Posted on 04/07/2009 11:04:43 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
On September 9, 2009, after a nearly 22-year wait, digitally remastered versions of all of the Beatles studio albums will be released, a press release has confirmed. Each album will feature the track listings and artwork as it was originally released in the U.K. and come with expanded booklets including original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited time, each of the Fab Fours 12 proper albums will be embedded with a brief documentary about its making. The rereleases will include the Beatles 12 studio albums and Magical Mystery Tour as well as Past Masters Vol. I and II, which will be packaged as one collection. All 14 discs will be available with DVDs of the documentaries in a stereo box set, and a set titled The Beatles in Mono featuring 10 discs will also be released.
A crew of engineers at Londons Abbey Road Studios have spent four years working on the remasters using new technology and vintage equipment, the press release says, in an effort to preserve the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings and ensure the highest fidelity the catalog has seen since its original release.
9/9/09 promises to be a huge day in Beatles lore, as its the same day The Beatles: Rock Band will hit stores. This weekend brought a bit of Beatles news, too, as Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited onstage at a New York benefit for David Lynchs Transcendental Meditation foundation (see photos here). Preorders for the remasters are already popping up on Amazon.co.uk. Demand for Beatles remasters has steadily increased since 1987, when Capitol/EMI first released the Beatles discography on CD with what many audiophile fans deemed substandard sound quality compared to the original vinyl.
While it seems like other artists remaster their entire catalog every several years, Capitol/EMI have barely touched the Beatles discography since 1987, with the exception of 2004s The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1 box set, which compiled and remastered the bands first four American releases in stereo and mono formats. The soundtrack for the Beatles Love show also gave listeners a brief tease of how fantastic the bands songs would sound if properly remastered.
The Beatles in Mono will include the 10 albums originally mixed for mono release, as well as two additional discs the press release says features similar songs to those on the Past Masters compilations. The mono versions of Help! and Rubber Soul will boast bonuses: the albums original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD, per the press release. The mono collection, like the stereo one, will include all original inserts and label designs, and the CDs are designed as tiny vinyl replicas.
The press release didnt include news regarding a possible deal with iTunes or another digital-music vendor to distribute the catalog digitally: Discussions regarding the digital distribution of the catalog will continue. There is no further information available at this time, the press release reads. Both Apple Corps. and Paul McCartney have expressed reluctance to release the Beatles music digitally until all the albums had been remastered. The solo work of each of the four Beatles is available on iTunes.
The Beatles Remasters:
Please Please Me With the Beatles A Hard Days Night Beatles for Sale Help! Rubber Soul Revolver Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Magical Mystery Tour The Beatles (The White Album) Abbey Road Let It Be Past Masters Yellow Submarine
Yep. John Lennon was a Red Dupe pushing Communism.
And he plotted to dope Nixon’s coffee.
And then he wondered why he was being investigated by the FBI and being denied stay in the USA.
I haven’t seen the recent documentary on his legal hassles but he deserved them and was an agitator who meant harm to our government figures. BY HIS OWN ADMISSION.
I suppose this will make a lot of people happy.
Already have it.... Some 25 years ago or more, the Beatles released all their English release albums in a boxed set. I have mine and have played them relatively few times. Original covers etc... So what’s new?
Choice of the date—”One After 909” or...
“number nine...number nine...” Hmm.
Good one LOL
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Doesn't he own the Lennon-McCartney catalog?
.
I doubt there's anything new--other than a new set of discs that consumers without (like me) can finally purchase!
The re-mastering process commenced with an extensive period conducting tests before finally copying the analogue master tapes into the digital medium. When this was completed, the transfer was achieved using a Pro Tools workstation operating at 24 bit 192 kHz resolution via a Prism A-D converter. Transferring was a lengthy procedure done a track at a time. Although EMI tape does not suffer the oxide loss associated with some later analogue tapes, there was nevertheless a slight build up of dust, which was removed from the tape machine heads between each title.
From the onset, considerable thought was given to what audio restorative processes were going to be allowed. It was agreed that electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance and bad edits should be improved where possible, so long as it didnt impact on the original integrity of the songs.
