Beatles Downloads - Another clue for you all?

Brilliant.

 

I'm waiting for that Blackbird singing in the dead of night...hoping that these old remasters will learn to fly.

Here's hoping that EMI and Apple work out their differences as well since there was (I believe) a lawsuit filed by Apple against EMI to gain control of ALL the Beatles masters.

 

Apparently there'll be no Beatles downloads via iTunes, until Apple Corps. hold a press conference, and say that Steve Jobs was the Walrus.

 

I totally agree. Considering it´s coming out in June it´s too early to make a buzz. You can´t keep public focused for that long period. One would get bored (still talking about The Beatles and nothing ever happens). One month promotion seems to me to be the best fitting one. Of course they can catch our attention right away but we are hardcore fans, we´re gonna buy it... I hope there´ll be a reason to ... But they want to involve a common consumer. And that´s a differtent strategy. It all makes sense to me. I still believe in June!

 

You believe in June purely on spectulation and the fact that it is the 40 year aniversary of Pepper, WE HAVE NO FACTS so why are we getting excited and talking about it, i personally think in June it will be annouced that Sgt Pepper will be available for download on an inclusive ipod, with if we are lucky the mono version available to download and that will be it! if anything i hope i am wrong though!

 

Has anyone held off on buying a Beatle album/CD until they hear (or read about) the new releases?

 

I will, as regards the upcoming(?) Beatles remasters. I don't need new versions of the canon unless they're really well done, from a mastering/restoration perspective. I'll happily devour the "I listened to the remastered Beatles CDs tonight!!!" thread when it appears, and gauge the fallout.

 

Then wouldn't they have hired Steve? Or Ted Jensen? Or Doug Sax? Or almost any option but EMI/Capitol's respective mastering facilities? Even Capitol - astonishingly if you look at their record - sent their sets to Sterling instead of in house. If word is right there are remasters, word may well be right that they've already been done in house by EMI. The sentiments are wonderful, but I'm afraid actual sound quality has nothing to do with it.

Just saying... mostly because my tea's brewing at the moment

 

...and you're only telling us now?

 

Exactly, Ron. Who knew about 'Live At The BBC' until a month before it hit the shops?.

 

News story about this here today:
http://www.nme.com/news/the-beatles/27012

Explains why the info was taken down.

 

I think its incorrect to assume the quality won't be good simply because the work was done in-house. Harrison's Living In The Material World remaster was done in-house and sounds wonderful. It's the time, care and methods used, that determine a good remaster, not necessarily the 3 or 4 wonderful producers you mentioned. There's no way the Beatles would allow the actual analogue tapes to ever leave EMI either. If, another mastering facility was used, they'd be getting digital copies of the tapes, not the real deal. And look at the snafu that plagued the Capitol Years Vol 2 set. Some office person sent the wrong 'digital files' electronically to Capitol... sending Jensen's personal mono fold down reference mixes of Rubber Soul. EMI would never chance something like this happening. I'm confident Steve Rooke, Paul Hicks and the EMI staff will do a fine job remastering the catalogue. No, they won't have that 'Steve Hoffman sound', but then again, VERY few CDs do.

And let's be honest here. The official CDs are not awful sounding. Sure the first four are pretty bad, of course using a poorly-calibrated modern stereo deck to master mono recordings was just wrong. Even EMI personnel admitted that they weren't great. That mistake won't be happening this time. We all know that George Martin did a subpar job when attempting to remix Help and Rubber Soul, this also won't be happening. Mike Heatley and Mike Jarrett said that Revolver, Pepper and MMT were basically straight transfers and they sound pretty good. The White Album and Abbey Road were tinkered with, probably with some cause, unfortunately, the methods used caused noticable sound problems. I'm hoping these CDs have the most improved sound. Even Let It Be sounds good on cd, no, not great, but I'm not sure it ever will sound fantastic. The best version I've heard is a German import, and while it has a warmer sound, I wouldn't say it is far and above the CD version. Oh well, we'll all know soon enough. Ron

 

Most people on this forum probably owns several versions of each CD. one with an apple, one without, etc..

 

You give me hope, Ron! Thanks for your replies.

I'm at work so I don't have the disc with me.. was Rooke, Hicks, etc. the ones responsible for the "Living in the Material World" remaster? That disc sounds fab. I wonder how they can do George right but they can't do the Beatles right.

 

Steve Rooke and Sam Okell re-mastering at Abbey Road Studios. Allan Rouse project co-ordinator for Abbey Road Studios.

There's always hope. Seriously, we were all a-buzz in January, but these things happen. No official release date was announced then, and it looks as though any 3 month exclusivity clause with ITunes is not gonna happen... so as it always is with Beatles releases, we'll know officially maybe 6 weeks before release date. Beatlefest is this weekend and I'm sure rumours will be flying come monday. Ron

 

I hope any announcement also gives details on what they are to do with the "Past Masters" tracks. I sure don't want those left out of the catalog remastering. If they were already done, as you would think, with the rest of the job, there must be something planned. To remaster them a year or two later, wouldn't make them uniform with the proper studio albums.

 

Who is in the picture?

 

Uh, Neil Aspinall?

 

Bloody hell! i have never seen him without a hat he looks like Alf Garnet!

 

Be fair; he's sixty-odd and had several heart attacks. Working for Apple obviously isn't always good for your health.

 

He'll be 65 this summer. He was balding while still working for the Beatles, but he usually wore a beret, or baseball cap for years. He has been in ill health of late too. Ron

 

Andrew, I wouldn't expect Apple to make any such announcement. They didn't in 1987 either, we had to wait more than a year for those two collections. I also think they will be re-configured this time. It makes no sense for them to mention something a year, or more, away... it's just the way it is I'm afraid. You were a bit young when the CDs were released last time... I was working in music retail back then and everything was pretty hush-hush. Not a word was said about the singles and EP tracks missing from the core collection... things have surely changed since then. Ron

 

So have you seen the RollingStone.com article about Apple claiming no Beatles download licencing in the foreseeable future?

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=108273

 

Apple: no Beatles downloads to come

So much for Beatles downloads:

Buying the Beatles: A Few Tips For the Digital World