So, heard any good Beatle recordings lately?

I have been told that I am remiss in my Beatles CD collection, which consists solely of Magical Mystery Tour. It sounds like junk. Supposedly remixed, don't have it in front of me, but if this was the better version I would hate to hear the first.

I have also been told that Japanese imports are the way to go, but they typically run $30 or more and that's a chunk of change to drop on speculation alone.

I have also been told (people must like talking to me) that this is the place to ask about just such topics as this. I tried the search engine, but hoo-ey, sorting through two zillion hits on this topic is hard to do.Magical Mystery Tour

 

First of all, I don't blame you for saying that your MMT CD sounds like junk. The Beatles back catalogue on CD is in dire need of a decent remastering job. The Beatles' original UK albums were transferred to CD back in 1987. Those CD's are wretched, simple as that. There's no other word to describe what must be the greatest audio travesty of the 20th and - come to think of it - the 21st Century.

The remastering of the Beatles CD's is a hot topic on this forum, along with countless others on the Internet, and is one of, if not, THE big talking points among Beatles fans worldwide. It is the one thing that us diehard fans are absolutely crying out for.

There are many - myself included - that would love to hear Steve Hoffman do it but the chances are slim: the goold ol' boys at EMI will probably give the job to one of their own guys at Abbey Road (probably Peter Mew) to No-Noise the life out of those great records

The Red (1962-1966) and Blue (1967-1970) compilations - which appeared on CD for the first time back in 1993 - do offer a sonic improvement over the 80s CD's. If you want to hear better versions of the songs on MMT, get yourself a copy of the Blue CD.

I would say the advice you've been given about buying Japanese import CD's of the Beatles is a little misleading. I have some of the Beatles discs on Japanese import and to my ears they sound no different to the UK or US versions - after all, they've all been mastered from the same source.

Anyway back to your MMT comments: I have a reasonably respectable copy of MMT on vinyl LP - it's a US Apple label reissue from 1971/72, the UK double EP version I have is better though (we Brits didn't get MMT on LP until 1976 and I don't have a UK analog, only a later DMM version).

The MMT to own apparently is the German pressing from the late 60s although I've not heard it. So, my advice to you is get yourself a set of decent condition British LP's (originals or 70s reissues) if you want to hear the Beatles properly!

 

Well - I will not deny that the Beatles catalog is in need of upgrading, and while I'm not prepared to loudly proclaim sonic brilliance for the standard stock CD of MMT, I will state that it always sounded fine to me.

It sure sounds better than any US Capitol stereo vinyl ever did. The mono? - haven't had my mits on that sucker since I was 15, so I can't say. Never heard the German pressing, I heard it was very good. I think at this point, I would be more interested in hearing them re-done for one of the hi-rez formats. I have this haunting fear that, in this day and age, remastered redbooks would end up sounding like Beatles 1.

For the redbook format - I think all of the Beatle albums from Pepper forward sound (at very least) acceptable. The earlier albums are another story altogether.

IMHO

 

You will notice that there's no one good answer to your question! Apparently, Past Masters Vols 1 & 2 are both excellent (I haven't heard either in a long time). If you are a fan of mono and don't mind abandoning the album running orders altogether, then the Beatles EP box is killer! You can find a copy on eBay for around $90 used for 15 discs. Mind you, there's only about 170 minutes of music there, but it's worth the price. Sgt Pepper is supposedly taken from a quality 2nd generation dub, so the sound is pretty good. Abbey Road's best CD issue is the original Japanese Odeon CD which was quickly withdrawn from the market. This one is pretty rare, but worth seeking out from what I hear. As for all the others, I believe most would agree they're generally crap.

MOST of your best bets for quality Beatles material will lead you toward LP sources. MMT is one of those cases (the orginal German issue in that case).

It's complicated!

 

Re: Re: So, heard any good Beatle recordings lately?

The German MMT LP was the source used for the "Beat" 2 fer CD...Sgt Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour-Beat 007. Sgt. Pepper sounds average...very weak high end, MMT sounds excellent!

 

Any idea what these sell for these days? I got one way back in 1985 and still have it. Don't plan to sell it, but I'm curious to know the going rate for the sucker...

 

Just search "completed auctions" on eBay to get the history on what these have sold for. You may need to use some creativity in how you describe the item in the search, to get the best results. Good luck!

 

There's one on ebay right now at $85.00 closing tomorrow. I remember about a year ago these sold for around $100.00, so the good news is there's still a market for these CDs. Good Luck, Oatsdad!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=893850691

 

A couple of months ago a sealed copy went for US$ 500 on eBay.

Joachim

 

Just received my Beatles EP CD Box last week. Listen to She's A Woman and This Boy in stereo. Man does it sound great compared to other versions I have listen to in stereo. I have 3 questions if anyone can help with.
1.What source are these from?

