The Beatles Remasters (9/9/9)

Downloading this now, apparently it really sounds great... pretty excited to go through their catalog again...

okay I just listened to Sgt. Peppers... holy fucking crap

wow another excuse to pay for music I already own where do i sign

Stop with this remastering everything

Revolution 9 is totally idm

I need to get this

I hope the mono albums will be released individually. I've been after a decent quality version of the mono white album for as long as I can remember. And I really want these stereo remasters too.

lennon once said you haven't heard sgt peppers til you've heard it in mono

most of the remasters of old albums sound worse than the originals. they just make them louder and call it a remaster.

  On 9/5/2009 at 6:18 PM, azatoth said:

most of the remasters of old albums sound worse than the originals. they just make them louder and call it a remaster.

these sound better, not louder

yes the remasters sound incredible. I cant afford the box set but I might be getting some of the remastered cd individually.

  On 9/5/2009 at 6:18 PM, azatoth said:

most of the remasters of old albums sound worse than the originals. they just make them louder and call it a remaster.

You need to get your ears checked.

i should add that i have not heard these beatles remasters, they could well be good. was just commenting on remastering in general.

is there a blog or something that compares the new remasters to the current stuff?

WOW! almost finished with sgt peppers, i downloaded everything. It still retains that crispyness, but BASS, BASS, BASS. Wow. Great job!

i really notice that the effects, especially the slap back echo on vocals, are much more pronounced.

every remastered album has now hit the web. i'm gonna grab em bc i'm shelling out the $250 for the deluxe Beatles Rock Band game, so they got my money.

this sounds AMAZING! i'm currently listening to my fave album by them, revolver.

yeah i'm looking forward to revolver and rubber soul. and everything really.

I've listened to sgt. peppers, help, and the white album (listed as "The Beatles" in the remasters).

Help still was very grungy sounding, but a lil more polished, again bass, but not so much as sgt peppers. White album, som e places i couldn't really hear much of a different, but in others i certainly heard much more clarity on effects once again, especially vocals. I a/b'ed with my from cd rip full quality wavs, and i seemed to hear reverb tails were more pronounced, and it seemed to have more headroom and less of a compressed feeling. These are albums I am retardedly familiar with so i know i'm not imagining things. Also listening on studio monitors + decent studio headphones (for playback not mixing)

scanned all my favorite tracks, fucking amazing. Strawberry Fields is still the most beautiful pop song ever written. i like the stereo imaging, sounds very much like you're standing in Abbey Road Studio 2 facing the band and they are all spread out in the room.

  Quote

Re-mastering the Beatles catalogue

 

The re-mastering process commenced with an extensive period conducting tests

before finally copying the analogue master tapes into the digital medium.

When this was completed, the transfer was achieved using a Pro Tools

workstation operating at 24 bit 192 kHz resolution via a Prism A-D

converter. Transferring was a lengthy procedure done a track at a time.

Although EMI tape does not suffer the oxide loss associated with some later

analogue tapes, there was nevertheless a slight build up of dust, which was

removed from the tape machine heads between each title.

 

From the onset, considerable thought was given to what audio restorative

processes were going to be allowed. It was agreed that electrical clicks,

microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance and bad edits should be improved

where possible, so long as it didn't impact on the original integrity of the

songs.

 

In addition, de-noising technology, which is often associated with

re-mastering, was to be used, but subtly and sparingly. Eventually, less

than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to this process.

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.

 

When all of the albums had been transferred, each song was then listened to

several times to locate any of the agreed imperfections. These were then

addressed by Guy Massey, working with Audio Restoration engineer Simon

Gibson.

 

Mastering could now take place, once the earliest vinyl pressings, along

with the existing CDs, were loaded into Pro Tools, thus allowing comparisons

to be made with the original master tapes during the equalization process.

When an album had been completed, it was auditioned the next day in studio

three - a room familiar to the engineers, as all of the recent Beatles

mixing projects had taken place in there - and any further alteration of EQ

could be addressed back in the mastering room. Following the initial

satisfaction of Guy and Steve, Allan Rouse and Mike Heatley then checked

each new re-master in yet another location and offered any further

suggestions. This continued until all 13 albums were completed to the team's

satisfaction.

 

The Abbey Road Team

 

Allan Rouse (Project Coordinator)

Allan joined EMI straight from school in 1971 at their Manchester Square

head office, working as an assistant engineer in the demo studio. During

this time he frequently worked with Norman (Hurricane) Smith, The Beatles'

first recording engineer.

 

In 1991, he had his first involvement with The Beatles, copy¬ing all of

their master tapes (mono, stereo, 4-track and 8-track) to digital tape as a

safety backup. This was followed by four years working with Sir George

Martin as assistant and project coordinator on the TV documentary 'The

Making of Sgt. Pepper's' and the CDs 'Live at the BBC' and 'The Anthol¬ogy.'

