This is a promo video for the remastered Beatles CD’s that I grabbed from Amazon.com.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/SEP/BeatlesAmazon.flv 480 360]
These CD’s are sort of a stand against the grain of lossy, compressed MP3 digital audio, but they’re still limited to 16-bit/44.1 KHz CD sound. I wish there were a standard, higher quality lossless digital format for consumers.
Some fannish things that matter to me:
- These are remasters of the original mixes (yay!), with two exceptions.
- The stereo “HELP!” and “Rubber Soul” are George Martin’s 80’s remixes (boo!).
- I hope the splices in “She Loves You” are smoothed over.
- I hope the quick channel fade-out in “Day Tripper” is fixed.
- I can almost live with the splices in “This Boy”
The first four titles were available on CD only in mono until now, because the stereo versions are said to not be true mix-downs. But that’s precisely why I want the stereo versions — they make it possible to hear exactly, in detail, how Norman Smith engineered the sessions.
I’m not happy that “HELP!” and “Rubber Soul” aren’t the original 60’s mixes. This greatly undermines the spirit of the set.
Some first impressions of individual tracks on the new Beatles CD’s are available from picky listeners who were congregated in a high-end audio showroom in the city of my birth, Evanston, Illinois.
Yes, Happy B-Day. Got my new slippers, and a new wallet.
Don’t know why the 80’s mixes were used, other than to speculate that George Martin prefers them. They have a hard and cold sound, and they seem to include digital reverb. Beyond that, they fail to capture the feeling of the original sessions. The original stereo versions are, fortunately, available on the new mono set.
Why did they pick the Martin remixes for “Help” and “Rubber Soul” and not the other albums? Can you be more specific in your complaints about those remixes? Maybe some side-by-side comparisons (I love those!)
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Twinster! Hope you enjoy your new pair of slippers.
Incredibly, it has been over 20 years since the original CD’s, but at the time it seemed forever for them to come out (you were baby then, Lia!). And it’s already been 14 years since the massive “Anthology” project appeared. Since then we’ve lost George Harrison, road manager and Apple head Neil Aspinall, press agent Derek Taylor, and recording engineer Norman Smith, who was so important to the Beatles sound through “Rubber Soul.”
Oh! it looks so beautful! my old Beatles cds look so ugly now! 🙂
by the way 09-09-09… the magic number of John!