Beatles Remastered Catalog posted for pre-order on Amazon.uk & HMV.uk! (1 Viewer)

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!

Here's a link to get you started: Please Please Me: The Beatles: Amazon.co.uk: Music

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!

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...

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!!!

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.

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)

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...

"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.

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.

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........

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.

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.

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".

No SACDs I take it?

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.

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.

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.