 

In 1997, MGM/UA were preparing to reissue the film 'Yellow Submarine' and,

with the permission of Apple, asked that all of The Beatles' music be mixed

for the film in 5.1 surround and stereo. Allan requested the services of

Abbey Road's senior engineer Peter Cobbin and assistant Guy Massey and,

along with them, produced the new mixes.

 

Two years later, he proposed an experimental stereo and surround mix of John

Lennon's song 'Imagine' engineered by Peter Cobbin. Following lengthy

consultations with Yoko Ono, the album 'Imagine' was re-mixed in stereo and

the Grammy award-winning film 'Gimme Some Truth' in surround and new stereo.

This led to a further five of John's albums being re-mastered with new

stereo mixes and the DVD release of 'Lennon Legend' being re-mixed in 5.1

surround and new stereo.

 

Further projects followed, including The Beatles 'Anthol¬ogy', 'The First US

Visit' and 'Help' DVD and the albums 'Let It Be...Naked' and 'Love' along

with George Harrison's 'Concert for Bangladesh' DVD and album.

 

For a number of years now, Allan has worked exclusively on Beatles and

related projects.

 

Guy Massey (Recording Engineer)

Guy joined Abbey Road in 1994, and five years later assisted on the surround

remix for The Beatles film 'Yellow Submarine.' This led to The Beatles'

'Anthology' DVD and later, along with Paul Hicks and Allan Rouse, they mixed

and produced 'Let It Be... Naked.' In 2004 he left the studios to become

freelance and has engineered The Divine Comedy: 'Victory for the Comic

Muse,' Air Traffic: 'Fractured Life,' James Dean Bradfield: 'The Great

Western' and Stephen Fretwell's 'Magpie,' co-producing the last two. Since

leaving, Guy is still a vital member of the team, and has been the senior

engineer for the re-mastering project and was responsible for surround and

new stereo mixes for the DVD release of 'Help!'

 

Steve Rooke (Mastering Engineer)

Steve joined Abbey Road in 1983 and is now the studio's senior mastering

engineer. He has been involved on all The Beatles' projects since 1999. He

has also been responsible for mastering releases by John Lennon, Paul

McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

 

Paul Hicks (Recording Engineer)

Paul started at Abbey Road in 1994, and his first involvement with The

Beatles was assisting engineer Geoff Emerick on the Anthology albums. This

was followed by 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack,' 'Anthology' DVD and 'Let It

Be... Naked.' Like Guy Massey, he has also become a freelance engineer and

since leaving the studios he has been responsible for the surround mixing of

Paul McCartney's DVD 'The McCartney Years' and The Beatles' 'Love.' Paul has

been in charge of the mono re-masters.

 

Sean Magee (Mastering Engineer)

Sean began working at Abbey Road in 1995 with a diploma in sound

engineering. With a wealth of knowledge in analog and digital mastering, he

has worked alongside Paul Hicks on the mono re-masters.

 

Sam Okell (Recording Engineer)

Sam's first job as a member of the team was in 2006, assisting Paul Hicks on

Paul McCartney's DVD 'The McCartney Years,' and during that same year he was

responsible for the re-mastering of George Harrison's 'Living In The

Material World' CD along with Steve Rooke. This led to him restoring the

soundtrack to the Beatles film 'Help!' in surround and stereo, in addition

to assisting Guy Massey with the song remixes.

 

Sam has re-mastered 'With The Beatles' and 'Let It Be.'

 

Simon Gibson (Audio Restoration Engineer)

Simon joined Abbey Road in 1990. He has progressed from mastering mostly

classical recordings to include a much wider range of music, including pop

and rock, with his specialized role as an audio restoration engineer. Apart

from the re-mastering project, his other work includes George Harrison's

'Living In The Material World,' John Lennon's 'Lennon Legend,' The Beatles'

'Love' and the 'Help!' DVD soundtrack.

that's supposed to be from the press release

Every couple of years I remember that this might be the best pop song ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNMhPQoEbJE

My friend will probably buy the box, i'll wait and hear it then.

sleep pretty darling, do not cry

and i will sing a lullaby

this fuckin song

when mccartney lets rip on the GOOOOOOOOLLDDEEEN SLUUUMBERS bit... i get chills just thinking about it

Damn not having 400-off quid to get the box sets. Still, starting off with The Beatles and Abbey Road will be a little consolation. And Magical Mystery Tour. Anyone else love the title track of that EP/LP?

blue jay way is the underrated gem of that album

craaaaaaazy stereo separation