Remastering The Beatles

According to Steve, for better or worse, they got the stereo White Album right on CD.

 

Let's be realistic here. As much as we might like to have both the mono and stereo versions of the albums, it's highly unlikely that EMI would put them both out if it required making them a 2-CD set. I also can't see them putting out two versions of the same album, one in stereo and one in mono. We might get both versions on the same disc (especially for the first 4 or 5) since they're short enough, but don't hold your breath for a 4-disc White Album set. That just aint gonna happen.

Most people (face it!) just don't care about the mono versions of the later stereo albums and EMI isn't gonna cater to the collector crowd right off the bat. (I can envision, say, a mono White Album LP-only release, like what Sundazed is doing with Dylan).

I think the greatest chance of any of the CDs being redone would be the first four - in stereo - since they could then market them as "look, for the first time in stereo!" as a selling point. I fear that we may have to wait for these to come out on DVD-A or multichannel SACD so they can market them with a hook - maybe then we'll be lucky and they'll remaster a superior-sounding stereo or mono layer as well.

Ray

 

Re: Why I picked Stereo with Bonus...

If you want remastered stereo, where are you going to get "Love Me Do", "P.S. I Love You" and "She Loves You"? No true stereo mixes exist of these tracks. Stereo is great, but some titles are better served in mono...like "A Hard Day's Night", "Rubber Soul", and "Sgt Pepper's LHCB". I vote for stereo/mono two-fers, with mono substituted for those mixes not available in true stereo. NO REMIXES

 

My dream Beatles reissue program...Straight transfers of the Stereo/Mono masters of each available album released on 2 for 1 CDs where applicable. Then continue with the American Stereo/Mono 2 for 1 series, finally ending with an American Singles CD Boxset.

 

Well, it's "right" in that they didn't make it sound any worse than what was on the tape. However, that album *can* sound quite a bit better with the proper EQ.

As far as this poll goes, I see no real reason in remixing, say, A Hard Day's Night. HOWEVER, I'd like them to match the edits on the mono mixes - that is, the harmonica intro to I Should Have Known Better and Paul's vocal crack in If I Fell. Of course, I could always fix those on my own, but... Maybe the "proper" way to do it would be to issue the "fixed" versions "in" the album, and issue the original versions as bonus tracks.

Other important stuff to me: release alternate mixes as bonus tracks. When I say "alternate", I mean, for example, a mix that was released but didn't come out in the UK. For example, there are 3 stereo mixes of I Want To Hold Your Hand (all released), but the only one released in the UK (and on CD) is the 1966 mix. I'd like to see the 1963 and 1965 stereo mixes too, as well as the mono mix.

Or how about all of the Long Tall Sally mixes...

Ahh, what I dreamer I am, eh?

 

I think another bonus would be the hi-hat intro All My Loving, the extended And I Love Her (6 bars instead of four), the extended I'll Cry Instead (with the extra verse that appear on the A Hard Day's Night US album) and the promo Penny Lane single mix with the trumpet notes at song's end.

The White Album does contain high hiss on Martha My Dear.

Brian

 

For All My Loving and And I Love Her I'd be *tempted* to say just use those versions as the "masters". I'd say this should especially be the case for All My Loving, since the released song is there as-is, you just get a bit more. I suppose a case could be made to keep the edited And I Love Her, but...

 

Well "Kid" when you get a few years older....

 

Luke, Good points there. I can definitely see your point with All My Loving and And I Love Her. You would get a little extra on those two. Much like the 1-2-3 count of She's A Woman on the EP Compact disc collection.

Brian

 

I think the stereo mixes are horrible.

I want all Beatles releases to be treated like "Pet Sounds".


Up to "The White Album":

Mono mix remastered / stereo remix

"Abbey Road" & "Let It Be":

Stereo mix remastered

 

The sound perhaps, but the tracking on disc 1, at least on my copy, is off. The track numbers change at the wrong time before "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" most obviously. Presumably this was fixed later?

 

I'd like to see all the Beatles' albums get the same treatment as the Hamburg tapes in the Bear Family "Beatle Bop" 2-CD set. One CD has all the known mono mixes from around the world, the other one has all the known true stereo mixes from around the world.

You could do something similar for all the LPs through "Sgt. Pepper." I would include age-appropriate singles as bonus tracks, and as further bonus tracks, as many of the weird versions that appeared around the world as would fit.

But as the Andrews Sisters sang, "I can dream, can't I?"

 

Where is the completely remixed to mono from the original masters to update the sound and make it more modrn sounding, with large amounts of no-noise and compression added to remove all traces of hiss or dynamic range?????

A second disc could include this mix electronically reprocessed to simulate extra-wide stereo?????

 

Yeah. what he said. Except for the "old 51" part, cuz I'm a young 48.

 

Thanks to ABKCO a complete remastering has to be somewhere on their radar screen.And I'm sure they'd want to top ABKCO in sound quality.I'd like to nominate our leader to help them in their quest.

 

These index points were fixed on the 20th Anniversary issue.

