Just what I need.
Everytime there's anything on the news about the Beatles...our street sign gets stolen. I live in Abbey Road. Our town bought them in bulk...because when one sign gets stolen...it's up within 2 days. Been living there for 10 years....sign has been stolen at least 30 times.
I have some not good feelings about this....
The old originals, warts and all, were what it sounded like.
Regardless of improving the product,you are rewriting history. And making it sound more "modern" doesn't appeal to me, though it will make money.
I kinda view it in the same vein as colorizing the classics.
Your neighbors called. They like your music.
It's not that bad, really.
The 1980s CDs were known to sound worse than the early, good vinyl pressings.
The 2009 remasters are supposed to be faithful to the original good pressings. Or so they say.
And they are not all the different from the 80s version. Really, there have been far worse remasters.
AND - you can get them in mono. That's how all the early albums were mixed.
The new version actually sounds a bit more laid back than the old. Like vinyl vs CD.
By why not hear for yourself? Buy or borrow one and listen.
In 1987 the analogue to digital converter was still at 16 bit 44 khz .To day you have Pro tools at 24 bit 192 KHZ converters. The new remastered tapes on CD sound like the originals with all the details you could hear on original vinyls and more. Like squeaky drum pedal, John and Paul whispering between takes. As a matter of fact you gain much more in terms of base and dynamic range.
The re mastering not modification is like the restoration of the sixteenth chapel.
..........................................
George & Giles Martin(s) remastering (& remixing work ) of Beatles songs for thealbum, opened my ears to the locked up resolution within those old master tapes .
If the new remasters are anything like this brilliant concept album ( made for Quebecs' equally brilliant "Cirque du Soleil" ) , I'll be buying a box set ( once Costco gets them in) .
>< cheers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(The_Beatles_album)
Being a Beatles fan...and being that my turntable's been put away while more important things got in the way I refused to buy replacements for the vinyl I amassed. Tonight a friend popped in with Abbey Road remastered. First I gotta say many years ago my Dad had a friend with McIntosh amps....altec 604E's...probably a Thorens turntable...well you get the picture. He had the Revolver album in pristine vinyl glory. I remember being astounded at the warmth and quality of the playback. Needless to say the "old" Revolver CD sounds so astonishingly terrible in comparison...well this was when I lost my love for buying Beatles CDs. OTOH...some early tracks like "And I love Her" sound pretty wonderful even on the original CD.
Well I listened to the entire Abbey Road remastered CD tonight and it is a vast improvement over my original CD(I did buy a few). Time will tell if this vast catalog contains....defects?...or bad things...I just cannot say without listening to them all.
What I can say is there is a clarity that's easily heard and I hear no strange artistic liberties on first listen...it sounds....correct! Listen for yourself!
What this means is that I will have NO problem springing for the stereo box set.
I think anyone who is a fan and is an audiophile of sorts will benefit from this release. I just wish they would have done it right the first time.
It's amazing how the version first heard sets up an expectation for repeat listenings to be the same. The remastered versions are a bit like a burger chain changing the bun on your favorite burger. The substance is there but the expectation has been challenged. Some will stop buying the burger, others will be happy to try it again and come to like it.
I took the time to borrow and listen to the Love CD and the Past Masters Remastered CDs. The Love content was somewhat unnerving and kept aggravating my expectations of what I 'should' be hearing. This listening was not very enjoyable. The Past Masters CD was very nice but throughout I felt the sound balance was out of whack.
Of course having grown up with the music of the beatles from the very beginning I am not surprised by my impressions. With further listening I will probably be more comfortable with the remastering. I can't reliably say the same about the Love CD.
One comment I read said the Remastered catalogue is aimed at 'newbies' who have a more modern expectation of recorded music and 'diehard' Beatles fans who will welcome such material.
Cheers, Marshall.
I think most of the negative hoopla is coming from those who don't understand the difference between a remaster and a remix. Since the Beatles participated in much of the original mixing, leaving the mix alone doesn't alter the artistic content or intent a bit. Only technical "improvements" come with a remaster, so it should be a win-win.
Here?s what EMI has said about the remastering process:
"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."
Those of us who'll hear it in real HIFI will be the lucky ones. It's a bit sad that many copies will be wasted on Ipods and Bose-like systems, but in the big picture exposing the new generation to real music can only be a good thing.
Me? I'm looking forward to it... as soon as I can save up the necessary spendtogs.
"[I]We're going all the way, till the wheels fall off and burn[/I]!"
Bob Dylan, from [I]Brownsville Girl[/I]
[I]"Time wounds all heels"[/I]
John Lennon, referring to the Nixon/Hoover deportation fiasco.
What,s what? What's not? Some food for thought.
Beatles, The: Mono and Stereo - what's the difference?, beatles butcher, magical mystery tour
Marshall.
I read somewhere on the net they used Prism A2D converters to spool the tracks off of the original tapes. I might have missed it, but I do not know if they used Pro Tools to do the remastering...it would be interesting to know which plug ins or outboard processing was utilized during the process...maybe they'll sell that book one day.Originally Posted by LICORNE
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