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Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

post #1 of 68
4/7/09 at 3:07am
Thread Starter 
The Beatles catalog is finally remastered and being released the same day as the video game: September 9th, 2009! Sorry, I don't have the liink!
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post #2 of 68
4/7/09 at 5:50am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Here's a link to get you started: Please Please Me: The Beatles: Amazon.co.uk: Music
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post #3 of 68
4/7/09 at 6:36am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Great.....now I'm gonna have to buy the White Album again.

Looks like I better save my pennies. September 9th is gonna be expensive.
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post #4 of 68
4/7/09 at 8:17am
Thread Starter 

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

According to the official Apple press release, it's TWO BOX SETS, containing all the original mono and stereo mixes, INCLUDING the original 1965 stereo mixes of "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" albums. Plus the first ten albums in their original dedicated mono UK mixes!
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post #5 of 68
4/7/09 at 8:55am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

The Beatles Remastered! TheBeatles.com

Good thing I've held off buying the CD singles box.

The mono set's Rubber Soul and Help! discs will also feature the original stereo mixes on the CD's (not the "One Hour-Martinized" mixes, which I assume are being done to the stereo issues). Past Masters will now appear as a single CD in both mono and stereo versions. "You Know My Name, Look Up The Number" finally in stereo in its b-side version???

This will likely finally finish off the "Dr. Ebbetts" clones that have continued to surface. It's only taken something like thirty years since the blue, black and red British LP boxes and MFSL, but we'll finaly have access again to the complete Mono and Stereo Beatles catalogues, and in (hopefully) the best presentation they will ever likely see.

One thing though: NO BRICK WALL COMPRESSION PLEASE!!!


caveat/rant: in the interest of space, couldn't they have just fit most Mono & Stereo albums together on 1 CD? Longer ones could have been done in a double jacket. It's a waste of space...now, back to the happy stuff...
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post #6 of 68
4/7/09 at 9:17am
Thread Starter 

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

The Beatles' website press release says specifically that no brickwalling was used in the remasterings, and less than 5 minutes of audio content was subjected to No-Noise treatment. The analog to digital transfers were done using a Prism 192k/24-bit encoder and took 4 YEARS to complete. I think we can safely say that we're looking at quality product to buy come September 9th, 2009!!!
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post #7 of 68
4/7/09 at 11:06am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
Originally Posted by lukejosephchung
The Beatles' website press release says specifically that no brickwalling was used in the remasterings, and less than 5 minutes of audio content was subjected to No-Noise treatment. The analog to digital transfers were done using a Prism 192k/24-bit encoder and took 4 YEARS to complete. I think we can safely say that we're looking at quality product to buy come September 9th, 2009!!!

Where did it say all that? All I see from here is:

Quote:
The albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.

BTW, Help! and Rubber Soul did make it to CD in their original mixes - way back when they were first issued in Canada - and quite by accident, which was "rectified" by EMI fairly quickly. This was discovered only a few years ago and prices for the old Cinram made CDs shot up on ebay from the fuss.
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post #8 of 68
4/7/09 at 12:15pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

You need to see the long version of the press release for the tech specs:

IMWAN • View topic - [2009-09-09] The Beatles remasters (Apple/EMI)
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post #9 of 68
4/7/09 at 1:12pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

I'm in for both boxes. Of course, I'll be buying Beatles Rock Band as well.

I think I may have to take the day off from work...
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post #10 of 68
4/7/09 at 1:37pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

"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."


Crap.

If you start limiting the master tapes, you aren't "maintaining the original dynamics of the recordings".
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post #11 of 68
4/7/09 at 3:51pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Paynter
"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."


Crap.

If you start limiting the master tapes, you aren't "maintaining the original dynamics of the recordings".

I finally saw the full article, and saw that too.

I agree.

And "fixing" things? Come on. Why not leave them with all the clicks, and bad edits, and everything else we've come to know so well all these years?

And they used Pro-Tools? Making all the eq and level changes after the fact in the digital domain? Double crap.
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post #12 of 68
4/7/09 at 5:57pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Well they said "limiting", which is not the same as compression, and it's overcompression which is what can suck the life out of the music by reducing its dynamic range.

As far as limiting i.e. bringing up recording levels to digital's 0dB recording point (after 0dB can be the cause of audible distortion) that doesn't bother me because there's nothing wrong with increasing the *average* volume level of a CD, and that's a good thing because doing so allows more of the sample words' bits to be used, increasing resolution especially at low volume levels* (this is a significant reason why reportedly many audiophiles who listen to classical aren't happy with CD's 16 bit format: because of the very large volume swings in much classical music, at low levels many say that the music lacks delicacy and it is difficult to hear fine details, the same details they say they can otherwise hear on the sacd and XXHz/24bit dvd-audio versions).


