Category: Tech

I bought The Beatles CD’s when they were released over twenty years ago, but I’ve never much cared for the sound of them. I greatly prefer the British Parlophone LP pressings done by Garrod & Lofthouse, that I collected in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

The first taste of the potential improvement in audio quality was, ironically, the release by Capitol of the American versions of the Beatles records on CD. Later, Love came out, with a further promise of future sonic delight. Which is why I’m pleased that the Beatles catalog has been remastered, and is slated for release on 09/09/09 — the day before my birthday. Once again, as I like to do whenever I talk about the Beatles studio recordings, I recommend to you the brilliantly conceived and superbly realized book, RTB: Recording the Beatles, by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan.

Details about the coming CD releases are available on BeatlesNews.com. I am, however, slightly concerned by this comment.

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.

As I’ve discussed a couple of times before, to cater to the portable music crowd, popular music today is highly compressed. I think CD audio should be kept as close to the original recording as possible, without additional compression. Leveling out the loudness levels for the iPod generation should be done when conversion to lossy compression is done, and not before.

As an example of just how different a recording can sound, depending on the source and equalization, I’ll provide a couple of versions of the Beatles’ first EMI single, ‘Love Me Do’.

This recording was ripped at 192 Kbps from the Beatles Compact Disc EP Collection.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/MAY/LoveMeDo_EP_CD.mp3]

This next take, which I prefer, is a transfer from a 1982 45 rpm Parlophone EP, which I also encoded at 192 Kbps.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/MAY/LoveMeDo_AndyWhite.mp3]

Both of those recordings feature Andy White on drums, with Ringo relegated to tambourine. Ringo on drums can be heard in this somewhat muffled sounding recording.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/MAY/LoveMeDo_Ringo.mp3]

Most of the Parlophone LP’s I have were bought at a long defunct shop in Amherst, MA called Backroom Records. I spent many happy hours in that store, scouring the import and used bins. Buying compact discs never held the same gleeful delight for me, which I guess means I’m showing my age.

The demise of the record store as an entity, and the lamenting of the loss of same by owners and customers alike, is the subject of a documentary called I Need That Record, by Brendan Toller, who is a mere 22 years old. I heard about it last week on WBUR in Boston.

One of the faces seen in that video clip is Mike Dreese, co-founder of Newbury Comics, the granddaddy of Boston record stores, which began as a comic book shop. I happen to have a couple of Newbury commercials, shown during Star Trek re-runs on UHF TV in the 80’s, at the dawn of the CD age.

[MEDIA=37]

Another name associated with Newbury Comics is that of Boston rock/punk scene legend Kathei Logue (yes, “Kathei” is the spelling). I made this video a few years ago to show to Kat, who I had hung out with when I was in high school and she was living with a guy in my town. That was before the days of Punk. Before the days of Disco, even!