Beatles Remasters on Vinyl, part 3, etc.

I didn't even think about that....for me, the original mixes (or maybe a modern one?) would work but I don't like the '87 mixes as they contain this nasty digital echo which ruins it for me. Thinking about this set, but only if the price seriously comes down.

 

What a hoot

The challenge for me with all of this is what to do. On the one hand, I find this exciting. New LP's... A reissue, etc.

On the other hand, I'm concerned and hesitant for the following reasons:

• Unlike the original Stones, the Beatles' originals sound great.

• I have 2 blue boxes - Holland pressing, I think

• I don't really trust any presser other than the companies like AP, MoFi, & RFI, etc.

• Limited, schimited. I concur with everyone's concerns. Just how limited...

• Digital repressing can be done well, but I would much rather have AAA...

So that's my 2 cents!

What to do, what to do... I think I might buy them, just in case. Heck, I bought the Rolling Stones early box, and I have to say it's not bad!

 

2009 we got the CD's, 2012 we get the vinyl, 2014~2016 we will get the 24/192 digital source files on Blu-ray. Perhaps by then they might add in a few 5.1 mixes of the later albums.

If they did one Blu-ray Disc for each album they could easily fit 24/192 mono, stereo and multi-channel. No point doing 5.1 of the first couple albums, but for sure I'd love to hear all of Sgt. Peppers in surround done as nicely as "A Day in the Life" is on the Love DVD-A.

 

At this point, I would be MORE interested in the 24/192 files than the new vinyl (and I am a vinyl man). I understand the issues EMI must have: I am sure if it was up to them they would have gone from the analog tapes but you have two estates and two living Beatles to ok this with (which, as I have heard, has been a challenge). Most people who work in the industry would see this as a challenge, and a fun one at that. I am also a firm believer in the fact that analog should stay in analog and digital stay in digital. Sometimes you can marry the two but not always for the best...

Abbey Road Team, if you ARE reading this, you put out a solid product in 2009. Although there will NEVER be consensus on Beatles' mastering, you did what you had to do to "make everyone happy" with the stereo masters. We loved the mono box and as true fans of the music and the original recordings, we want more of THOSE kind of unfutzed products. We KNOW the faults of the recordings and we STILL LIKE THEM. Tell your bosses that there is a market for vinyl cut directly from analog sources. There are ways to do it to save on the original tapes (it is ok to clean the tape heads after every side instead of every track).

This is all very disappointing news.

On the other hand, I would love to hear how Beatles for Sale compares to the tube cut, if the CDs are any indication.

 

http://www.examiner.com/article/beatles-remastered-vinyl-box-set-coming-for-christmas-2012

 

What I hope is, having new $20 Beatles record in the bin will bring down the outrageous prices for the used stock.

 

I hope so.

 

I wonder (and I really don't know) are there pressing plants these days, capable to produce vast quantities of LP's for the mass market without any digital steps? Asking this because almost everyone is not happy that these new Bealtes LP's are not AAA, but I'm not sure if this is possible at all, even if EMI wanted to do them this way.

 

Logistically it would be very difficult unless you were basically having one plant press them for the entire worldwide demand, which would prevent that plant from doing any other pressing jobs for a long, long time (see the blowback at RTI with The Doors box set.)

And the pressing plants are privately held, not owned by the record companies anymore.

You would also have to do the old make duplicate masters and send them around to the various pressing plants thing otherwise, thus losing a generation and setting audiophiles atwitter yet again. And you KNOW those original analog masters are NOT leaving the Abbey Road vaults and grounds.

Let's face it, again everyone is dismissing a project based on hearsay, rather than hearing.

Based on the feedback of the Mono/Stereo CDs a certain vocal percentage of Beatles fans are NOT going to be happy no matter what is done.

These records aren't intended as a replacement for the person with a gem mint original pressing.

 

I have a collection full of mediocre sounding and played to death Beatles records. It will be nice to have a copy that 1) I'm the original owner of, and 2) I know what the mastering is, I know the source material, even if their is a hi-res digital step in there somewhere.

These can't sound any worse than 98% of the Beatles records floating around out there.

It's also funny, because the Beatles are one of those bands that the fatigue has set in a long time ago. The amount that I would play these is actually few and far between. Most of their records are now a once every six months listen. Yet I still want them.

 

So, you confirm what I'm thinking. In this case I really can't understand all this complaining from so many people about these reissues being digitally sourced - what do they really expect?

 

I'd guess this should be "Equalised (and compressed) analog tapes".

It would be logical that the source of these issues is those tapes, perhaps with some additional mastering for Lp.

 

Sadly for anyone in need of vintage vinyl, I think what's left of used dealers learned their lesson in 2009. In London there was an influx of fantastic Beatles vinyl in late summer '09, presumably people getting rid of them to fund the hyped Stereo/Mono CD boxes they planned to buy. Used stores that should have known better believed the hype too, and were letting things like 1st press Abbey Roads with misaligned sleeve for £8, mono originals for £6, mono 1982s for £5, I even got a one-box mint Pepper for £6, and a Hör Zu MMT for €8 (in Paris). The same shops are back to charging obscene prices for them, and ESPECIALLY if the new vinyl is tampered with like the Stereo '09 CDs, & uses '87 remixes for RS and Help! too, they'll have zero impact on used prices this time around.

 

Of course it's possible. AAA records are still being made for the audiophile specialty market, with far less popular titles being offered that way. A decision has been made that more money will be made by offering non-audiophile pressings of these LPs to the nostalgia and general interest markets instead.

 

Why didn't they make an analog vinyl remaster at the same time they did the digital???????!!!!!!

 

Same. It's the nostalgia factor. I look at my beat up copy of the TWA, for example, or worse my MMT with the booklet literally falling apart, and I'd just like to have a new copy that doesn't smell like someone's attic and has the ring wear. If it's fairly cheap, mastered well (even if not rivaling a UK first pressing or German FP for MMT), and plays fairly quiet, I'll likely cave on a few of these.

 

Why is it that few have noticed that the pre-order is now gone, and the "press release" just copied statements from the CD release, and there has been no statement from EMI.

 

This whole project is about leveraging the initial effort they made when digitizing the catalog into as many media formats as possible for sale to the most number of customers. I doubt that analog purity ever crossed the minds of anyone in the entirety of the Beatles organization, Apple, EMI, or any of their associates. Who would care?

 

I'd guess the digital step was deemed necessary (for sonic, mastering and perhaps other reasons) and harmless.

 

I could actually see digitally-sourced Beatles vinyl drive up the price of older all-analog copies as those who've been holding out hope for all-analog reissues now have actionable info. With this reissue, it's extremely unlikely that the catalog will be revisited again within the next decade, forcing people seeking all-analog into the vintage market.

 

I haven't read every page of this thread yet, so I apologize if this has been brought up already, but.... this will be the first time that the UK Beatles albums (up to Sgt. Pepper) with the UK tracklists will be available in the US on vinyl as non-imports, correct?

Although it'd be redundant, I wish they would release "A Collection of Beatles Oldies" on vinyl as well, instead of always pretending it never existed.

 

Back to rumors-only again...Doh!

 

The final 2009 remastering wasn't printed to tape. It's on 24/44.1 digital files.

 

Good question and I have no idea. For that matter why not 30ips analog safety copies? The Toshiba black triangle CD and PR_USE "Abbey Road" were mastered from a 30 ips analog copy and they're very nice.