Beatles Remastered on Sept 9,09

[Whitecat]

I hate Gizmodo, but this makes a fairly fun read:

Gizmodo - Sorry Stereo, But Beatles in Mono Rocks a Lot More - Beatles

I personally will be purchasing Sgt Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be (at the very least!) on the 9th.

[Silver Sonya]

ONE MORE MONTH!!!

SO EXCITED!!!

- c

[Darius van H]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

It's funny 'cause it's true.

RE: the death of CD: well, yeah, it's not going to happen over night, but it is going to happen. Mainly, nobody is excited about the format now. Bands that I master are bypassing CD, they are only interested in files and on releasing the record as vinyl+download card. c

Can't agree with this at all. Every album i master has a physical CD release. MANY if not most bands / artists want to have their album on CD

Of course in the long run the CD will disappear just like any other bit of technology, but not anytime soon.

[Bob Olhsson]

FWIW, Motown in mono rocks a lot more too!

[wado1942]

Don't know if this has been mentioned, but has anybody remixed The Beatles's stuff directly from the raw tracks before the bounces? With modern technology, they could probably mix the earliest generations for each instrument possible, even from multiple tapes/takes.

[uosdwis]

Originally Posted by wado1942

Don't know if this has been mentioned, but has anybody remixed The Beatles's stuff directly from the raw tracks before the bounces? With modern technology, they could probably mix the earliest generations for each instrument possible, even from multiple tapes/takes.

This was done for the 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack' album released in 1999, but I believe that's it. The results are spectacular.

[xj32]

Originally Posted by wado1942

Don't know if this has been mentioned, but has anybody remixed The Beatles's stuff directly from the raw tracks before the bounces? With modern technology, they could probably mix the earliest generations for each instrument possible, even from multiple tapes/takes.

Yes it was done for Yellow Submarine Songtrack, Let It Be Naked and of course Love.

I hope that someday they do the whole catalog, but I am not holding my breath.

Like uosdwis mentioned, the results were spectacular!!!!

[wado1942]

On a side note, I heard some of the 8-track bed tracks for a couple incomplete versions of songs on The Who's "Tommy" album. Just guitar, bass, drums and sometimes a scratch vocal. They were amazing sounding! You could hear the configuration of the room, drums behind a wall open towards the guitar mic etc. But of course, they were bounced down to a few tracks so more layers could be added. The original final masters for Tommy were so distorted and low-fi compared to these raw tracks.

[IIIrd]

Originally Posted by silverking

Here's a list of the mastering gear in Steve's and Sean's two rooms, #6 and #7:

http://www.abbeyroad.co.uk/_static_f...Tech_Specs.pdf

One interesting thing amongst many (aside from trying to guess exactly what they used on the re-masters) is that Steve uses Meyer X-10's for monitors. X-10's are an amazing speaker (as anybody who's heard them would testify), but they're certainly not the first speaker that comes to mind for a mastering suite. (expensive too, at around $30,000.00 the pair)

Sean, on the other hand is more conventional with his B&W's and PMC's.

The use of the Junger Accent 2 also caught my eye.

room 6 has b&w 800 D's with 4 x classe CA-M400 amps,
nearfieds are PMC TB1 with a baby bryston amp
analogue eq would be the emi TG console and prism MEA 2 eq,

a-d d-a benchmarks in both room 6 & 7, prism Ad8 was the d-a on the protools rig which was the source

[acorneau]

Just checked Amazon for pre-order prices:

Separate albums are $13, "Stereo" box set is $200, "Mono" box set is $230.

I'm glad they aren't going crazy and asking $25 per CD.

[Sirocco]

ive heard a few of these and they are VERY true to the originals. look forward to them!

[oceantracks]

Originally Posted by silverking

The reality is that contemporary mastering looks and sounds like the "Love" album...........in real reality though, most don't look or sound anywhere near as good as "Love"!

"Love" is a CD prepared for market in 2006-09. It's got all the competition of every other CD released in that same time period.
It's sweet to think that they would master the Beatles 100% "old school", but it's not at all realistic.

The Beatles have no competition

TH

[oceantracks]

Originally Posted by uosdwis

This was done for the 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack' album released in 1999, but I believe that's it. The results are spectacular.

The results were at best mixed. "LSD" doesn't even have some of the FX on it that it had on "Pepper" for heaven's sake. Redefining "revisionism." OTOH, "Hey Bulldog" sounds super.

I would love to hear the catalog remixed. But they are running out of Beatles and Martin's. Hopefully Yoko won't supervise them when they ARE done, eventually

TH

[hakkamacher]

I suppose I'm confused.

Why do I want the masters to be limited at all? Eq'ed?

