues. Apparently it was not just our show. Please enjoy the replay. 🙏

[@TimothySeale]

One of if not the last real mastering master still actively working.

[@BarakaPDub]

Thanks for pulling this one together Steve. This answered a lot of questions I have about his process and it was timely with the new Red and Blue albums being dropped.

[@stevewestman7774]

My pleasure. It was a lot of fun and very informative.

[@SamuelRivera_DAMN]

Excellent interview! Happy to finally see Miles on the show. Thanks Steve!!

[@stevewestman7774]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@arminzink1925]

absolutely fantastic inverview. I missed the live stream, but I am glad to found the recording of it. now I am really excited about the new versions of red and blue.Thanks a lot for doing this!

[@stevewestman7774]

My pleasure. Glad you enjoyed it. Enjoy the albums.

[@RockNRod.]

Thanks Steve for pulling this great interview together. I am looking foward to getting the 3x blue album.

[@stevewestman7774]

My pleasure. Glad u enjoyed it. Enjoy the blue x 3.

[@stevedundee866]

Steve, thank you so much for this interview. It's so revelatory..so much to digest... it's truly wonderful and helps demistify a lot of the scuttlebutt doing the rounds regarding the new releases. Well done mate 👏

[@stevewestman7774]

My pleasure. Glad you enjoyed it. Miles is a real gentleman.

[@thomashertl3037]

A great interview and discussion, Steve. It is appreciated to see MS more in the spotlight and learn about his views and approaches which are to be equally respected as KB‘s or BG‘s or RKS‘s who often seem to be referred to as „the one and onlys“. Many thanks for another good one.

[@stevewestman7774]

Many thanks for watching. It was fun an informative one.

[@jimhines5145]

Great interview Steve. Thank you! Great information in this. As a huge Beatles fan and musician/recording engineer because of them, anything from Miles is always worthy, totally! I have purchased several LPs I've never known anything about just because Miles cut them. His cut of Brothers in Arms sounds better than the CD, and that's saying something! You are my hero Mr. Showell!

[@stevewestman7774]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@johns126]

Great chat! Getting in behind the scenes like this is damn brilliant! You do a great job Steve and Miles is totally captivating 👍

[@stevewestman7774]

Glad you enjoyed it. Was a lot of fun.

[@rogerl8710]

Great interview. Thank you!

[@stevewestman7774]

Much appreciated. Thank you.

[@scottwheeler2679]

Hmmm, Miles has some pretty strong opinions about how to cut a record and what he seems to think is a lack of success in the efforts by other mastering engineers. It might be a wild conversation to have him together with Kevin Gray and Bernie Grundman.

[@stevewestman7774]

Would be fun.

[@mistermac56]

Great interview Steve. And thanks to Mr. Showell for his time and wonderful information. One great part of the interview is to remind us that he can only cut from what source material he has that the customer provides to him.

[@stevewestman7774]

Thank you enjoyed it. Was a lot of fun.

[@westfield90]

Great interview.

[@stevewestman7774]

🙏

[@user-ki1nk5wx5o]

Very interesting and insightful interview. Appreciate Miles taking the time to participate. A+++

[@stevewestman7774]

Thank you. He is a gentleman.

[@knockedoutloaded279]

Very good sign for Now and Then and other reunion songs..

[@davepounds8924]

Great interview with Miles Very informative !! He seems like a great guy!!

[@stevewestman7774]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@michaeledwards7668]

​@stevewestman7774 wasn't gonna get the new red and blue but I think I'm sold after hearing this..Steve hbu?

[@jimhb4602]

Thank you! I would love when you interview him next time to hear what he did on the Cure rereleases.

[@stevewestman7774]

Absolutely.

[@false_binary]

Awesome interview Steve! Last single...I will NEVER believe that lol.

[@stevewestman7774]

Lol. Guess will see. Thanks for watching.

[@jesserussell7242]

I can’t wait to buy the single of now and then and plus the red and the blue album I am very much excited I can’t wait to hear how the early stuff sounds.

[@stevewestman7774]

I’m interested in hearing the red album disc 1 all remixed.

[@analogueanorak1904]

Great highly informative video. It’s nice to put a face to a name as by coincidence I recently completed a KZbin video reviewing a classical disc Miles cut, the mono Mercury Pictures at an exhibition, no AI involved in that one as far as I know!

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks for watching. It was a real pleasure chatting with Miles. Great information he brings.

[@analogueanorak1904]

@@stevewestman7774 the few seconds of what it’s like to be in the same room as ongoing half speed mastering was priceless!

