Beatles remasters 09/09/09

[hypehat]

So, somehow, a local record store of mine actually had the remastered CD's along with the stereo box set already available, which about stunned me and, not only that, but made me giddy beyond words.  So I went and bought the stereo box set yesterday (9-7-09), and got a pretty cool t-shirt with the Beatles logo and "9-9-09" under it.  Unfortunately, due to other plans, wasn't able to get right down to listening (utter torture, by the way!), but now that I am, I have gone through the first two albums and currently listening to "A Hard Day's Night."  The sound quality really is quite good and, overall, I'm impressed, though, for me, the fun seems to really begin around "A Hard Day's Night" ("And I Love Her" is just utterly beautiful...).  I think some of the reason for that is that the first two albums are mixed to where all the instruments are panned left and the vocals right and I'm having issues trying to get past that, but the actual sound is really good.  Everything is quite clear and pristine and it really does seem as if someone has unmasked these songs, much in the same way it was when I first heard "Pet Sounds" in stereo. 

It's also great to hear Ringo finally really be brought to life on a lot of these songs, where the drums actually sound like drums, as opposed to some noise in the background and it's also pretty cool to hear Paul's bass brought to life on these early albums.  Lots of good things to say here and some pretty interesting surprises in the mix that I don't recall on the other editions, such as Lennon's vocal on the first verse of "If I Fell" being double tracked and other cool, subtle things. 

Sorry for the haphazard review, and I do hope to say a lot more later, but I think, based so far, these remasters will be well received and I can't wait to listen to the other albums.  I also plan to purchase the mono box set and, for those also inclined, I suggest to do it as soon as possible, as I hear that it's going to be a limited edition. 

That's good to hear, i'm getting the stereo box later this week.... apparently the instruments-left/vox-right thing is to do with the fact they only recorded them on two track, so that's the only way you'll get a stereo mix out of it

[DSamore]

Can't wait to buy these tonight at midnight! 

[Aegir]

Geeze, you guys are only hearing the Beatles songs in stereo for the first time? All of their early American releases had a stereo mix, which have been available on CD for a few years now with the Capitol Albums boxsets.

[hypehat]

Geeze, you guys are only hearing the Beatles songs in stereo for the first time? All of their early American releases had a stereo mix, which have been available on CD for a few years now with the Capitol Albums boxsets.

I'm not sure what you're on about - you could only buy stereo mixes of Beatles stuff (maybe not the early stuff, but certainly everything else) on cd before this, and before the Capitol boxset. Or is it different in the US? (I'm based in Britain).

[Aegir]

Until today, Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night (UK), and Beatles for Sale were only available on CD in mono.

[pixletwin]

Its true many of these albums have been available in stereo since 1990. But these particular new versions have been remastered.. which the 1990 releases weren't.

[hypehat]

Until today, Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night (UK), and Beatles for Sale were only available on CD in mono.

Okay. You did kind of imply that we'd never heard any beatles songs before in stereo, which is a very strange thing to imply.
Those Capitol Albums boxsets seemed to me like a bit of a rip-off, for some reason. Especially since quite a lot of them are duophonic, right?

[punkinhead]

With everything sounding great obviously, I have another compliment which goes with the White Album, some of the tracks now have intros to the songs that used to be the outros to others....like the little guitar lick at the end of Wild Honey Pie is now at the begining of Bungalow Bill...the 'hey all' heard right at the begining of While My Guitar gently Weeps is edited...The begining of Don't Pass Me By has the intro with the wierd piano sound attached to it. Revolution 9 now starts with the conversation heard at the end with Cry Baby Cry (after the 'can you take me back' section which is a little louder).

[hypehat]

the 'hey all' heard right at the begining of While My Guitar gently Weeps is edited...

you mean that's gone? i love that!

[punkinhead]

it's right before WMGGW track starts

[hypehat]

Oh, i thought you meant it was edited out! On the monos, the end of Helter Skelter is gone, so i was wondering if there were more edits like that.

[paulisdead]

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.

[mikeyj]

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

Interesting stuff you point out. Things I've noticed (note: I haven't had much of a chance to listen to them) from the stereo box:

*On the title track of Please Please Me, John's first "come on" about 1:30 into the song sounds really "off". And the vocal mix sounds awful (to my ears anyway) about 1:45 into the song. So cluttered and all over the place

*I Should Have Known Better - the harmonica stops and starts in the intro. I've been informed that this is a different mix. But to me it sounds strange because I've only known the other version because my dad's old Beatles CDs are the only way I've heard the Beatles stuff before (and the vinyls but I haven't listened to them much as I mostly listen to stuff on my computer)

But generally I think the sound is a lot clearer, especially - as most people have pointed out - the bass and vocals.

[Alf64]

OK, I just bought the Please Please Me CD last night. I am curious about a couple things.

1. Near the end of the song Please Please Me, there is echo on the vocals that wasn't there throughout the song. Was that the original intention of the sound, or an engineering "oops"? I think it would have sounded better without the echo.

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.

[mikeyj]

1. Near the end of the song Please Please Me, there is echo on the vocals that wasn't there throughout the song. Was that the original intention of the sound, or an engineering "oops"? I think it would have sounded better without the echo.

Yep, that's basically my point as well - where I said "And the vocal mix sounds awful (to my ears anyway) about 1:45 into the song. So cluttered and all over the place"

[punkinhead]

Something I found that i actually kind of dislike is on If I Fell, you can tell John's vocals were double tracked and it sounds kinda echo-y...perhaps that's how it was on the original too, idk.

[LetHimRun]

Something I found that i actually kind of dislike is on If I Fell, you can tell John's vocals were double tracked and it sounds kinda echo-y...perhaps that's how it was on the original too, idk.

In the original stereo mix, the vocals are double tracked, but apparently only for the opening lines until the harmonies start.

[mikeyj]

Something I found that i actually kind of dislike is on If I Fell, you can tell John's vocals were double tracked and it sounds kinda echo-y...perhaps that's how it was on the original too, idk.

Yeah I've just listened to it now and I agree, it sounds pretty bad. I think that seems to be the problem on some of the earlier stuff - the vocals.

[paulisdead]

...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.   

[hypehat]

To add further confusion, there are two versions of Love Me Do - one with Ringo, and one without. Is one in stereo?

[Christian]

To add further confusion, there are two versions of Love Me Do - one with Ringo, and one without. Is one in stereo?

Ringo Starr version: mono only

Andy White version: mono and "fake" stereo versions

[Alf64]

...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.   

I got my versions of Love Me do and PS I Love you on-line. (shh) I wanted to make a stereo CD of Beatles tunes I liked. So I deleted ones that weren't. Love me do and PS, both have the vocals in the right channel. Would that still be duophonic?

[hypehat]

To add further confusion, there are two versions of Love Me Do - one with Ringo, and one without. Is one in stereo?

Ringo Starr version: mono only

Andy White version: mono and "fake" stereo versions

Ahh. I'm also guessing that a stereo mix doesn't exist on those 'capitol album' things i mentioned earlier in the thread?

[Awesoman]

I splurged and ordered the stereo box set off of Amazon.  Came in the mail yesterday.  I'm in heaven.   

[hypehat]

I splurged and ordered the stereo box set off of Amazon.  Came in the mail yesterday.  I'm in heaven.   

I hate you. I ordered mine off Play on monday, and it still hasn't arrived yet!