Beatles Remastered on Sept 9,09

[dcdiscs]

Heres the link to the Reuters article
Original Beatles digitally remastered | Reuters

Of special interest is the remastered box set called "The Beatles in Mono" they will also release the stereo box set of course.

You all think that they remaster the recordings from the original tapes?
Or maybe the CDs released in the 80s

Either way the mono ones could be worth checking out and it will be interesting to hear the reviews once they are out compared to the vinyl releases

[5thString]

I can't wait to hear the mono mixes!!

[Silver Sonya]

Amazing.

Will the CD even exist as a format in September?

These people wrung their hands for a quarter of a century and just in time, they finally do it. I guess they realized that if they tried it in 2010, it might not work. Last chance to make a corporate windfall on a super-high-profit-margin product that won't exist in a few years time.

If they're smart, they'll charge $20+ per disc. People will pay it. But never again.

- c

[Silver Sonya]

Ha! Pitchfork beat me to this angle. "Just in time for the death of the CD!"

- c

[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.

[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

[Ngr]

[quote=Silver Sonya;4072076]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[/quote

you are crazy

[johnlink]

The Reuters article starts off as follows:

The original Beatles catalogue has been digitally remastered for the first time and will go on sale in CD format on September 9, the band's record label and company said on Tuesday.

Given that much (all?) of the Beatles catalogue has already been released on CD, what is the meaning of "digitally remastered for the first time"?

John Link

[silverking]

I wonder if with previous CD releases the original analog masters were remastered in the analog domain? (as many of todays high end digital hardware and software as typically used for mastering purposes may not have been around for the original remastering process to CD).

Perhaps this current round of remasters entered the digital domain directly from the master tapes, and then never left (Weiss, TC6000, etc).

Either that or it's all just "marketing speak".

[Silvertone]

Originally Posted by johnlink

The Reuters article starts off as follows:



Given that much (all?) of the Beatles catalogue has already been released on CD, what is the meaning of "digitally remastered for the first time"?

John Link

Not the mono LP's that Chris Muth played me a couple weeks ago when I was down to his place. Geoff Emerick had given him these LP's personally... you've never heard Ringo's drums sound like that or Paul's bass have so much depth... the string sections... wholly molly!

Chris was trying to get the remastering of these... hopefully the EMI kids just did a fantastic transfer of the tapes and called it a day... hopefully...

I've never heard the Beatles like that before... it didn't hurt that it was being played through Chris' personal mastering system either off a Linn turntable!

[oceantracks]

Originally Posted by Silvertone

Not the mono LP's that Chris Muth played me a couple weeks ago when I was down to his place. Geoff Emerick had given him these LP's personally... you've never heard Ringo's drums sound like that or Paul's bass have so much depth... the string sections... wholly molly!

Chris was trying to get the remastering of these... hopefully the EMI kids just did a fantastic transfer of the tapes and called it a day... hopefully...

I've never heard the Beatles like that before... it didn't hurt that it was being played through Chris' personal mastering system either off a Linn turntable!

LINN Turntable

[dcdiscs]

to Hummer...great info on the remaster process, thanx for sharing that

from Silver Sonya
"Will the CD even exist as a format in September?"

Ha.. so true!
I wish this remastering process was for a Vinyl box set! That would be something Id spend my money on

[samuelzero]

Personally, this frightens me. Once the remasters come out, it becomes impossible to find the original versions.

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt to some degree, but my confidence level is low that these things will sound good. One of the articles I read about this mentioned how the remasters should sound better on IPODS. Bad sign.

[silverking]

The folks at MOJO magazine did an entire article on how they received an invitation from EMI to come on by Abbey Road and have a listen.

The relatively knowledgable MOJO folks reported in the article that the re-masters sounded unbelievably fantastic.

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by Ngr

you are crazy

I was kidding.

- c

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

Ha! Pitchfork beat me to this angle. "Just in time for the death of the CD!"