[@bryangibson8479]

I've read that Ringo switched to calfskin heads on his five-piece maple kit (seen in the Let It Be/Get Back films) for the Abbey Road album, which gave the toms a warmer sound.

[@stevewestman7774]

Thank you. I think I read that too. Thanks for confirming.

[@F1fletch]

Thanks Steve!! Great interview, maybe for next time…would love to hear his thoughts on DMM. I had heard they no longer have a lathe for cutting these. I am curious to hear his thoughts about the process and it is no longer relevant.

[@stevewestman7774]

Great suggestion! Thanks.

[@alanarakelian5021]

Somebody needs to explain how "You Really A Hold On Me" made it onto the expanded Red album over classics such as "I Should Have Known Better" and "If I Fell". A real head-scratcher.

[@stevewestman7774]

I assume the 2 living Beatles and the 2 estates had final say.

[@alanarakelian5021]

@@stevewestman7774 They were so wrong. It's a no-brainer. "You Really Got A Hold On Me" is nowhere near one of the Beatles' best songs.

[@Greg_vmp]

Interesting news about Beatles Blue cut, that it should sound bit different than latest boxes mixes (2017 Sgt Pepper)

[@kleinabomber]

Curious why he went back and transferred Love me Do from original 45 sources when they'd already done that for the Past Masters collection ?

[@jesserussell7242]

I should check out other albums that Miles has reissued what would you recommend?

[@stevewestman7774]

Bob Marley Exodus, Inxs Kick, Roxy Music Avalon, The Who Who’s Next and Dire Straits Brothers in Arms would be a great start.

[@stewartyboy]

terrific interview - fascinating stuff. Perhaps this is a dumb question: if the source is digital what is the point of mastering it to vinyl? Does that benefit the sound in any way? Isn't it better just to listen to it in digital form?

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks for watching. Because we love the vinyl format and there is a big market for it.

[@jimhines5145]

I would have loved to have had the opportunity to ask if he used a mono or stereo cartridge whenever he recorded the Love Me Do 45. Being that it was for sure a mono record. If it was a stereo cart, he could have gotten rid of the stereo elements to eliminate much of the record noise. Makes it soooo easy! It's astounding how well this actually works. Then do the manual clean up, on the sample level. What a fun project this must have been!

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks for watching Jim. I will ask Miles if he uses a mono or stereo cart for Love Me Do.

[@jimhines5145]

@@stevewestman7774 Oh nice. Thank you Steve.

[@stevewestman7774]

Reply from Miles Showell: I am well aware of all of this (that most of the clicks and much of the noise is in the Stereo plane). I played back the 7” singles on the lathe. This doesn’t have a Mono cart on it and swapping it out for one is a headache (it’s an aligned reference playback system and the alignment takes about 2 hours if ever the cart is changed). However, I ran the audio from the lathe into my sum & difference insert unit which separates the mono sum in any signal from the stereo difference then I discarded the stereo difference signal. This is in effect the same as using a mono cart. After that I did the edits to make up the best possible version then set about removing the remaining clicks and noise one at a time. The last part took the longest, (around 2 hours) but going slow preserves the transients and energy in the recording. Finally I mastered it. The last I heard, Apple who were initially really sceptical about all of this ended up being so pleased with my work that they are going to retire the Andy White take and make this the definitive version (because they always felt bad that Ringo wasn’t really playing on the Andy White take, only tambourine). The Andy White version will still be around and will never be deleted of course, but eventually you will need to actively seek it out.

[@jimhines5145]

@@stevewestman7774 Wow, that was fast! Great information too. Thank you so much for your detailed answer Mr. Showell. Much appreciated. Thank you too Steve, for asking him.

[@jesserussell7242]

I will definitely be buying the red and the blue albums to six LP sucked and the two CD sets each this will be a fantastic compilation and always worse when I first bought it back in 1993 actually was years after I was re-issued.

[@drwinstonoboogie4349]

Steve I don't know if this interview can be reorganised as KZbin has had real problems today. Nearly all live feeds have crashed and only very few were able to view them around the world.

[@stevewestman7774]

So disappointed. Out of my hands. But glad all can watch the replay. It was a fun chat.

[@RockNRod.]

Steve, do you happen to know if you can get Parsons 1/2 sp vinyl stand alone? Or is it only part of the box set?

[@RockNRod.]

Eye in the sky, I am referring to

[@stevewestman7774]

I’m am going to say only the box. Not one off albums.

[@RockNRod.]

Ok, I'll stick with the OG I have then, thank you.

