Topic: The Beatles Remasters - 9/9/09 - Your Take?

[metaldams]

I know there are a lot of Beatles fans on this board, so I'm curious to how everybody is going to handle this new remasters campaign.  I will start out by saying I'm sure these CD's will sound better than the 1987 remasters and I'm glad future generations will get to enjoy them.

For me personally, I'm holding off because I already have the entire Beatles catalog, all the Anthologies, and even a couple of bootlegs on the side.  Then there's the whole stereo and mono thing, something you only have to deal with concerning 60's fans.  Of course, box sets for BOTH mixes will be released.  Some people like to collect both mixes but for me it's too overwhelming, and frankly, 9 times out of 10 I'll pick a stereo mix anyway. 

Like I said, I'm sure these remasters will sound great, but this is just too pricey for a slight upgrade over something I already have.  In the day and age of unnecessary ultimate deluxe editions of every album (I swear to you, there's a deluxe edition of SLIP OF THE TOUNGE from Whitesnake), it's all too much (clears throat) to spend $200 + dollars on these CD's.  Your take?

[moglia]

I know there are a lot of Beatles fans on this board, so I'm curious to how everybody is going to handle this new remasters campaign.  I will start out by saying I'm sure these CD's will sound better than the 1987 remasters.

Without hearing and comparing them how can you say they will be better?  While I agree that some of the original CD's were not so good, especially the first 4 albums, newer (in this case remastered) does not always mean better it's crap shoot at best. Knowledge is power so my advice to all is directly compare one or 2 of the new CD's when issued with the old or vinyl and come to the real conclusion/truth and not simply what Capitol/EMI's marketing machine wants you to believe in order to fleece a huge stack of Jackson's, or Franklin's in the case of the boxes, from your wallet.

I'm glad future generations will get to enjoy them.

Future generation may not even know what recorded media is, heck the current one barely does.

[OldFred]

I'm looking forward to the Beatles Remasters coming out and will most likely get the stereo box set. The CD's will each have a mini-documentary embedded on the making of each album and all the CD's will contain booklets with rare photos and additional info on the albums. The box set will contain a DVD of all the mini-docs on one disc.

Having frequented several Beatles message boards I can safely say that the Remasters are heavily anticipated by fans and there's also debate of whether to get the stereo or mono sets, some die-hard fans are going to get both.

Not that far removed from all us Stooge fans buying all the chronologically released Stooge DVD sets. And if they come out on Blue Ray, is it that far-fetched to say some fans won't get those too? 

[busybuddy]

I am looking forward to these as much as I looked forward to the Stooge sets. I have the complete catalogue too, but I've had many of them since I was 12 and they're all scratched up and in bad shape, so I am going to buy my personal faves first (Revolver, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road) since those are the ones that are in the worst condition in my collection (Abbey Road is currently split in two ) But also, these will sound way better than the first versions from 1987 (they can't sound no worse!), and they come in cooler packaging and have documentaries. I'm going to but all of them within a year's time!

Also on this day, be sure to check out Beatles' Rock Band. I am not a video game player, but this game looks FANTASTIC. It follows the entire Beatles career from the Cavern to the Apple Rooftop, and you can actually play as the Walrus, Rooster, Hippo, and Rabbit characters from Magical Mystery Tour, which is really cool.

[metaldams]

Not that far removed from all us Stooge fans buying all the chronologically released Stooge DVD sets. And if they come out on Blue Ray, is it that far-fetched to say some fans won't get those too? 

BIG difference.  The Three Stooges sets have been released in haphazard collections for years.  Now they are being released in chronological order and with respect.

The Beatles catalog in terms of packaging has been released with the proper respect since 1987.  All the proper British albums with MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR thrown in for good measure, and those great PAST MASTERS collections which means minus a few tracks on the YELLOW SUBMARINE soundtrack, you can buy the entire Beatles catalog without overlap.  Try doing that with The Rolling Stones or The Who, whose catalogs are a mess.

Oh, I know I'm going to be tempted by these things, but I'm really trying to hold back. 