 

For Luke's idea for including the alternate mixes, I would like them to do a separate CD featuring these alternate mixes and edits, something similar to Mark Easter's idea;

1) "All My Loving" (stereo from German Beatles Greatest LP, w/ four-beat hi-hat intro)

2) "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (1963 alternate stereo, only on Aussie reissue singles and LP’s)

3) "Long Tall Sally" (alternate mono from US Beatles’ Second Album LP, flat mix)

4) "I Call Your Name" (alternate mono from US Beatles’ Second Album LP, w/ different edits)

5) "And I Love Her" (alternate mono US UA LP/Capitol single version, w/ single-tracked Paul vocal)

6) "I Should Have Known Better" (stereo remix of mono version from Reel Music LP)

7) "I’ll Cry Instead" (alternate mono US UA LP/Capitol single version, w/ extra verse)

8) "When I Get Home" (alternate mono from US Something New LP, w/ different edit of vocal track)

9) "Any Time At All" (alternate mono from US Something New LP, w/ different piano mix)

10) "She’s A Woman" (alternate stereo from UK The Beatles EP, w/ count-in)

11) "Day Tripper" (alternate stereo from US Yesterday and Today LP)

12) "We Can Work It Out" (alternate stereo from US Yesterday and Today LP)

13) "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" (alternate stereo from UK Beatles’ Ballads LP)

14) "The Word" (alternate stereo from US Rubber Soul LP)

15) "Michelle" (alternate mono from US Rubber Soul LP, w/ more prominent percussion)

16) "I’m Looking Through You" (alternate stereo from US Rubber Soul LP, w/ false start)

17) "Paperback Writer" (alternate stereo from US Hey Jude LP)

18) "I’m Only Sleeping" (alternate mono from US Yesterday and Today LP, w/ less backward guitar)

19) "Dr. Robert" (alternate mono from US Yesterday and Today LP, w/ John’s "OK, Herb!" at end)

20) "And Your Bird Can Sing" (alternate mono from US Yesterday and Today LP, flat mix)

21) "Strawberry Fields Forever" (alternate stereo from US Magical Mystery Tour LP)

22) "Penny Lane" (alternate mono from original US promotional single, with horn outro)

23) "Baby You’re A Rich Man" (alternate mono from US Capitol single, w/ "seven"(?) shouted at start)

24) "I Am The Walrus" (alternate mono from US Capitol single, w/ four extra beats in middle)

http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/beatlesoncd.html

 

Mandrake,

Great track line-up!

Bob

 

There's also the extra beats in two places in I am The Walrus that was, I believe on the U.S./Canadian single. Put it on MMT as an bonus track/alt version along with aforementioned Penny Lane, and the film version of MMT with the added sfx and the two John talking bits at the beginning and the middle eight; "Roll up roll up roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour, step right this way. Hurry..." ... "When a man buys a ticket on a Magical..."

 

Other good bonus track additions to MMT could be 'Jessie's Dream' (Lennon's home made accompaniment to the gluttony scene in MMT), 'Shirley's Wild Accordion' (Ringo, Paul and John plus Shirley Evans on accordion) and the complete unedited 10 minute take of 'Flying'.

 

That's not a remix, just an (incorrect) re-edit of the existing stereo mix. They tried to edit the stereo to match the mono but messed up.

Not an "alternate" at all, it just has the count-in.

Also on Love Songs. Going from memory, I don't think that's an alternate mix at all, just a narrowed down version of the regular stereo mix. Nothing special.

Again, as with She's A Woman (and All My Loving), not an alternate, just "untrimmed".

Is that really an alternate mix, or just the regular stereo mix with the channels reversed? I think everything matches the regular stereo mix exactly.

 

What's wrong with them?

Have you ever heard A Hard Day's Night or Beatles For Sale in stereo?

 

Well Luke, he doesn't share your view.

I have stated that I like both the stereo and mono mixes, but in the end, I prefer the mono mixes.

 

Problem is, it isn't that simple with the Beatles' recordings. It's best judged on a case by case basis. Nothing wrong with mono, but some beatles titles are just better in their stereo mixes.

 

Luke, Grant, et al:

I really believe for many people the Stereo/Mono preference is directly related to age--when you were first exposed to the Beatles and how you were exposed--home Mono HiFi (like myself), car AM radio (like myself), home Stereo (finally in my parents home in 1966). That initial impression, the beauty of that first exposure gets "burned-in" to our memory. My first Beatles LP was the Mono of Beatles 65' that I received for my 14th birthday in 1965. I still have fond memories for that version eventhough it was fraught with sonic problems (as we all know).

Spinning the years ahead: I was later exposed to the Stereo mixes, the UK "drier" versions and track configurations, Japanese vinyl pressings and later--CD's.

Now, I love both the Stereo and Mono versions but, for very different reasons.

Personally, I love Beatles For Sale in Stereo as a listening experience yet, I still have an aesthetic fondness for that old Mono Beatles 65'.

A few thoughts...

Bob