- c

Just how in the heck is an easily projected well over 300 million units sales for 2009 in North America "the death of CD"? Marked and irreversible decline - heck yes - but with people calling 2 million units of LP's in the same market area as a "resurgeance" it seems the actual death of CD is about 5 - 10 years from now - and will most likely still survive as a niche format in the same way vinyl has.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[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. Younger bands seem utterly unconcerned with sequencing, crossfading, gaps between songs, etc.

Interesting theory about it surviving as a niche thing. I don't know. I imagine it will be obviated by whatever's coming next; presumably high-res downloads + vinyl for the sound-quality-conscious or I-just-want-something-to-hold-in-my-hands consumer, lo-res downloads for everybody else. Password-protected access to some kind of "cloud" where all your files are stored with access anytime you want. I don't know. It'll be interesting. I don't imagine that CD's will be part of that landscape, but I'm no visionary. Don't know what the future holds, exactly.

- c

[Silver Sonya]

I contend that the consumer would buy music again, if it was priced at $5/album. I think, given the landscape of other consumer choices (Blurays/DVD's for $15, video games, etc.) that that's about where the valuation of music has landed in most people's minds. The music industry just can't fathom this or is insulted/scandalized by it and thus continues to spin downward towards the abyss of irrelevance in most people's minds.

But this is a Beatles thread, so I shouldn't drift too far OT.

On the actual topic, I'm relieved to see that care was put into doing this right --- and that it has been years of work --- I'm only hoping that there was no concession to modern loudness practices.

I'm curious.

How many of you predict the new Beatles CDs will have modern-style limiting?

How many of you predict that they won't?

Will we see "Penny Lane" and "Come Together" as a brick waveform? Will our heroes survive?

Tune in in September!

- c

[Waltz Mastering]

Originally Posted by hummer

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.

[Silver Sonya]

My only question is what qualifies as "moderately"?

I'm trying to be optimistic about this, but so many reissues fall into this trap. They just did it to The Smiths, for God's sakes. What's the point of loudness-war-izing The Smiths? Where does that get anyone?

- c

[Waltz Mastering]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

My only question is what qualifies as "moderately"?

I'm trying to be optimistic about this, but so many reissues fall into this trap. They just did it to The Smiths, for God's sakes. What's the point of loudness-war-izing The Smiths? Where does that get anyone?

- c

Steve Rooke did the "Love" album as well so I'm sure it was as consistently very well done, thank god.

[twwalsh]

i feel confident that these will sound better than the original cds. converters and processing technology have come a long way since the first masters. even if they are over-limited, i think the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. love sounded good, let it be naked sounded good, and the anthology sounded good. i'm psyched to hear them.

[sleeper1400]

no thanks, I'll just listen to the vinyl.

[silverking]

09/09/09 release date?

That's a lot of number 9's stike

[johnlink]

Originally Posted by silverking

09/09/09 release date?

That's a lot of number 9's stike

That's funny. I had missed that.

John Link

[Silver Sonya]

At the very least, this is a HUGE ADVERTISEMENT for Prism converters.

I'm really surprised they're not shouting about it on their website!

- c

[Adam Dempsey]

Originally Posted by silverking

09/09/09 release date?

That's a lot of number 9's stike

Excellent point.

I recall, years ago, dropping coins into a jukebox, setting it to play Revolution 9 three times in a row (maximum selection) then leaving the venue. Hilarious...

[hobson]

Originally Posted by silverking

09/09/09 release date?

That's a lot of number 9's stike

just like the Beatles - still offering up mystical meanings.. play that date backwards (upside down) and see what message you get.. hmmm...

how about the "one after" 9/9/09?

Paul is the only Walrus left.

[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.

[Waltz Mastering]

Harmonix is also releasing Rock Star Beatles on the same day as the masters, and since they're doing that I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be releasing the new masters through Itunes as well. Someones going to make a lot of $ on 9/9/9 ; )