Beatles Remastered CD's

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Beatles Remastered CD's

Postby Nick H. » Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:30 pm

Has anyone heard any of them yet? I bought a few of them and really like them so far...
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Postby Malcolm Boyce » Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:05 pm

I'll call upon our resident Beatleologist... Beatologist.... Beatle expert, Mike Girouard...

Oh Mike....
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It just fills Forum pages..." --compasspnt

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Postby fish » Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:18 pm

Warning: In the interest of full disclosure, I am a neurotic Beatles junkie, and am pretty damned far from an "objective" reviewer. I like The Beatles like most people like sunlight and oxygen.

With that warning out of the way, I picked up the mono box set and it's STUNNING. The attention to detail in the packaging is top notch and probably sets the standard for cd packaging. The transfers are very nice sounding and reasonably complete (except for the horrible CRIME of not including Remix 11 of "Tomorrow Never Knows" from the very first UK pressing of REVOLVER on the "Mono Masters" CD...I wasn't kidding about neurotic!)

rant mode: on

I also picked up about half a dozen of the stereo titles and I'm on the fence. Yes, they sound good. Yes, they're better than the 87 cds. Do they sound better than vinyl? NO (by the head of the projects own admission!) Are they better than bootleg "needle-drop" cds from vinyl like Millennium Remasters, Mirror Spock or the Dr. Ebbetts series? In my opinion, no... as good, but not better, and if you're asking people to pony up $$$ it should be MUCH better (Especially $300 for a box set!!).

I realize that not everyone is as hard-core me (but Mal, you *did* ask for my opinion), and for the vast majority of casual Beatle fans the remasters will do nicely, BUT, the simple fact is, that as nice as the remasters sound, they pale in comparision to what could have been achieved with remixing. The catalogue needs to be REMIXED much more than it needed to be *remastered*... Like it or hate it, no one can deny that "LOVE" (which was remixed from the original multi-tracks) sounds incredible. Listen to the *true stereo* (finally, after 40 years!) version of "I Am The Walrus" on "LOVE" then listen to the "remastered" version on Magical Mystery Tour...no comparison, the "LOVE" version blows it out of the water. Listen to "Eleanor Rigby" from the now 10 year old "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" (remixed) then listen to the version from the "Revolver" remaster...again, no compasision. In fact, the Yellow Submarine Songtrack remains the best sounding Beatles cd (LOVE doesn't really count) despite it having been released 10 years ago, and really, when you're talking about the greatest 525 minutes of music in pop history, that's just sad... and it deserves better treatment.

Again, just my opinion, your milage may vary, offer void in Utah, etc, etc.

rant mode: off
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Postby Malcolm Boyce » Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:00 am

I knew he'd have a well formed opinion by now.

I wish I had a broader familiarity of the Beatles catalogue, but I don't. I'm sure with time, I could learn to hear the difference between the many versions, but I'm sorry to say I don't, or haven't.

The Beatles to me are just this entity that exists to pleasure me when I come upon their sound, words or image.

I'm certainly not saying that I couldn't tell the difference upon comparison between the 80s CDs, and the new "remasters". I can tell you that if you played me one in isolation, I probably couldn't tell you which collection it was from.

I do find it interesting the differing opinions of what people like about these, and many other collections of music being "revisited". Mike loves the "tweaked" remixes on "Love", and some fans, including serious recordists, hate the thing.

As fish said... YMMV

So on the Beatles' "1" album, what is the history of those versions?
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It just fills Forum pages..." --compasspnt

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Postby fish » Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:26 am

Malcolm Boyce wrote:I do find it interesting the differing opinions of what people like about these, and many other collections of music being "revisited". Mike loves the "tweaked" remixes on "Love", and some fans, including serious recordists, hate the thing.


That's why I said "Like it or hate it", alot of people dislike the mixing choices that were made (they seem to forget that it was a "sound track" for a live show, not a "beatles album" proper), but ANYONE who says the sound quality *isn't* spectacular, has cloth ears... again, it isn't a "proper" Beatles album, but it clearly shows what can be achieved (sound quality wise) using the multis, and not the 2 track masters which suffer, generally, from bad stereo mixing choices in an era when stereo was regarded as a "gimmick".

The "1" compilation was remastered, and not remixed. The over use of noise reduction sucks the life out of every song on the album. Aside from fixing the "drop out" in Day Tripper, and clearly being able to hear the piano in the opening chord of "A Hard Days Night" it has no redeeming social value whatsoever except to EMI who sold a boat load of copies ;-)
Last edited by fish on Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby fish » Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:30 am

again, just my opinion...
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