In addition, de-noising technology, which is often associated with re-mastering, was to be used, but subtly and sparingly. Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to this process. Finally, as is common with todays music, overall limiting - to increase the volume level of the CD - has been used, but on the stereo versions only. However, it was unanimously agreed that because of the importance of The Beatles music, limiting would be used moderately, so as to retain the original dynamics of the recordings.
When all of the albums had been transferred, each song was then listened to several times to locate any of the agreed imperfections. These were then addressed by Guy Massey, working with Audio Restoration engineer Simon Gibson.
Mastering could now take place, once the earliest vinyl pressings, along with the existing CDs, were loaded into Pro Tools, thus allowing comparisons to be made with the original master tapes during the equalization process. When an album had been completed, it was auditioned the next day in studio three a room familiar to the engineers, as all of the recent Beatles mixing projects had taken place in there and any further alteration of EQ could be addressed back in the mastering room. Following the initial satisfaction of Guy and Steve, Allan Rouse and Mike Heatley then checked each new re-master in yet another location and offered any further suggestions. This continued until all 13 albums were completed to the teams satisfaction.
I had read here, on Free Republic, part of a Rolling Stone interview that John Lennon gave around the time of his Double Fantasy album that he’d become disillusioned with things like “benefit concerts.”
He remarked that they were mismanaged affairs by the organizers and people frequently used the occasion to press the artists for all sorts of freebies: the concert, concert album, appearances on behalf of the organizers...all sorts of stuff.
He saw the money flow in to the organizers, the concert itself often a mess, and very little flow back out to whom the concerts were for—and he and other artists donating their time and effort just for the (unneeded) publicity.
He probably still “believed.” But I think he understood that there _had_ to be a better way.
What boring news. Never liked them and even if I did how many times can one buy the same tune and how many times has one heard it? I always liked the Stones but I’ve heard their stuff too many times by now. So I wouldn’t buy a super duper digital boxed set from them either
Thanks for the description of the process.
Takes a bitter man to speak out on world peace and reprimand governments over wars when he couldn’t even get past his grudge with a childhood friend.
“Although EMI tape does not suffer the oxide loss associated with some later analogue tapes, there was nevertheless a slight build up of dust, which was removed from the tape machine heads between each title.”
Wouldn’t a second “play through” of each cut have been even cleaner (since the dust over that passage of the track had since flaked into the playback system)?
The worst of ALL decisions they made.
In the end, this is just a trick to make it sound "different" than the old "bland" versions.
It might have made a difference if their songs were going to be played on radio next to P!NK and the DoDo Birds or whatever the kids are listening to today but (A) there isn't much Beatles played on oldies radio anymore (it's slowly moving from 50s-60s to 60-70s to 70s-80s cuts ONLY) and (B) the Beatles are unlikely to be played on a current hits pop station.
Remastering FAIL.
The type of tape can also make a difference such as what was used for the Eagles "Hotel California". That specific master tape requires to be baked to restore the tape and then only usable for a brief time until it requires re-baking.
Thanks for the added info. It looks like they are going back to the original session tapes (2-, 4-, and 8-track) to remix and remaster. If they do half as good a job as was done on the Pet Sounds remaster, then I’m in.
As for limiting, I’m OK with it as long as the volume variance in “Julia” and “Long Long Long” is fixed. I know they are supposed to be quieter than the rest of the white album, but when you have to turn up your volume just to hear the singing, they are too quiet.
I hope they don’t get rid of the tiny bit of feedback in “I’m Looking Through You.”
The Rolling Stones were a much better band in my opinion - all the way to 1980's "Emotional Rescue". Should have retired after that.
“I do like their early albums - up to Revolver. But after that, they got quite weird. Never liked Sgt. Pepper and the “White Album” was a bunch of crap.
The Rolling Stones were a much better band in my opinion - all the way to 1980’s “Emotional Rescue”. “
There’s at least two of us. Those are my thoughts exactly.
I agree that the Stones are better than the Beatles were, but I thought the White album was very playful. And Revolution (or, on that album, Revolution 1) is one of their best songs.
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