[@nicholas6823]

I have been trying to watch the video but it keeps crashing. I am sorry that your exclusive interview with Miles has been affected by yt technical issues today.

[@stevewestman7774]

I know. But the replay is looking good. Enjoy.

[@UFO_computers]

@@stevewestman7774not so here in 🇬🇧. Still no joy.

[@stevewestman7774]

Frustrating. Replay working fine here in 🇨🇦

[@nicholas6823]

@@stevewestman7774It seems to be resolved now - at least where I am. I refreshed the video and was able to watch until the end with no issues. Great interview Steve thanks.

[@stevewestman7774]

@@nicholas6823 excellent. Glad to hear. Thanks for watching.

[@UFO_computers]

Wasn’t able to get feed on-line. Just the spinning connect buffer wheel. I tried a few times. Just an FYI (I’m in 🇬🇧)

[@stevewestman7774]

There was issues with the server today apparently. Please enjoy the replay.

[@UFO_computers]

@@stevewestman7774• Logging out and logging back in definitely helped.

[@stevewestman7774]

@@UFO_computers 👍

[@darrenpeacock2611]

Ringo bought new calf skin heads for his drums.

[@stevewestman7774]

Yes. That’s why his drumming on Abbey Road sounds so good.

[@philippehardyprioton1973]

spinning connect wheel for me also.......... So frustrating for the most important Q&A of the last 30 years.............

[@stevewestman7774]

I’m disappointed. But not much I can do. Please enjoy the replay.

[@bronsonosborne3962]

you SIR need to give the PEOPLE time to talk STOP RUSHING THEM

[@stevewestman7774]

Much appreciated ❤️👍

[@bronsonosborne3962]

@@stevewestman7774 YOU sir are welcome

[@LanceHall]

Kinda hard to do good mastering when they hand you horribly over-compressed and over-EQ'd mixes. I ran some of the recently remixed Beatles through some audio software to undo that nonsense and it sounds far better.

[@KS-yy2fu]

FYI only wasn't able to joun..No stream possible. Shame on YT.... Just infinite buffering. I am located in Germany.

[@stevewestman7774]

So frustrating. Please enjoy the replay.

[@KS-yy2fu]

@@stevewestman7774 Sure I will. Thx for doing all this. Awesome channel 👏

[@stevewestman7774]

@@KS-yy2fumuch appreciated.

[@seid3366]

Miles talking about getting rid of clicks; that's one trouble I've had when maming my own remixes. It's a slog, trying to wipe those clicks out of the songs

[@seid3366]

Hope with Revolution, George and John's guitars get split, rather than get put on one track

[@matthewjohnson6360]

IT SUCKS.

[@user-yk4gd1fl4z]

Zero interest. Remixing is ethically wrong I dont care who says what.

[@simonemurray1345]

Why do you feel that way? I can see the ethical implications if an artist is dead and didn't want a remix, but what about the countless remixes that are done by the artists or with their approval? How can those be ethically wrong? Like for example, Ian Anderson prefers the aqualung remix. Or alot of the stereo beach boys remixes Brian Wilson worked on himself. Or how about old remixes? Like the grateful dead remixed their first 2 albums in the early 70s. Same with moody blues days of future passed. The only way I can see them being unethical is if the artists had no say and didn't want them to be done. Sure, one can argue its "offensive" to the original work of art, but it's no less unethical than someone covering an album. An artist remixing their own work is the furthest thing from unethical, like you can not like remixes but it doesn't make them unethical. That's just improper use of the word. I'm not big on most remixes, but some are superior, and many are done with approval or by the original artists. It's only unethical when they're dead and gone, but at the same time, their estates make that decision on their behalf. If I leave my music rights to my child, it's not an ethics violation for them to remix it because I gave them the power to do it. So I really can only see it being unethical if the artist outwardly said they never wanted a remix, or that their album is perfect as is, but then the label does it anyway. But most cases of remixes aren't that. Like I said, I mostly don't like remixes, or even many remasters, and often prefer the album in its original state. I know you said you don't care what people say (which is frankly ignorant and its interesting that youd take the time to share your opinion on a public forum while declaring that you have 0 respect for the opinions of others), but that doesn't change the fact that 99% of remixes are in no way "unethical" no matter how much you hate them. The estates and surviving members wanted a remix, so made it, there's nothing unethical about it. You have a right to despise remixes and look down on anyone who likes them, but that doesn't change the definition of unethical.

[@therealdonelaitis]

LOL “ethically” wrong. Riiiiigggghhhhtttt.