[moglia]

I am going to buy my personal faves first (Revolver, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road) since those are the ones that are in the worst condition in my collection (Abbey Road is currently split in two ) But also, these will sound way better than the first versions from 1987 (they can't sound no worse!)

Your double negative aside, it could be worse you never know. Don't assume anything until you can compare them. Huge sales of these re-issues are guaranteed regardless of how they sound so the incentive to put careful effort into improving the sound (and not simply making them louder), marketing hype aside, might be minimal as it costs money and would take away from their bottom line. Which I can guarantee you is all Capital/EMI, like any corporation, actually cares about.

Abbey Road along with Let It Be were easily the best sounding of the original CD's. They both sound nearly as good as the vinyl and possibly not improvable on the limited range CD medium. Also current day remastering merely amounts to making the music louder via pro-tools or other digital software through the limiting, compressing and brickwalling of the music. This has been standard practice for several years now. Check out Hydrogen Audio forums if you are interested in learning more about these destructive audio processes. Once again my advice is to not rush out and buy all the new CD's at once;  pick up one or 2 and carefully compare them to the originals you might save some money or find that spending more on the rest of them is justified. Either way don't get sucked in by EMI's marketing and pretty packaging, if you really care about the sound let your ears decide through good direct compare of the entire album and don't get fooled into thinking louder is better even though it may appear that way for a few seconds.


P.S. The sound of the original Revolver CD is very thin but even on vinyl the stereo is no audiophile delight. However the MONO on LP sounds really good. It'll be interesting how the new (and first time) MONO official release on CD will sound

[metaldams]

I know one of the regular complaints people have about digital remastering is the "loudness wars" aspect, where they make everything as loud as humanly possible, lacking any dynamic shifts in the music.

The reason why I bring this up because in "Long, Long, Long" off The White Album, there are very pronouced levels of soft and loud playing, more pronounced than any other song I can think of in my collection, Beatles or otherwise.  I notice when i hear newer music on the radio or whatever, there are absolutely zero dynamic shifts.  If I ever do hear The White Album remaster, I will do a special comparison between these two songs.

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

Also current day remastering merely amounts to making the music louder via pro-tools or other digital software through the limiting, compressing and brickwalling of the music. This has been standard practice for several years now.

While I only have a few Beatles CDs (all later ones), it's for exactly the above described reason that I've avoided getting new remasters even of artists I collect faithfully. From what I understand everything is simply made LOUD, even if it was originally quiet, to the point that dynamics are lost and turning it down to a listenable volume level just makes it all harder to hear. No thanks. My old CDs sound fine to me.

[moglia]

While I only have a few Beatles CDs (all later ones), it's for exactly the above described reason that I've avoided getting new remasters even of artists I collect faithfully. From what I understand everything is simply made LOUD, even if it was originally quiet, to the point that dynamics are lost and turning it down to a listenable volume level just makes it all harder to hear. No thanks. My old CDs sound fine to me.

Thanks guys for bringing up dynamics. Sound is naturally dynamic from low to LOUD.  When you only have loud there are no lows this will annoy fatigue your hearing. The catch-22 is that initially humans perceive louder as better, something the modern Music industry preys on. However after several minutes fatigue will set in and it will begin to sound worse and worse. Here is the true test; if you are lowering the volume on music it has no/limited dynamics, if the dynamics at intact you will reach to raise the volume and it will sound better and better. Plus you get the added bonus that those "older" dynamic CDs won't distort with the volume turned way up, they will sound great.

I'm not saying the new Beatles CD's will be bad or good at this time it's impossible to know* at this point, what I will say again is don't rush to spend big money without doing a detailed compare of an album or 2 first. After all it's you money not EMI's.

*=the press releases from EMI actually mentioned they have applied limiting (and some noise reduction, when will they ever learn?) like it's a good thing or something. Of course to most people it sounds like a convincing technical term in terms of being good quality. In actuality it means limiting the dynamics for the purpose of making it louder which is very bad.