* the more bits that are used, the more - and more importantly - the finer the voltage steps that analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog convertors have available to them to encode and decode (respectively) a musical waveform.
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post #13 of 68
4/7/09 at 6:07pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Wow this is great news. Jeez after all these years! And it's nice to see the packaging being upgraded to something more fitting for a band of this stature.

What is also very interesting to me is that the mixes we'll be getting are the original European ones. ---> I'm no Beatles expert so does anyone have any stories or factoids about that?

And the fact the tapes were converted to the 192/24 PCM format is thought provoking - maybe when the economy gets better.......dvd-audios? Multichannel mixes? Hmm........
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post #14 of 68
4/7/09 at 8:49pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

I love how with the press release they went into double-elaborate detail to keep the nitpickers from going nuts, but here they are, going nuts. Not just on this forum, I mean generally speaking, there will always be some fans who believe the sound of a badly aligned piece of editing tape was MEANT to make a brrrrp sound as it flew past the playback head, or that a particular drop-out was meant to have flaked off.

But look at the respect they gave this, down to more listening tests than even contemporary bands are afforded. The description detailed everything except what food and drink the engineers had as they labored on this project.
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post #15 of 68
4/7/09 at 10:07pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

I'm worried about the "fixing"--I always miss the dropout when I hear "Day Tripper" on the 1 compilation.

Kinda wish there were some unreleased tracks on these, but I'll be saving up for both sets either way.
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post #16 of 68
4/8/09 at 7:53am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
"You Know My Name, Look Up The Number" finally in stereo in its b-side version???
I have the 45RPM single of Let It Be. You Know My Name is mono. I don't think it was ever released in stereo until the version on "Anthology".
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post #17 of 68
4/8/09 at 10:08am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

No SACDs I take it?
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post #18 of 68
4/8/09 at 11:11am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Using Amazon.uk's pricing and XE.com's currency converter I got a figure of $205.36 USD for the 14 individual releases. Naturally the White Album and the now-combined "Past Masters" comp are double-priced. Hopefully we're not looking at much more than $200 per for the box sets. I'm sure we're all familiar with box set pricing on this forum, sometimes the powers that be cut those who buy the box set a break, making it a better deal. I've seen this happen even when there's additional content in the box. Other times they do charge a premium for the box (and in this case, the DVD).

Between the two box sets and "Beatles Rock Band" Number 9, Number 9, Number 9 is going to be an expensive day. I want the $250 "Rock Band" bundle but whether or not I can afford it is up to debate. With two $200 box sets on top of that I'm already worrying about budgeting (which explains why I'm even calculating these prices in the first place).

I just wish they'd announce official pricing so I could know how much to start saving.
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post #19 of 68
4/8/09 at 11:34am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

I'm probably in the minority but I think that Real Love and Free as a Bird should be included in the collection.
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post #20 of 68
4/8/09 at 11:48am

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Albert_M
I'm probably in the minority but I think that Real Love and Free as a Bird should be included in the collection.
I'll give you Free As a Bird, posthumously speaking.
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post #21 of 68
4/8/09 at 12:00pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

I'd vote against "Real Love" and "Free as a Bird" being included.

These releases have a very specific purpose: to bring the original 1987 CD releases up to speed. The Anthology releases aren't in desperate need of remastering like the releases in question. Granted, now they'll sound worse compared to the new remasters.

There's also the issue of including everything. If they're going to remaster those two songs they should remaster all 3 "Anthology" volumes because that's where they belong, not lumped in with a collection that essentially compiles the output released during the band's original period of activity.
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post #22 of 68
4/8/09 at 12:28pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Upon further thought, I think it's optional.

Pro: John wrote and recorded them. They were not released as solo material. The 'Threetles' added layers and gave the tracks their final shape for release. They were released under the legal authority of The Beatles (tm).

Con: There is no evidence that they were intended for use as Beatles tracks. They were written and recorded by John Lennon during a period when the Beatles were not working together, as a band, on recording projects.
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post #23 of 68
4/8/09 at 12:40pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

I don't have a problem with the songs. If they thought they could remaster the Anthology releases and make them sound noticeably better I'd be all for it.

I just don't think Anthology content belongs in these releases. The original '87 cds are outdated and that's what they're addressing.

