Non-Disney Entertainment
Topic: Beatles reissues (and my issues)

#	Author	Message
1	alexbook Mon 7/13/2009 2:52p	So, the Beatles are reissuing their whole catalog, all newly remixed using the latest technology and with various bonus features like limited edition packaging and "making of" documentaries. It's the first complete reissue since they released these records on CD back in the 1980's. What's bugging me is that every single advertisement and news story I've seen or heard has used the phrase "digitally remastered for the first time." Were the previous CDs not "digitally remastered"? Or is it that the previous CDs were digitally mastered and this is the first complete *re*mastering? Or what? Nobody seems to know. This is the kind of thing that drives me up the wall.
2	mawnck Mon 7/13/2009 3:23p	The first batch of Beatles CDs, released in 1987, were indeed "digitally remastered," as is every audio CD on the planet that is sourced from an analog tape or disc. You may thank the marketing weenies for the confusion, as usual. What they MEAN is that the Beatles catalog has never been *upgraded* from the 1987 versions. In other words, if you go to Target today and buy one of the "core" Beatles albums, you'll get the exact same sound quality as a disc from 20 years ago. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Most "remasters" nowadays are made to make the CDs louder, and not necessarily to improve the sound. CDs were designed to handle a certain audio level, and that level has been largely ignored since the late 90s. Extra processing is necessary to get the extra volume out of an audio format that wasn't designed for it, so audiophiles will often prefer the older, less futzed editions. Joe Sixpack, on the other hand, doesn't appreciate the damage, and just gets mad that the older CD is "too soft." The 1987 Beatles CDs are recorded at the older (correct) level, but the situation is a little different. Even in 1987, EMI's work on the Beatles recordings was criticized as a botched job. The first four albums were rather poor dubs from mono master tapes, while "Help" and "Rubber Soul" were digitally **remixed** (IE new mix, new reverb, new EQ) and sounded different from the original Beatle-approved versions. "Revolver" and up were better, taken from the first generation mix tapes, with the only major criticism being some overuse of noise reduction. (More to follow.)
3	mawnck Mon 7/13/2009 3:31p	So, onward to the new batch. We do know it will be at least somewhat louder, because that's what 99% of the population expects. They promise that they have not maxed it out like so many other recent CDs have done. We do know that they are using the very finest 2009 technology to get the optimal sound from the masters. We do know that the first four albums will be stereo, except for a few "Please Please Me" cuts that were never stereo to begin with. Unfortunately, we also know that they will be using the 1987 mixes of "Help" and "Rubber Soul." And that they've used noise reduction again, although they promise it's only about 5 minutes out of the whole catalog, and we'll never even notice. (This kind of thing makes my teeth itch.) Of course they're in spiffier packages too, which they'd pretty much have to be after the 1987 no-frills versions. (Still more to follow.)
4	A Happy Haunt Mon 7/13/2009 3:40p	my collection of Beatles CD will do..I do not feel the need to "upgrade". anyone else?
5	alexbook Mon 7/13/2009 3:40p	>>We do know that the first four albums will be stereo, except for a few "Please Please Me" cuts that were never stereo to begin with.<< I've read that they're going to be releasing both stereo and mono mixes of some tracks, which should be amusing.
6	mawnck Mon 7/13/2009 3:40p	The CDs are also available as a big box set with extra goodies. So what if you PREFER the mono versions, which a lot of us do? (Yes, they're different, sometimes dramatically so.) And what if you want the REAL stereo mixes of "Help" and "Rubber Soul"? They've got *another* limited edition box set just for you. Remastered mono editions of all the albums from "Please Please Me" to the White Album (which was the last one for which a mono mix exists), plus the original 1965-66 stereo mixes of the two "problem" albums. Not sold separately. So if you're a True Beatles Fan, you're looking at well north of $400, and you'd probably better preorder now if you want the box sets. Drat them and their darn musical genius.
7	alexbook Mon 7/13/2009 3:42p	>>The first batch of Beatles CDs, released in 1987, were indeed "digitally remastered," as is every audio CD on the planet that is sourced from an analog tape or disc. You may thank the marketing weenies for the confusion, as usual.<< Yes, I'm not objecting to the reissues themselves, just to the marketing. I'm enough of a nerd that hearing and reading the phrase "digitally remastered for the first time" multiple times a day is like fingernails on a chalkboard. I'm afraid that two more months of it will send me to the loony bin. It's bugging me even more than when they advertised "1" as containing "27 number 1 hits," which it didn't, or "Let It Be ... Naked" as the original 1969 mix of "Let It Be," which it wasn't.
8	alexbook Mon 7/13/2009 3:44p	>>my collection of Beatles CD will do..I do not feel the need to "upgrade". anyone else?<< I won't be upgrading anytime soon. I'd rather buy new music. Now, if they would actually release something new (like the Christmas album, or the Hollywood Bowl album), I'd be rushing to pre-order it.
9	alexbook Mon 7/13/2009 3:45p	>>Not sold separately.<< Don't you hate when they do that?
10	mawnck Mon 7/13/2009 3:49p	>>I've read that they're going to be releasing both stereo and mono mixes of some tracks, which should be amusing.<< Nothing amusing about it, actually. In many cases (Paperback Writer, Yellow Submarine, Lady Madonna, the entire With the Beatles album just to name a few), the stereo mix - the official one - is kind of a mess. Mono was considered more important, since that was what was going on the radio and in the jukeboxes. The mono was also mixed first, and there were a few cases where a careless engineer hit "record" instead of "play," erasing some brief bits of the session tracks, which meant they had to work around them when making the stereo version. One of the reasons people like me were so eager to snap up such things as the "Capitol Albums" box sets and the "Complete Singles" megabox (where you paid a ridiculous sum for a stack of 2-song discs) was to get the superior mono mixes. Had they done a better job on the first 6 CDs in 1987, I might not be considering this batch myself.

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