QRP releasing Beatles Red, Blue, Love, and 1 on 180g vinyl

Unless these are all analog--and from the postings above, it sounds like they might be--what's the point of getting the red and blue albums? Might as well buy decent copies of the originals for less $$$.

 

From Acoustic Sounds website:

180-gram double LP plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings

Vinyl has been cut from the original analog masters

Packaging is faithful to the original artwork

Originally released in 1973, 1962-1966, also known as the Red Album, compiles songs from, naturally, 1962-1966. The collection includes every single A-side released by the band in the U.K. in that time period, including "A Hard Day's Night," "She Loves You," and "Can't Buy Me Love."

Representatives at Universal Music Group say that the vinyl was cut from the original analog master tapes.

The 'Red' collection was released in conjunction with the 'Blue' compilation, which focused on the band's later years, 1967-1970. Both releases were hugely successful and remain two of the best-selling compilations of all time. 26 tracks.

 

Interesting that the blurb is there for the Red and Blue albums, but not 1 or Love. Love I understand, but why not 1?

 

I wouldn't think there is an analog master for 1.

 

No but it could be easily compiled like they did with Mono Masters.

I was assuming that's how the Red and Blue collections would be done, but yes, the 1973 analog master reels for those LP's could be the source.

 

If they use the 1973 tapes, then it'll have "Love Me Do" and "She Loves You" in fake stereo and the 1965 stereo mixes of the Help! and Rubber Soul tracks, instead of the 1987 mixes. Would they do this?

 

I wouldn't think so, but who knows? Hopefully there will be more definitive word on these soon.

 

I can't see them putting that much effort into these releases. Does anyone know how the 2010 CDs were compiled?

 

From 2009 remasters

 

What? I don't have to read every thread??

 

Interesting. If true and without the digital steps in between.
Sounds to good to be true for a side-project like these blue and red compilations.
So a new stereo-vinyl cut from original analog mastertape-cut (AAA) is in sight too? ;-)

With the Mono-Box this year we had a wonder.......

 

Maybe a side project but these could sell much more than any of their regular LPs. Civilians love the hits

 

If the Red and Blue use the original analogue sources I am In. I have a used copy of Blue (UK first press) which I bought to replace my pristine original stolen years ago. It's surprising how difficult it is to find these in great yet alone acceptable condition and even more so the UK 1st press which did not have a producer credit inside the gatefold. Am I right in thinking these were never remastered as part of the 2009 reissues? There was a digital / DMM variant that come out in the early 90s. Just hope they don't use tapes from Capitol because in my experience US copies sounded awful.

 

This thread just got a whole lot more interesting.

The best thing would be to use the UK tapes and just cut in mono versions of SHE LOVES YOU and LOVE ME DO.

The original UK RED LP has the whispered intro for I FEEL FINE, which is probably too much to ask for.

Also I'm not sure if there's an analogue master for the clean intro of A DAY IN THE LIFE, as I imagine that would have been created in the digital domain from the work parts back in the early 90s. Although I suppose they could create one especially. It wouldn't be that difficult. Or they may have already created one for the transfer for the reissue BLUE CD (post 2009). Can you tell I'm rambling here?

I also note that the "analogue" description is only in the listings for the RED and BLUE and not "1".


And anyway... Where's the press release?

 

The master for 1 is digital. Original compilation master for Red and Blue are of course analogue. Nice to see they are going back to the original tapes for those. I am going to assume that lacquer cutting is again done at Abbey Road by Sean Magee and hopefully all pressings for the world are going to be done at QRP. In any case with EU pricing policy may have to buy copies from the US.

 

Read the thread title wrong as ORG, lol, this is great news...I'm in for Red and Blue.

 

The Red and Blue double-albums were my first real introduction to the Beatles and I still love the running order on the albums ( with the exception of side 4 of the Blue one....).... The fact they will be analogue makes this reissue very attractive!

 

Disclaimer: I only posted what I saw on the Acoustic Sounds website about the Red and Blue LP's being analog sourced.

I'll be more convinced when there is some further confirmation..

 

The original UK Red Album also had the 'US mix' of 'Day Tripper'. I'd be a bit surprised if that was retained though.

 

If they use the original compilation tapes they should be the same as the originals.

 

I have asked my UMe contact at Abbey Road about the sources used for the "red" and "blue" albums but haven't yet heard back. Regarding the "Love" album, Giles Martin, who compiled and mixed told me over lunch a block from Abbey Road Studios that he transferred from the master tapes to ANALOG TAPE and mixed to ANALOG TAPE. Whether or not that excellent sounding LP was actually mastered from tape, I'm not sure and he wasn't sure since by then it was out of his control BUT it may very well have been or at least from a high resolution file. Whatever the source it sounds great. I'd say the new pressing will probably sound equally good but if it's being pressed at QRP it may very well sound better.

 

Much, if not all of the Love mixes must have been created digitally. The way many sources were synced together would be practically impossible with tape. I thought Giles has discussed this, somewhere.

 

There should be an analog master for a Day in the Life. I'm pretty sure that Roger Scott copied it in the early 80's for his radio program on the Beatles. I first heard this version on a bootleg LP that I purchased in 1986. This predates the Imagine soundtrack by 2 years

 

In the case of Red and Blue, they were mastered excellently first time around (in the UK anyway) but contained some fake stereo tracks, and A Day in A Life was a 'fade up' and not a clean intro version - if they are indeed going to go analogue, it'll be interesting to see what versions end up on these reissues.

 

Roger did have a lot of Beatles' stuff

However, I was told by EMI that for the Imagine Soundtrack the intro to "A Day In The Life" had to be edited on. At the time I didn't understand why this had to be the case, but I think @lukpac got to the bottom of it here a few years ago.

How EMI treated crossfades was like this ( for reprise into Life):

Using the "Sgt Pepper (reprise)" master and the "A Day In The Life" master a crossfade is made lasting 10 seconds or so...

That is then edited in between the masters of the two tracks that make up the crossfade.

So the master of the last two tracks on SGT PEPPER would be:

Sgt Pepper (reprise) (master) >> edit>>crossfade (one generation down)>>edit>>A Day In The Life (master)

Of course, the unused parts of the masters of Sgt Pepper (reprise) and A Day In The Life are kept and it's this unused master intro that is edited onto the remainder of A Day In The Life to create a clean master.

My guess is that they would not unpick the edit from the Pepper master, but copy the clean intro and copy the remainder of A Day In The Life from the Pepper master and edit these together thus creating a second generation master for the clean intro version.

Does that make sense?