1st (AFAIK) review of the remastered Beatles CDs

[spidervodka]

For other sound and recording geeks that hang out here, along with the thousands of others out there on Planet Earth, these remasters are a BIG deal and fortunately, these feature actual sound improvements rather than the simple bass/treble and volume boost so many other "remastered" albums receive nowadays*:

The Beatles, stereo and mono boxsets

This is an audiophile publication, and so is known for being very picky about sound so the fact they gave such a favorable review is a good sign.

Official release date for these CDs - and the individually packaged versions - is 09.09.09.

Short version of why the CDs for sale right now don't sound as good as they should: back in 1987 when they debuted, digital recording technology was still rather new and the gear they used just wasn't able to let the full resolution of the master tapes come through.

And one aspect of the old CDs I was hoping they would fix looks like it has been fixed: the lack of bass on many of the Beatles' albums. I'm not a "bass head" by any means but until I bought the Beatles' LOVE mash-up album, I always thought the rather thin sound of their music was either a) not-so-great recording gear back then and then when I found out many of the best jazz recordings come from the *early* 1960s I thought of b) the band - and many other R&R bands back then - simply didn't want any low or powerful bass in their music.

Nope that wasn't it! Turns out that even into the 1970s, there was actually a lot of bass on the original studio master tape i.e. the Beatles DID like low/gutsy bass but home playback technology wasn't up to the task of reproducing it, specifically, the vinyl format: if bass frequencies are too intense and/or low, the stylus can literally jump out of the record groove, not a good situation. So what engineers usually did was to filter that type of bass out of the studio's master tape, and end up with what's called a "production" master tape which was in turn used to produce the actual vinyl stamping dies.

IIRC it was those production master tapes that were used to produce the CDs we've all seen in the stores all these years and why they can sound so anemic (among other un-hi-fi attributes).

Also, the packaging for this band's musical art has finally been improved, one of the things I thought was embarrassing for such a significant(!!) set of music.



* another "big deal" to people into high fidelty recordings: based on this review and press releases from the Beatles people themselves, very little compression was used for these remasters. Signal compression is used for pretty much all rock, pop, hip-hop music but if overdone, it can literally ruin the music. This has been happening a LOT with many remasters and with much new music.

Compression brings the volume level of all sounds in a recording nearer together, but if OVERcompression happens, drums (for example) get pushed down to the same level as the main vocal, and background vocals & a softly-struck tamborine become as loud as everything else! Result? An ugly wall of sound, sound that sounds loud no matter where the volume control is set. And higher frequencies can become tinkly-bright. Why do they do this? Because on the cheap earbuds that come with most MP3 players and with a car's audio system, overcompression causes the more delicate sounds to be heard......but on even entry-level home systems it just causes most music to be irritating but dull ("Where'd the beat go?!") at the same time, and just plain unrealistic.

To see a very descriptive and non-techno @2min video about this, go here (scroll down): www.turnmeup.org/ It uses a clip of a Paul McCartney track by pure coincidence.

[spidervodka]

And since more and more people I meet, usually under the age of 25, have never seen a standalone CD player, the kind I grew up with and still own (bought my newest one in 2003, the last one Technics made), here's a nice one from Yamaha, the CD-S700. It includes a USB input for flashdrives.

Pioneer still sells CD megachangers, like this 300 disc machine.

Most entry-level CD players in the $100 to $200 range have finally disappeared since not nearly as many people own home audio systems. While I do occassionally listen to music with my headphones, some basic over-the-ear Sonys costing @$75, I much prefer the "open air" experience of two speakers in front of me (though I actually prefer surround music but that's a whole other thread and by surround I DON'T mean the hall, jazz club or Dolby Pro-LogicII choices on a receiver - I mean stuff like this).

Sorry if I sound like a salesman writing about this, but home audio gear has been my main hobby since 1977, so have a hard time not talking about it!

[Mighty Jack]

We have a thread on the release of these discs here... forrestcrow.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=music&action=display&thread=17266

I've placed my order for the stereo box set. I wish the monos were on sale individually as I'd like to have Sgt. Pepper to compare the mix.

This was "my band" when I was a lad, and to this day they still sound as fresh and exciting as the first day I heard them. Everytime I put on a Beatles disc, I have a moment of bliss.

[spidervodka]

Thanks Tony. I honestly thought few people would care & so didn't bother doing a search first, seeing as how so few people own home audio systems anymore.

BTW if anyone has a 5.1 channel home theater system and likes the Beatles and doesn't mind mash-ups & "messing with history" they need to check out the LOVE album in surround form. That can be found in the CD+dvd-audio package still being sold. The dvd-audio disc has high resolution audio tracks - 96kHz/24bit PCM - for people with dvd-audio players, but for those that don't, it also contains 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS tracks for conventional players. LOVE in surround form is a totally different listening experience than the stereo version. And all those little pieces of albums mashed-up in those dense mixes are much easier to hear, because of the much larger *physical* space a surround mix (and the surround mixing engineer) has at its disposal, instead of just the space between the left and right speakers.

There have been hints that the regular Beatles albums, but only the ones where the multitrack tapes were still available, will eventually all be released in surround form, though a pretty fair sized chunk of their songs have already been mixed that way for the Anthology dvd series (I've never heard them myself) and IIRC the Yellow Submarine dvd.

[Mighty Jack]

That's sounds pretty incredible.

Oh and thanks for the link, after reading the review it sounds like I need to invest in the mono set as well. Lord, I'm gonna be broke for a while.

But I thought the stero box came with a DVD that collected all of the mini docs? No mention of that in the review. (Edit: looked at my order, a DVD is mentioned at Amazon)

BTW: Both stereo and mono sets are sold out for pre-order at Amazon.

[spidervodka]

But I thought the stero box came with a DVD

Being an audiophile publication, I am not surprised they didn't mention it ("ewwww, video? What's this doing in here?"). But to give them a break, since that was a promo box, I wonder if it just didn't include the dvd.

[Mr. Atari]

Spidervodka, don't apologize for ranting about the "Noise Wars". I'm right there with you. Some of my favorite artists have put out really good albums lately that I simply can't listen to because of the overcompression (Rush & Ben Folds are two examples that come immediately to mind). It's amazing that professional sound engineers think no one will notice, or even worse- that they don't even notice it themselves.

[Chuck]

All you need to listen to is the mono mix of "If I Needed" from Rubber Soul.

Trust me. It'll be enough to get you hooked.