I heard the sampler a few nights ago. The bass is a lot more upfront, and the kick. Some things (toms,snare) "go away" now when there's a busy bass part. At the same time, it seems some tom sounds are "flatter" now; is that "better"?

Among other little things.

It does sound more upfront and "modern", and probably will sound better on IPods.

I wanted "just a better, 24 bit transfer of what was there". I wanted woofy toms that were ringing, string noises, I looked forward to hearing more detail in sibilances. I liked all the idiosyncratic things that gave them character.

Most people will like it , they'll say it's "punchier". It's funny how being Gen-X I'm both not of the original Beatles generation, nor the "modern" generation at the same time.

[IIIrd]

Originally Posted by hakkamacher

I suppose I'm confused.

Why do I want the masters to be limited at all? Eq'ed?

I heard the sampler a few nights ago. The bass is a lot more upfront, and the kick. Some things (toms,snare) "go away" now when there's a busy bass part. At the same time, it seems some tom sounds are "flatter" now; is that "better"?

Among other little things.

It does sound more upfront and "modern", and probably will sound better on IPods.

I wanted "just a better, 24 bit transfer of what was there". I wanted woofy toms that were ringing, string noises, I looked forward to hearing more detail in sibilances. I liked all the idiosyncratic things that gave them character.

Most people will like it , they'll say it's "punchier". It's funny how being Gen-X I'm both not of the original Beatles generation, nor the "modern" generation at the same time.

the only issue with that is that the tapes when they were cut, were done from mix masters....so flat transfers would not have the cutters eq.
this is basicly what was done in 1987....so you got flat transfers, and with that, the comments and complaints of how thin they sounded by comparision to the vinyls...

these remasters really arnt that different from the originals...if at all.

[nd33]

It seems that this statement in the article someone posted near the start of this thread was missed by many subsequent posters:

"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."

Therefore there is no limiting on the mono remasters! Go get your dynamics if you want it!

[Sirocco]

the monos sound incredible!

[johnlink]

Originally Posted by Sirocco

the monos sound incredible!

Where have you heard them?

[johnlink]

Originally Posted by hakkamacher

I heard the sampler a few nights ago.

Where did you hear it? Can you post a link to it?

[Key]

Originally Posted by nd33

Therefore there is no limiting on the mono remasters! Go get your dynamics if you want it!

Haha I am sure there is a TON of limiting on the monos. Probably why they couldn't use more limiting - they are already heavily compressed.

The compression thing doesn't surprise me. Pretty much expected. I am just wondering about all the tape splices and other "errors" they fixed. Seems a little revisionist. But I don't know if I will be in a hurry to point them out to everyone.

I do still want to hear those monos though I am just a little afraid to listen to the stereos. I think I just stick with my old CDs.

[veucasa]

Originally Posted by Key

I do still want to hear those monos though I am just a little afraid to listen to the stereos. I think I just stick with my old CDs.

I was really impressed with what they did with "Love". If this is anything like that, and I'm sure it is, I doubt there's one of us who won't buy the CD. But yeah, I'll be grabbing the mono versions first!

[johnlink]

I read the following at Amazon.com: The Beatles Mono Box Set: The Beatles: Music about the Mono Box set:

Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be are not included, as they were originally recorded in stereo

So if you want the mono versions of everything that was not released only in stereo as well as the stereo versions of what was released only in stereo, the complete set will cost $269 (=230 + 3*13).

Too bad the mono box set doesn't include Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be in stereo.

[loujudson]

So, do you see any brickwall limiting or square waveforms? It sounds stunning!

[johnlink]

Originally Posted by loujudson

So, do you see any brickwall limiting or square waveforms? It sounds stunning!

Wow! Headroom!

How did you get the CD? My understanding is that they are going to be released 9/9/09.

[Sirocco]

Originally Posted by johnlink

Wow! Headroom!

How did you get the CD? My understanding is that they are going to be released 9/9/09.

some people just happen to know people

[djwaudio]

Listening to the Stereo versions on the Beatle Years broadcast at the moment. Even over radio they sound breathtaking.

[Farshad]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

I just hope they're really, really loud!

I want to hear Beatles mastered like the new Green Day record or Timbaland production or whatever. That's what I want. Hot and bright so that it never gets quiet for even a moment while I'm driving down the highway with the windows down. That's what I want.

- c

LOL!!!

[jono_3]

I was able to pick up the stereo abbey road, srgt pepper, help, and rubber soul a couple days ago, and my mind is very blown. super a+, but i am more excited for the mono versions

[weezul]

awesome^
the mono and stereo box set leaked onto the internet yesterday and the day before...

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by weezul

awesome^
the mono and stereo box set leaked onto the internet yesterday and the day before...

That's fantastic! So you can hear those Prism converters in full MP3 resolution! That's what this project is all about! Warms the cockles of a mastering engineer's heart to hear that.

- c