2.If these are in stereo 1963-64 era how come they didn't release first 4 cd's in stereo if these sound soooo good. George Martin what's with you? If I recall he once said they didn't sound good enough to release, if I'm correct.

3. Do the Singles Box Set sound has good as the the EP Box set?

 

The seller didn't say the disc was sealed, they said it was in "sealed condition". If you looked carefully at the photo, it looked to be used.

All my DCC and MFSL discs are in "sealed condition"

Mike

 

All the EP box singles (except MMT) are in mono only. They all sound very good, some incredible. I Saw Her Standing There sounds just like the single I had as a kid

Martin probably didn't like the wide stereo effect over the mono. I, like you, prefer hearing them in Stereo. Save your money, buy a TT, and buy the MFSL records, because it will probably be a cold day in hell before they release these in stereo OR if they do, that they will sound good at all (no noised, compressed to death is more like it).

The Singles Box has some mastering problems on some of the mono material, though I haven't heard it myself. There's a whole thread that recently addressed the EP box vs the Singles box, merits and disappointments. A search should get you there.

Mike

 

I have both the CD singles and EP box sets. I haven't listened to either of them for a while but I'd say definitely get the singles box - all the singles up to and including Get Back are in mono and that's worth the price of entry alone!

The singles set was issued the same year as the EP set (1992) and to my ears the singles box sounds every bit as good as the EP box.

As to what source they are from I THINK they are from the same source tapes used for the Red/Blue albums but I can't be 100% sure. To my ears at least the songs on both these sets do sound better than their equivalent CD album versions from 1987/88.

Get that singles box while it's still available - EMI has now apparently deleted the EP box so I guess it's a possibility the singles box will go soon too.

 

Re: Re: So, heard any good Beatle recordings lately?

I disagree about the Past Masters cds. They are disappointing at best.
The Anthology cds sounded good to me. I got so sick of the crummy unlistenable Beatle cds that I went out and got the Beatles complete from MFSL. I know these aren't the end all be all of beatle releases, but they sure are better than anything else I could get my hands on.

 

Re: Re: Re: So, heard any good Beatle recordings lately?

I don't like that they no noised the Anthology CDs to death. I bought Anthology 3 and didn't bother with the rest. It sounds sterile to me. I still haven't heard Past Masters in a long time (somebody's been "borrowing" them for 6 years now ).

Mike

 

That's for sure. In fact I'd say all my CDs and SACDs are in "sealed condition".

Regards,
Geoff

 

The EP Box has better sound overall. Get the singles box for the Mono versions..and the neat packaging!

 

Singles Box vs. Past Masters - For the later stereo tunes they have in common, cymbals are a little softer and airier, and soundstage is a little wider on Past Masters. Things are a little more punchy and edgy on the Singles Box. That's not bad on Old Brown Shoe, but less desirable on Let It Be, IMO.

I agree that the Red and Blue sets are a bit over-processed, and the Red has a lot of modern remixes. Just to pick a couple of examples on the Blue, I think the brighter EQ is flattering on Penny Lane, but I'd rather hear the original CDs of Strawberry Fields and the Pepper tunes. I'm not one of those high frequency-phobes, but I think too bright can be deadly on this Beatle stuff.

I have a CD-R of the Japanese Abbey Road, and while some things like the orchestral parts sound especially beautiful without noise reduction, there's some textural things in the low end I miss, like the sounds of the two bass lines on You Never Give Me Your Money on the stock CD. I'd be curious to hear an original copy. I like the Abbey Road songs on the Blue set, and I love Something and Come Together on the Singles Box.

As much as I love the EP Box, I concede that the hand of the mastering engineer is evident -- I just think he did a good job. There's a sameness (i.e., consistency) to the tonal balance that's not on Past Masters and the Singles Box where adjacent tunes can sound brighter or darker in keeping with the sound on the master tape. He really cranked the bass on the Rubber Soul EP tunes, though -- is that a little distortion on Michelle?

 

The White Album on CD is supposed to be a flat transfer of the original tape, so if you're a big fan of "My Guitar Gently Weeps" (and who isn't?), you might want to check it out.

Abbey Road is NoNoised in spots. If you don't mind that, you could go for it, but there's also the Toshiba EMI CD made in the early 80's. The first Beatles CD ever made, it can go for a king's ransom, but it was made from a tape copied flat from the master by EMI.

One of the big problems with all the Beatles CD's in general is the equipment used to master the stuff. Sure, a chunk of it is pretty much mastered flat, but they all sound like dubs because of the crappy, solid-state console they used (this may have been a conscious decision; George Martin complained about the original master tapes sounding too "wooly" to his ears) and the A/D converter, which I think is a 1600, several generations behind what was available at the time.

If you want this on CD, there's nothing very definitive, just "acceptable."