Sound quality on recent Beatles reissues?

[OutlawSteph1975]

I bought all the Beatles albums (UK versions) when they first came out on cd in the late 80s and still have them all, but today I was listening to the Yellow Submarine reissue that came out a few years ago and was wondering if there are other recent Beatles cds that sound better than the late 80s reissues? I think there's some room for improvement. I know they just did the US versions on cd.. any better?

[Frank_Kimball]

There's a rumor that when George and Giles Martin got into the vaults to work on the "Love" soundtrack, there was actually a project undertaken to restore and remaster ALL the Beatles catalog, and they will probably see light of day in the very near future. Perhaps when the catalog finally appears on digital sites (which defeats the purpose of the high quality remaster, but I digress).

Short story...wait a while...don't buy the current editions, there's better stuff a-comin'...

[TDPRI]

The only remasters are Yellow Submarine and Let it Be Naked.

The Capital box sets one and two are good remasters of the Capital versions of the songs up through Rubber Soul.

I too have heard rumors of George Martin and his son, but I heard that this ended with the LOVE album and nothing more. There is lots of talk, but also lots of hesitation from Olivia and Yoko. Ringo will go along with just about anything and Paul is seen as too opportunistic to be given a free hand.

Earlier in the year Paul said digital distribution was right around the corner and soon afterward Olivia said, that "maybe someday" it would happen.

Who knows at this point. All four have to sign off or nothing happens.

[Heather Anne Peel]

It will happen, and soon. The original remastered CDs were re-mastered by George Martin in 1987, which at this point was as long ago now as their original LPs were then. I thought George Martin did an amazing job with the CDs, but the technology has advanced so far in the past 20 years that I know the newly remastered CDs will reveal much more sonic detail. One thing I have always thought is the original CDs were mastered too quietly. I hope the overall volume is pumped up on the new CDs. I think they will be akin to the 2002 Rolling Stones Abkco Remastered Series, which are a HUGE improvement on the original Stones remastered CDs released in 1986.

[greggorypeccary]

Too bad SACD never took off, The Beatles catalog would sound great in that format.

[OutlawSteph1975]

Originally Posted by Heather Anne Peel

The original remastered CDs were re-mastered by George Martin in 1987, which at this point was as long ago now as their original LPs were then.

That's a scary thought. I remember racing to the local music when I knew they had a new Beatles cd in stock.

I'm indifferent towards downloading. I'd rather have collector's quality cd reissues with the original artwork. I like the cd sleeves that reproduce the original album jacket and artwork. They are more popular in Japan I believe, but I've got a few, and they're really authentic. They even make the cds look like lps. I would think someone would treat the Beatles catalog with the same attention to audio and aethetic detail.

[TDPRI]

Steph, I'm sure this will happen at some point. A fully remastered Beatles catalog will be great. As for downloads, I'm dead set against MP3 downloads and would only be interested in full resolution in Lossless format downloads. That's probably years away, if ever.

So, I buy CDs now and immediately rip them in Lossless format to my Mac Mini music system. I have 9,000 "songs" ripped now (about 650 CDs) and I still buy new CDs to rip. Then I box all the CDs up and put 'em in the attic.

My Mac Mini runs a USB cable to a USB to S/PDIF converter and the this feeds my Muscial Fidelity X-DAC v3 (free standing audiophile digital to audio converter) which is plugged into my integrated amp (Italian Tube/Solid State hybrid amp).

I use iTunes to manage everything and have full album art for every CD and I just flip through the album art to select a "CD" I want to hear. At this very moment I'm listening to James Taylor "October Road".

[Alex W]

I'm all for remastering but I also think that a special edition Beatles iPod, pre-loaded with their songs like the U2 iPod, would be a sensation.

[Frank_Kimball]

We should also consider that the Beatles catalog has not gone untouched, at least for other applications...often to great controversy. The 5.1 remix for the "Yellow Submarine" DVD was generally well-received*, but the "Hard Day's Night" adaptation to 5.1 was debated to the point of tears on several audiophile forums. Seriously, friendships ended. The mono masters were treated with the weirdest compression, microprocessed delay and phasing to spread the music out among the six channels; it's widely argued that they were also mixed way too loud and mastered with a loss of dynamic range from even the mono originals.

You could also start a flame war by discussing Jeff Lynne's involvement in the reassembled "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" from the Anthology DVDs and CDs. But I won't.

*You must hear "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in 5.1. When the music "drifts past the flowers/that grow so incredibly high", Lennon's vocals actually bloom and ascend in the rear channels until he's hovering weightless 20 feet overhead and behind you on the couch (audio hallucination spectacularly applied).

[tiktok]

The Beatles catalog could definitely do with re-mastering. Half the stuff sounds like it's in mono, the rest like the drums are coming out of one speaker and the vocals out of another.

[OutlawSteph1975]

Originally Posted by tiktok

Half the stuff sounds like it's in mono, the rest like the drums are coming out of one speaker and the vocals out of another.

The first Byrds boxed set from 1990 featured some odd stereo mixes with false sounding (IMHO) wide panning which wasn't on the original stereo albums. On the new boxed set they put several songs, such as Turn Turn Turn, back to MONO which sounds wonderful. The first two albums were recorded in mono so it's authentic as well. You're experiencing the music as it was intended to be listened to in the 60s... albeit an updated experience with modern technology.

[Heather Anne Peel]

Originally Posted by tiktok

The Beatles catalog could definitely do with re-mastering. Half the stuff sounds like it's in mono, the rest like the drums are coming out of one speaker and the vocals out of another.

That is a separate issue, as that was the way the tracks were actually mixed! Changing the actual mix would truly be altering history, and I think that would be a terrible idea. The mixes are actually very representative of the era and are part of the charm of the records. The Beatles and George Martin had to really push the technology to fit the instrumentation onto the limited number of tracks they had to work with. I think enhancing the existing mixes, rather than altering them is the way to go. Besides, the classic Neumann mics and other now vintage gear the Beatles used created such warm analog tones, which modern mixes totally lack. Enhancing all of that is the direction for the re-masters, not remixing the tracks.

[Frank_Kimball]

True true. Another nice A/B mono/stereo demonstration is the 2001 reissue of Pet Sounds. We have to imagine that music of the era was mastered to sound good coming out of a 4-inch dashboard speaker, or a hinged-top portable phonograph with a stylus you would buy from Woolworth's.

[Alex W]

I don't know why the music industry still clings to the notion of a single, definitive mix for a given song or album. With digital distribution, whether it's CD or downloads, there is no reason why there couldn't be more than mix available on a single disc, especially with the Beatles albums, most of which have fairly short running times.

[tkingen]

For those of us who already bought the catalog on vinyl, then cassette tape, and then CD - any improvements ought to be given to us for free!

[blacklinefish]

Imagine a future digital format that has all of the separate tracks in a raw, but clean format. Then along with this format is a code or formatting program that mixes the tracks in 2-3 different settings (HI-FI, car, portable player) in real-time. In addition, there are a few slots left where you could load mixes that people put up on the web for fun, etc.

I have no idea what I am talking about.

--gh

[getbent]

Originally Posted by blacklinefish

Imagine a future digital format that has all of the separate tracks in a raw, but clean format. Then along with this format is a code or formatting program that mixes the tracks in 2-3 different settings (HI-FI, car, portable player) in real-time. In addition, there are a few slots left where you could load mixes that people put up on the web for fun, etc.

I have no idea what I am talking about.

--gh

This is a cool idea. NIN did this a couple of years ago... (or something like it) they put up a couple of songs so that you could download them in GarageBand and remix them... it was pretty cool and the results were actually pretty interesting....