2019 Beatles UK Singles boxed set (Was: "Beatles Mystery Boxed Set")*

OK, that seals the deal for me.

 

He’s a journalist. He has sources at Abbey Road that you’ll never have.

 

If Fremer is reporting that it’s all analog, it’s good enough for me.

 

Eh...he's somebody with an audience.

He may in fact be correct here, but I wouldn't for a second consider him the last word.

 

Ok, let’s try columnist/audio critic.

I’m not saying he’s Carl Bernstein, but he’s more in the know about this stuff than most posters here, including myself.

He did visit Abbey Road when the analog mono albums were cut. He also sent a digitized copy of his 1st press Abbey Road to Miles Showell as a reference. He has an “in” with them at least.

 

If he has direct word from Abbey Road that this was cut in analog, I have no reason to doubt him.

That said, it's not uncommon for him to misunderstand and/or misrepresent things. His dogmatic support of analog/dislike of digital doesn't help matters.

 

OK. Please clue me in. Give specifics.

 

I've already given specifics.

 

Ha, ha! I didn’t realize there were so many posts prior to mine about the same thing. Sorry for the old news (which apparently hasn’t convinced anyone).

EDIT: I posted a comment on Analog Planet asking Michael Fremer to confirm AAA mastering, if he can.

 

While all of this is true, Fremer would look foolish if his proclamation about this box was wrong.

I know that people here have pointed out mistakes that Fremer has made in the past or where he has changed his opinion in midstream.

I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here.

 

We’ll see what he has to say.

 

Malachi Lui @SoundDoctor responded to your comment. Interesting what he had to say.

I’m still waiting for Fremer to respond.

 

Saw that. I was sorry to hear he had a bad experience here. I appreciate his response.

 

I hope that it is AAA, and inclined to believe it is, especially with Fremer's apparent confirmation. This is great news. But with all due respect, it isn't just about facts, it's about trusting the record company press releases' veracity to determine the facts. Or not. YMMV.

 

Read what I said again. This time notice the wording "had a say" - implying that though they did not have 'complete' control, they had some 'input'. And I think they did have a large say in their sleeves. They would have at least agreed with the concept of the UK version of a Hard Days Night, for example, but had no say whatsoever in The Beatles Second Album. They were sketching ideas for sleeves from early on, but even if the idea wasn't theirs, they would have OK'd the idea. That is, they would have seen the results and said - yes, looks good, or I prefer this shot to that one. In some cases it was their concept with the execution carried out by someone else. They didn't do that with the sleeves from around the world.

Also, of course, the tracklisting is important to the music itself so yes, having a say (note 'a say', not necessarily complete control) in this case is part of the music.

 

In the promo clip it sounds like the original version of Free As A Bird, like people were assuming here. Having the nice 2015 mixes on vinyl would have been nice, that's a pity.

But overall, if they used the same approach in mastering as with the 2014 mono set, this singles set will be great! (And I'll buy it!)

Not that it makes a huge difference, but we might even get a transfer of the first generation masters instead of the copied versions on vinyl Mono Masters

 

Gracie! I'm getting it just for 171€ shipped to Germany (due to intricate EU VAT laws).

 

They're all original mixes, so I don't see why FAAB and RL should be remixes

 

He replied to you with “no insider information”. I would hope that Fremer comments. If not, it would appear that his announcement is an interpretation of the press release/video, which gets us nowhere.

I give up! Good luck to all.

 

It is a pretty box, though...

 

Right, me too!

In this case I’m not sure how much I care anyway. I preordered this because it looks like a nice set, kind of like the Christmas box. I’ve got all those tracks in AAA either from the 2014 reissues or the original run, and I generally prefer playing LPs to 45s. I’m not sure I’d play these records more than once unless they sound considerably better than what’s come before.

EDIT: I was just looking again at the news section on The Beatles website and the headline clearly declares, in all capital letters, "NEW LIMITED EDITION COLLECTION OF SEVEN-INCH SINGLES CUT FROM THE MASTER TAPES." Emphasis added.

Does this still leave any doubt? We are all familiar with the marketing double-speak, like "sourced from the master tapes" and "remastered from the original master tapes" but this statement is clear and unambiguous. If they're not AAA, they would have out-and-out lied.

 

Whether they were cut from 1st gen masters, or 2nd gen masters, or hi-res flat digital transfers, would we ever really know without being told?

 

Unlikely.

 

Exactly.

 

True, but if they were cut from 24/48 files like the Beatles stereo vinyl box, it would be easy to see on a spectrogram. But from hi-res digital? They would have to tell us that.