I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

anthology 2 is the best, what with the stoned cracking-up version of and your bird can sing and the gorgeous demos of strawberry fields. 3 is good for the white album stuff, and 1 is probably the only time any americans (me included) will ever hear any morecambe and wise.

Well, they are getting slightly more plentiful. In fact, I got most of my collection used. But, then again, I've been lucky. The worst thing about used Beatle cds is that stores priced higher than average (i.e. in the US 10-12 dollars vs. 7-9). Shopping around helps, and the prices have leveled off (and no doubt will continue)

I will concur regarding the Anthologies and the BBC, but--to cite my earlier post--alot of the people who bought them probably realized that they didn't listen to them as much as the regular LPs.

Neil Aspinall is probably the one to blame.

Anyway, seems like some good news is finally coming up.

While I agree that they need remastering, I don't neccessarily agree with your version of what they sounded like. The first four, sure, but the rest, particularly from "Sgt. Pepper" onwards, used state of the art remastering technology at the time, and sounded really impressive back then.

Only this is 20 years ago and a lot has happened since then.

I think the Anthologies are a pretty good distillation of the best stuff that makes up the two major bootleg series (ultra rare trax and, uh, whatever the other one is called; they have most of the same stuff on them). I could do w/out the talking on the first cd.

xpost

i mean it does take the piss doesn't it?

lo-lo-lo-looooots of piss, sir! :(

I bought Help for £1 in a charity shop the other week. It was cheap because the cover was ripped (and taped up again) and the vinyl's a bit crackly, but it's not scratched at all. Even with the crackles it sounds great - a lot better than the CD versions, The Night Before especially gaining an awful lot of character and energy. I too am amazed there's no proper CD remaster, I guess because people are still buying the current shonky versions.

This footage
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=compleat+beatles
of 'The Compleat Beatles' (snappy 1984 cheaply-made proto-ANTHOLOGY movie, shot on film and narrated by Malcolm Mcdowell) is
making me anticipate this happening all the more.

It will happen before or since, but apparently at still takes time.

I expected they'd at least do "Sgt. Pepper" in June this year to coincide with its 40th anniversary, but they did't.

But at least, with the current trend for remasters, the ultimate edition will be better. I hope they will do like The Bee Gees and Monkees remasters, and put out 2CDs with the stereo version + bonus tracks in stereo on one and the mono version + bonus tracks in mono on the other one.

they never do anything right with the beatles catalogue, they're sure to disappoint someone. i say live with the ebbett's bootlegs for now.

Maybe something with the Apple/iPod stuff later today.

that's been the rumour, but it was the rumour a few months ago also. anyway, it's been confirmed that the albums have been remastered (by bruce spizer, in some interview last month), but not packaged or manufactured yet, and no confirmation on whether they'll have a mono/stereo split or what, or when they're ever going to come out.

macca and ringo 'secret gig' rumoured
volume one of lewisohn triple-volume biog coming at xmas

its hotting up again on the fabs front. a bit.

macca and ringo 'secret gig' rumoured

At long last their tribute show to the White Stripes.

At long last their tribute show to the White Stripes godheadSilo.

Beatles Remasters

I posted that link before realizing that it is kind of a goldmine.

Damn, wish I had a bigger hard drive...

(no penis jokes plz)

if pressed for time, go for white album disc 5 - kinfauns demos

then rubber soul through magical mystery tour, mono versions

Are the demos the same as the ones that show up on the Anthology, or are these different? And how do they compare in quality?

makes me wish i had decent external speakers for my laptop. my beatles records are not very "nice" copies. all US pressings, mostly stereo. they do sound great in mono though.

mono mixes = the mixes, up until the white album

xpost same ones, but complete & good quality. it's them camped at home with a 4 track, learning the songs as they track them but having fun, sounding much more like a band than the album

http://www.bootlegzone.com/album.php?name=vigo_183§ion=1

i really wish that circus mashup album didn't suck so bad.

has anyone ever noticed that the ebbetts bootlegs sound like crap on headphones?. especially yellow submarine and magical mystery tour.

the stereo of those albums (some of them) is very wide so that's why; ebbetts did cd versions of almost everything though, including weird shit like canadian stereo versions, etc, which differ slightly. I think the regular cd stereo versionns of MMT and Pepper are alright (and really don't have any serious problems with white album or abbey road either; I think abbey road is a pretty glorious sounding cd). the early records are a mixed bag; these days I prefer the capitol box versions (anyway I grew up with the US versions of the albums, so it's kind of nice to return to the admittedly fucked up tracklistings...though I do think 'the second album' is pretty awesome).
anyway yeah the purple chick stuff is pretty exciting, it seems to have just popped up in the past few months? or at least that's where I heard about it. and being distributed completely free so no evil bootleggers making money. it makes official remasters kind of irrelevant.
today i listened to all the 'sessions' mixes of tracks off the anthology,critically and without the 'oh wow new beatles songs' luster...these really do sound like shit, emerick should be embarrassed.

but also yeah, i'm pretty much ready to sell all my parlophone beatles cds once I can get ahold of all the purple chick stuff; i usually only listen to digital files anyway, and I have a blue box vinyl set, so there's no need to keep the crappy pressings with bad artwork.

also, while I agree that the mono pepper is interesting, i really disagree that it's the better of the mixes. I think the novelty of it is kind of cool but there are bits and pieces that just sound sloppy. I know it's allegedly the mix they approved and they apparently didn't have much to do with the stereo version, but maybe that just shows the beatles were the best people to mix their material

the purple chick version of the white album is really really amazing. i'm working on just downloading the albums (no bonus tracks) and converting them to mp3, for my ipod. the only problem is that some of the tracks are switched around. like...penny lane is on the purple chick version of sgt pepper's. it's kinda confusing when dealing with torrents.