Again, now the stuff from the early 90's like the Anthology and the BBC Sessions will be the portion of the Beatles catalog that can benefit from remastering and they can devote the time to do that.

But as it stands you have everything up to "BBC Sessions" that sounds pretty poor and that is being rectified.
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post #24 of 68
4/8/09 at 12:45pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip Hamm
I have the 45RPM single of Let It Be. You Know My Name is mono. I don't think it was ever released in stereo until the version on "Anthology".

Since YKMNLUTN was a mono b-side, and mono on Past Masters, and stereo (but incomplete) in the Anthology, I would hope each version appears on the mono and stereo PM remasters respectively, although the stereo mix (like many of the seesion outakes in Anthology) used modern digital reverb for ambience, where bootleg recordings of session reels were dry.
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post #25 of 68
4/8/09 at 1:05pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

I don't see how they would be out of place added on to the end of Past Master vol 2 which is not an album with any coherence to begin with.

These are Beatles songs and since the Past Masters will be updated, why not throw them on there for complete singles purposes?
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post #26 of 68
4/8/09 at 2:15pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
I don't see how they would be out of place added on to the end of Past Master vol 2 which is not an album with any coherence to begin with.

These are Beatles songs and since the Past Masters will be updated, why not throw them on there for complete singles purposes?

The "Past Masters" comps were made up of singles and b-sides that were previously-released.

At the time of the 1987 CD releases everything present was something that was released on vinyl before.

Basically all of these tracks could be represented in a vintage vinyl collection in 1970 whereas the "Anthology" stuff wasn't unreleased until the 90's.

There's a 25-year-plus gap between the 1970 release of "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number") on the "Let it Be" B-Side and the 1995 release of "Free as a Bird" so yeah, there is a huge difference.
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post #27 of 68
4/8/09 at 2:26pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
I just wish they'd announce official pricing so I could know how much to start saving.
FWIW, Bill, I think your estimates are pretty reasonable. I'm budgeting for a $650-$700 day, myself. Luckily I'm buying a LOT less BDs, DVDs & CDs this year than I have in the past, so I should have the scratch.

I find it odd that all this stuff is coming out on one day. The Beatles have been dribbling product out so slowly over the past couple of decades. The original CD releases came out over a 10-month period (if I recall correctly). To get this massive product dump all at once is both a blessing and a curse.
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post #28 of 68
4/8/09 at 2:42pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
The "Past Masters" comps were made up of singles and b-sides that were previously-released.

Correct, they didn't exist then, but they do now. And?


Quote:
Basically all of these tracks could be represented in a vintage vinyl collection in 1970 whereas the "Anthology" stuff wasn't unreleased until the 90's

Quote:
There's a 25-year-plus gap between the 1970 release of "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number") on the "Let it Be" B-Side and the 1995 release of "Free as a Bird" so yeah, there is a huge difference.

No there isn't. You know my name is as odd as it gets (i like it don't get me wrong).

As stated, Past Masters was a way to collect all of the non album songs - not singles but songs (across the universe).

This disrupts no flow - because there is no flow and only adds to the historical context of Beatles songs.
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post #29 of 68
4/8/09 at 3:47pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

So, do you suppose that they had to do a new needledrop from an original 45 for the remastered Past Masters version of "Love Me Do" like they had to do the first time?
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post #30 of 68
4/8/09 at 3:47pm

Re: Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk!

Quote:
No there isn't. You know my name is as odd as it gets (i like it don't get me wrong).

As stated, Past Masters was a way to collect all of the non album songs - not singles but songs (across the universe).

This disrupts no flow - because there is no flow and only adds to the historical context of Beatles songs.

Yeah and so do all the other scores of tracks on the Anthology.

So yeah, they should just compile a big 8-disc "Past Masters Anthology" hybrid release to get all the non-album tracks. They can throw "Let it Be... Naked" on there too while they're at it and make it 10 discs.

Or, you know, they could just leave "Past Masters" as a vinyl-era compilation like its been for the past 22 years, remaster the stuff from '87 that is in desperate need of remastering and leave "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" on the Anthology like they've been for 13 years and call it good.

Again, those tracks have no place on this release. This is a remastered release focusing on the original Beatles canon, the officially-released material from 1962 to 1970.

You could arguably lump the "Let it Be"-era releases into the "posthumous" category with BBC, Anthology, LIB...N etc. but once again the 25-year gap comes into play here. If you can't understand why recordings from 1995 aren't being included then I guess this is just a lost cause.

In 1987 everything the Beatles released was issued on CD. This is just an updated version of that.

Maybe we'll get "Anthology" remasters in 2017.
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