[hummer]

Thought you might enjoy some of the info from the press release that is ignored by the news media:

Re-mastering the Beatles catalogue

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 didn't 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 today's 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 team's
satisfaction.

The Abbey Road Team

Allan Rouse (Project Coordinator)
Allan joined EMI straight from school in 1971 at their Manchester Square
head office, working as an assistant engineer in the demo studio. During
this time he frequently worked with Norman (Hurricane) Smith, The Beatles'
first recording engineer.

In 1991, he had his first involvement with The Beatles, copy¬ing all of
their master tapes (mono, stereo, 4-track and 8-track) to digital tape as a
safety backup. This was followed by four years working with Sir George
Martin as assistant and project coordinator on the TV documentary 'The
Making of Sgt. Pepper's' and the CDs 'Live at the BBC' and 'The Anthol¬ogy.'

In 1997, MGM/UA were preparing to reissue the film 'Yellow Submarine' and,
with the permission of Apple, asked that all of The Beatles' music be mixed
for the film in 5.1 surround and stereo. Allan requested the services of
Abbey Road's senior engineer Peter Cobbin and assistant Guy Massey and,
along with them, produced the new mixes.

Two years later, he proposed an experimental stereo and surround mix of John
Lennon's song 'Imagine' engineered by Peter Cobbin. Following lengthy
consultations with Yoko Ono, the album 'Imagine' was re-mixed in stereo and
the Grammy award-winning film 'Gimme Some Truth' in surround and new stereo.
This led to a further five of John's albums being re-mastered with new
stereo mixes and the DVD release of 'Lennon Legend' being re-mixed in 5.1
surround and new stereo.

Further projects followed, including The Beatles 'Anthol¬ogy', 'The First US
Visit' and 'Help' DVD and the albums 'Let It Be...Naked' and 'Love' along
with George Harrison's 'Concert for Bangladesh' DVD and album.

For a number of years now, Allan has worked exclusively on Beatles and
related projects.

Guy Massey (Recording Engineer)
Guy joined Abbey Road in 1994, and five years later assisted on the surround
remix for The Beatles film 'Yellow Submarine.' This led to The Beatles'
'Anthology' DVD and later, along with Paul Hicks and Allan Rouse, they mixed
and produced 'Let It Be... Naked.' In 2004 he left the studios to become
freelance and has engineered The Divine Comedy: 'Victory for the Comic
Muse,' Air Traffic: 'Fractured Life,' James Dean Bradfield: 'The Great
Western' and Stephen Fretwell's 'Magpie,' co-producing the last two. Since
leaving, Guy is still a vital member of the team, and has been the senior
engineer for the re-mastering project and was responsible for surround and
new stereo mixes for the DVD release of 'Help!'

Steve Rooke (Mastering Engineer)
Steve joined Abbey Road in 1983 and is now the studio's senior mastering
engineer. He has been involved on all The Beatles' projects since 1999. He
has also been responsible for mastering releases by John Lennon, Paul
McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Paul Hicks (Recording Engineer)
Paul started at Abbey Road in 1994, and his first involvement with The
Beatles was assisting engineer Geoff Emerick on the Anthology albums. This
was followed by 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack,' 'Anthology' DVD and 'Let It
Be... Naked.' Like Guy Massey, he has also become a freelance engineer and
since leaving the studios he has been responsible for the surround mixing of
Paul McCartney's DVD 'The McCartney Years' and The Beatles' 'Love.' Paul has
been in charge of the mono re-masters.

Sean Magee (Mastering Engineer)
Sean began working at Abbey Road in 1995 with a diploma in sound
engineering. With a wealth of knowledge in analog and digital mastering, he
has worked alongside Paul Hicks on the mono re-masters.

Sam Okell (Recording Engineer)
Sam's first job as a member of the team was in 2006, assisting Paul Hicks on
Paul McCartney's DVD 'The McCartney Years,' and during that same year he was
responsible for the re-mastering of George Harrison's 'Living In The
Material World' CD along with Steve Rooke. This led to him restoring the
soundtrack to the Beatles film 'Help!' in surround and stereo, in addition
to assisting Guy Massey with the song remixes.

Sam has re-mastered 'With The Beatles' and 'Let It Be.'

Simon Gibson (Audio Restoration Engineer)
Simon joined Abbey Road in 1990. He has progressed from mastering mostly
classical recordings to include a much wider range of music, including pop
and rock, with his specialized role as an audio restoration engineer. Apart
from the re-mastering project, his other work includes George Harrison's
'Living In The Material World,' John Lennon's 'Lennon Legend,' The Beatles'
'Love' and the 'Help!' DVD soundtrack.