The Purple Chick stuff is impressive though really it's just collating already available stuff in one place. It does that very very well though and as well as the main albums they've also done releases of Hollywood Bowl, The Songs The Beatles Gave Away, the fan club records, the Star Club tapes, the BBC sessions and the 92CD complete Get Back rehearsals (also check out their 10CD complete Buddy Holly and S&G's alternate Bookends)

The mono and stereo versions of the albums on the Purple Chick sets are just the UK Ebbetts versions. There is a version of the white album released by Darthdisc (? - i think) which is from a 'direct metal master' that may even be better.

The mono Pepper is sloppy in places but certainly Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds sounds better (more phasing).

Has anyone else heard the multitracks of A Day In The Life, With A Little Help From My Friends, Sgt Pepper and She's Leaving Home that were released as an addendum to the PC Sgt Pepper? Incredible to hear.

itll sound shit remastered. cant you just enjoy the originals?

you mean the 1st pressing UK vinyl? sure, we can all enjoy those.

well, I can, anyroad.

no way are these the same as the ebbet's version. especially not mmt.

Found this bootleg stereo remaster of what's probably my favorite Beatles album. It blows the original CD version out of the water and I think it's more impressive than any of the purple chick stuff.
http://octaner.blogspot.com/2008/05/beatles-for-sale-fabulous-sound-lab.html

Here's a mono version for you old-schoolers. Didn't download it, though, so I can't vouch for it.
http://6plus3.wordpress.com/2008/03/26/beatles-for-sale-dr-ebbetts-red-wax-mono/

When this thread was started in 2005, there might have been an expectation that the Beatles albums would get audiophile re-releases on SACD like so many of their peers. Two decades later, it rather surprises me that the Beatles never appeared on that format.

We really have to do this every few years don’t we?

McCartney can actually take the train now - I doubt that would have been possible 20 years ago.

― birdistheword

kids start looking at mccartney
mccartney starts to internally go "oh shit"
kids: "hey look it's an old lesbian"
mccartney breathes a sigh of relief, this is always what kids say when they look at him these days but every time he still worries

I thought this mean he was involved somehow in that Sheena Easton song.

ironically their very earliest stuff probably sounds the most relevant now to me, probably because the blues will never die

The early stuff can definitely blindside you with its energy in a way the later stuff doesn't.

twist and shout goes

(dickhead comment warning)

the mono mixes of the early records were a real revelation for me, so much more energy

"We really have to do this every few years don’t we?"

we don't have to do it much anymore really because they have been remastered and now are being remixed and remastered.

I did think this thread was being revived because the red and blue packages had been officially announced along with Now and Then; rumor was that was supposed to happen this week

My Macca takes the morning train

He works from 9 to 5 and Lennon

ok this new AI remix…what the hell is that repeating explosion sound during the bridge of “hey bulldog”? Sounds like someone rattling a reverb plate or something??

the “you can talk to me” part

It’s an additional snare drum. It was always there (and arguably more audible on the previous stereo mix).

I wondered that too and yeah it's in the original mix but quieter.

It sounds like a snare reverb, but with a delay in front of it. Nowadays you call it pre-delay on a reverb unit, not sure how they managed that in 1968, perhaps with an Echoplex or a Binson and a bit of patching.

Funny I find it less audible in the remix. Maybe because I’m so used to hearing it clearly in the previous stereo mix.

Cool idea/detail anyway !

weird, yeah, went back and AB-d it with the 2009 mix and couldn’t really hear it. But I know I’m probably listening more closely to this new stuff so maybe most of the new stuff I’m hearing isn’t really new. That said, the set does sound quite dynamic, yeah? Like when Ringo’s drums come in at the middle 8 of “this boy”, it’s like BOOM

Wasn't the remix exclusive to the Yellow Submarine Songtrack comp from the '00s?

The baseline on Hey Bulldog is such a joy (not just on the new mix)

https://www.thebeatles.com/sites/default/files/2024-04/LetItBe_KA_4x5_032624.jpg

Today, Disney+ announced that “Let It Be,” director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 film about The Beatles, will launch exclusively on Disney+ May 8, 2024. This is the first time the film is available in over 50 years.

https://www.thebeatles.com/let-it-be-last

This is the first time the film is available in over 50 years.

Wasn't it out on VHS/Video Disc in the '80s?

...and on CED!

(That's a deep cut for you obsolete media fans)