FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
- To those new to "What Goes On" - a brief introduction ...
- Hello! You've found what's become one of the definitive rec.music.beatles collections of Beatles melodic mishaps. Originally started back in early 1992 by Michael Weiss, the anomalies list grew out of a fascination with the little sounds and curiosities which can be found within the Beatles' recordings. A concerted effort by Michael and myself, plus many contributors from the net results in this list.
- So define an "anomaly" then?
- Well, it's difficult, as it is a subjective thing! But I'd say it's any sound which you feel shouldn't really be there, and in a perfect world, wouldn't be there! Something which, years later, people are finding and saying, "So what caused that?", or "What did he say again?". Examples are edits which stick out (where takes have been joined together), vocal chatter not directly part of the record, recording glitches .... It's not only limited to mistakes -- a mistake is an anomaly, but not all anomalies are mistakes. I've updated a few entries where people seem to have regularly missed the point of the anomaly listed, and mailed me to say "but that's intentional" (e.g. the count in on Dig A Pony -- I know there is meant to be a count in there, but does this little shambles sound like a regular count in? No! So here's a transcript of that weird count in!). So don't think of this as a list of mistakes. Just to be clear, it is a list of anomalies, "something that deviates from the general rule or the usual type, an inconsistency" [OED].
- Just as a side note, with the release of new material since the last update, I am not accepting anomalies from Anthology 1-3, or the singles Real Love and Free As A Bird. Really, none of the material was intended to be heard like that (unlike the regular singles and albums). They are alternative (read: rejected for release) and incomplete tracks, and so it is to be expected that their are anomalous things there. Bit of a contradiction, but there you go. However, the released tracks -- they're a different matter!
- If you still want to point out an anomaly in Anthology tracks, by all means do - I'll listen for curiousity's sake, but it's unlikely to be included in the list. * NEW * Having said that, some transcriptions of some of the chatter in Anthology can be found in Appendix B
- I can hear a French/German/Swedish language anomaly, am I mad?
- Probably. But you're not alone. I've received a small number of foreign language anomalies. Most of these are, in my biased opinion as an English speaker, English with poor intelligibility. However, when heard by a speaker of another language, it can sound like a sensible "foreign language anomaly". Some even seem to make sense in context. So if you have any to add, please do. Those I have received so far are filed for inclusion in a separate section.
- How do I hear them?
- Well, here's probably the best excuse you've got for listening to your entire Beatles collection again! Seriously, some are easily heard, others only come after being pointed out. Others may need a little technical wizardry to bring them out, even for sharp ears - more on this later! But a good pair of headphones, a clean record (or a CD) and often plenty of treble make the little details stand out.
- If I hear one, and it's not in the list, what do I do?
- What if I think you're wrong?
- I want an argument about an entry in WGO!!
- Email me! - I'm still collecting anomalies, although the law of diminishing returns applies - as time goes on, they get harder to find. You can reach me at anomaly@pootle.demon.co.uk - feel free to become another contributor to the list. If it's an argument you want, you'll have to pay me first ....
- Any contributions are gratefully welcomed and acknowledged, especially details of what mixes/media these can and can't be heard on, eg "single only", "not on stereo mix", as some anomalies only exist on a particular version.
- I did that, but my mail didn't get through? What happened?
- If your mail is rejected (bounced) with an error (Service Unavailable), then you are posting from a site which I have had to put a block on due to the number of people from that site sending junk mail. As I have a web page, and post to Usenet, I attract junk mail, as do many others. I don't particularly want to receive it! So in the absence of responsible ISPs, I'm blocking a good number of junk mailing sources. This doesn't necessarily mean you, but it means a number of people at your site has recently caused a problem.
- If you have an account at another site, send it via that. This should not effect the majority of people, but you have been warned!
- Version 3.07?
- * NEW * Version 3.07 comes as the web site, plus this ASCII version, and a PKZipped version of all of the HTML pages for offline browsing.
- Version 3.07 contains nearly 300 updated or added entries, and a small number of minor corrections to time references.
- I have to thank a number of people who have converted WGO 3.03 and earlier into HTML for their own pages - this has brought a new audience to WGO. I also should thank Demon Internet for hosting this virtual web site. Please link to this document, rather than copy it, unless you plan to do some major layout change, or something wizzy with it, in which case drop me a note so I can add a link back to your version... I haven't tried to be too clever with the formatting, knowing that not all browsers are capable of every feature. However, some people have asked me to list by album and song order, so the WWW version reflects both alphabetical and by album.
- Changes, corrections or additions from the last version are marked with so you can find the new ones easily.
- What's this technical wizardry?
- Due to the mixing of many Beatles tracks, some sounds can be brought out very clearly by removing others. An effect called OOPS (Out Of Phase Stereo) can be used to do this. By taking the left and right signals from a stereo source and adding them, you get an ordinary mono signal. If you phase shift/invert one channel, and *then* add them, you have an OOPS'd signal. It means that any material in the centre of the stereo image will cancel out, any material that has been panned Left and Right, but in different phases, will add up.
- This is often used in vocal eliminators (a la karaoke machines) to zap the centre channel, usually the vocals. The Beatles didn't keep this rule, fortunately, and so (for example) "Birthday" OOPS's into just the vocals, and *no* music!
- I use a home built unit to do this, as it allows me to adjust the cancellation position to remove more than just the centre. You can often do it cheaply, with no equipment by reversing one of your speaker/headphone leads to put the sound out of phase. It doesn't work as well as doing electronically though :) Tim Scott offers the following advice:-
- "Basically if your CD player (or whatever you will be using) is wired in stereo to your amp, by bridging your speaker the left channel will push the driver while the right channel will pull it. Thus any signal which is equal to both will be cancelled out, thus giving OOPS. Conecting both of the negative outputs doesn't seem to make any difference to the signal. but this is how i have been taught to bridge professional power amps so there must be a reason. Maybe it's something to do with professional amps having circuit logic checks in them which need the two negative poles shorting otherwise it thinks there is a fault. I dunno. Anyone help? If however you had a mixing desk and power amp (instead of a hi-fi system) and had your CD feeding through two mono channels you could then use the pan control to affect how much of the centre channel is cancelled."
- For those with a soundcard, you can sample the sound into your computer, and using a program like CoolEdit 1.53 (for Win 3.1 and Win 95 on PC) you can invert one channel, and then sum them together.
- This removes the sound common to both channels - there is a preset for doing this called "vocal cut". This is very effective if the sound is sampled well (centred right, in phase). Alternatively, extract the track from a Digital Audio Extraction capable CD-ROM drive, or CD writer.
- Do not confuse with ...
- The Beatles Variations List by Joe Brennan which deals with changes between different releases (UK, US etc) and between different media (LP/CD/Cassette). I only list some of these variations (e.g. mono only, CD only) where I know there is an anomaly that is only present on one or the other format.
What Goes On? - Table of Contents