Beatles `mashups' a treat for local engineer

Laboring alongside Sir George Martin, the Beatles' original producer, is a real treat for audio engineer Jason Pritchard, a Cleveland-area native.

Pritchard, the head of audio for Cirque du Soleil's newest show, The Beatles LOVE in Las Vegas, has collaborated with the famed producer and his son, Giles Martin, since last fall to create the new show, which opened at the Mirage last Friday.

"It's just really incredible working with these guys in the studio every day,'' Pritchard said.

Working with the entire Beatles archive from Abbey Road Studios, the Martins have created ``mashups'' of the band's original works. ``The different elements of songs are taken apart and put together to create something new,'' Pritchard explained.

For example, the vocals from Because are played without harpsichord accompaniment, instead paired with the final, 1 ½-minute chord from A Day in the Life, played backward so it gets progressively louder.

Or the vocals from George Harrison's Within You Without You now have the drums from Tomorrow Never Ends under them.

The key is that nothing's added that the Beatles didn't record.

Beatles LOVE is the first time Cirque du Soleil has ever worked with a prerecorded medium. The show features 25 numbers, but with all the mashups, Pritchard audiences will hear pieces of nearly 150 Beatles songs.

The goal was to make audiences feel like they're actually in the theater with the band. Pritchard, who was born in Bay Village, said the show promises to take the usual Beatles listening experience a huge step further.

"People hear Beatles music so much that it becomes background music, almost.

"The sound (in Beatles LOVE) is unlike anything you can experience anyplace else because it's so big,'' Pritchard said. "You've never heard the Beatles like this before.''

The show, which is staged in the round, has a panoramic sound system of more than 6,300 speakers. Each audience member has three speakers in his or her seat -- one over each shoulder and a third in the back of the seat, for the benefit of the person sitting behind.

In most Cirque shows, the music follows the action onstage. But in the dance-heavy Beatles LOVE, it's the opposite. All of the action, including the traditional circus acts, serves to highlight the music.

The new show is housed in the space where Siegfried and Roy performed, which has been gutted and renovated for Cirque. For information, call 800-963-9634 or see www.cirquedusoleil.com, www.thebeatles.com or www.mirage.com.

Beatles LOVE was conceived by Cirque founder Guy Laliberte and the late George Harrison at a party at Laliberte's home some 10 years ago after the Montreal Grand Prix.

Sitting near former Beatle Paul McCartney for early listening sessions was an experience for Pritchard, who said McCartney had a perpetual smile on his face: He liked what he heard with the mashups.

"They're kinda always with us in spirit, all four of them," Pritchard said.

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