...2. The booklet states that the stereo versions of Love Me Do and PS I Love you were discarded and they had to use the mono version. That's odd. I have them in stereo on a CD I made a while back.

I'm not sure which source you used (an LP?), the old stereo LMD and PSILY were in "fake" stereo (a la the '66 Pet Sounds - duophonic sound). This means they where the mono mixes that had been EQ'd differently in each stereo channel to make it look as if they were stereo. In short, the new discs are the original mixes without the junk on them.   

So far with listening to headphones this is what I've found:

* The drop-out in the final verse of 'Day Tripper' has been "fixed".

* The crackle on John's scream in "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" has been taken out ( I thought it sounded cooler with the crackle  ).

* That little blip at the start of "Helter Skelter" is also gone.

* Overall on all the CD's the bass is fatter and has a lot more detail to it.

* Clearer sound (esp. on vocals).

* "I Am The Walrus", which must have been heavliy de-noised in 1987, has the tape hiss reinstated which brings back some of the tape bleed. This IMHO makes it sound a lot less choppy. Most of the songs have left the tape noise when a channel is silent, were as the '87 CD's cut this out, leaving dead space (intro to Strawberry Fields is a good example).

* I noticed there wasn't a lot of difference between the CD's that had the '86 remixs (Help! & Rubber Soul) other than being louder than the '87 CD's. The booklet states that they were re-mixed onto digital tape (meaning the mix masters were 44.1k/16 bit  ). I can't wait to crack open the mono set to compare.

* I've compared the stereo Please Please Me CD's: Dr. Ebberts with '09 Remasters.

Dr Ebberts is louder but the Remasters win out with clearer sound and better bass.

UPDATE: Another minor thing - both the German songs are now in stereo (in case you were up at nights wondering  ).

I'd love to hear what everyone else picks up on.

Veeery surprised to see they're coming out on CD only. With the advent of Blu-Ray, I expected to see a Blu-Ray release akin to Neil Young's Archives series (if that ever arrives!).

The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release

... says the release. But it would appear the sound could be even better with Blu-Ray.

Anyone expert enough to offer enlightenment? Maybe there'll be a Blu-Ray release a few months later?

I'm not an 'expert', but I'll give my view.

They will have been remastered in at least 24/96 - the same level used for the last tranche of BBs CDs, though one might expect the transfers to CD to be better. Taking the Love project as a guide, they will have gone back and probably remixed from the original multi-tracks. Expect the quality to be of the level of the Love album, without the collages.

Dude! They went one better. Theve been remastered at 24/192!!!!!! (compared to the 16bit/48k of the 1987 digital masters)


This is form the examiner:

"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."

http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner~y2009m4d7-BREAKING-NEWS-EMI-announces-Beatles-remasters-to-be-released-in-September

My only major con is that we don't get the "Get Back" book that came with the 'Let It Be' boxset back in 1970. But that's a minor quipple considering we get both Mono and Stereo mixes!!!

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there had an image of Jimi's hand writen track listing and the original cover art?

What does it matter? It's all false anyway.

What all of it or just the Landy bits?

And that's what I love about the Internet. Now we live in an age where we can have animated shorts tailor made for hardcore rock geeks  .

If you listen again, you also hear a desperately unhappy old man who's been pushed aside...

By the way Surfer Joe...kudos on that very insightful post.

I was thinking about getting this book and I had few quearys about it:

1) How much does Brian go into SMiLE? 

2) Does he talk about 70's much (unlike McCartney's book)?

3) How much does he go into Pet Sounds?

4) Is it well written or is it fluff (or written fluff)?

5) Does he go into his shakey relationship with Mike or is that just a post-BWPS thing?