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

maybe it's a question of who's up to the job, george martin sure as heck isn't. god don't let them get ELO=guy in again.

meanwhile, this ere beatles 10-dvd anthology unofficial bootleg edition can be yours for $150 :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Original-BEATLES-Anthology-Directors-Cut-Real-10-DVDs_W0QQitemZ6430061859QQcategoryZ617QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

must say i'm tempted

That said, Macca, Ono, the Harrison family, and Da Ringosta can take their time settling this. I plan to finally digitize and sell off the CDs while I can get 'em for at least $4+ each back.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70658-0.html?tw=rss.index

But it's not wrong to continue to sell them on cd?

Agree re Past Masters/Anthology but they're such cash cows that they're not going to do it.

Ah yes, the Beatles. I say buy the albums.

It would be nice if they released the red and blue anthologies so that they were in modern slimline 2CD cases rather than the FUCKING MASSIVE and HORRIBLE ones that they are in now.

Are the people not interested in paying for pricey new editions of things really the target market for remastered versions of CDs that are available in droves in used CD stores the world over?

Seriously, I don't see what's so much better (and less cash-cow-ish) about retaining Past Masters and Anthology. OK, so it's kind of cool to have all the singles in one place, but it also robs them of context AND presents a somewhat confusing picture for buyers, who can't figure out which album it is that has "I Want To Hold Your Hand" on it. The PM sets are also really oddly-balanced, anyway - not quite a greatest hits, not quite an odds-and-sods. The Anthologies are just plain obnoxious, especially the first one with all the talky-talky bits.

I guess I'm just coming from a perspective where, if they just remaster the CDs I'll take a pass because I have the LPs already. But if they sweeten the deal I just might think it over, at least for a couple, assuming they went ahead and added more outtake/live stuff. Granted, they would still be kind of weirdly-sequenced albums with one or two singles at the front followed by a bunch of obscurities.... okay, maybe keep Past Masters after all. But I REALLY think it makes more sense to get the unreleased and live material wedded on to the appropriate albums - if nothing else, it means getting MORE of it, right?

What is an example where he has ever done this?

Secondly, Paul has little need to turn himself up anyway. He took a lot of care, recording his bass lines on a single track and spent ages getting the sound right. Why not? It's his friggin songs for fuxake!

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.

Makes sense.

but Jesus, they processed the shit out of Lennon's vocal and it sounds awful compared to the recording used in his own Anthology

this is where the ai-enhanced demixing technology can really work wonders, so I wonder if we'll get remixes of both of these songs.

i'm listening to ram this morning and if you don't think this rules you're trying too hard

oh i see this isn't even where the ram discussion was happening

too many people here preaching practices imo

Now I want to know where the Ram discussion is happening

I’ll talk about Ram all day. Where’s the kettle on the boil there?

Press to Play, y'all.

Rumour has it that Giles Martin is using Peter Jackson's AI stuff to remix the Red and Blue albums to coincide the release of the "new" Beatles track.

Yes apparently he said the remixes “sound like Imagine Dragons, but it’s The Beatles”.

Also Paul's voice has reportedly been de-aged for Now and Then.

I choose to believe none of this is true.

I’m here for the Anthology singles with the Lynne dialed down. Probably too awkward if Giles were to do it while Lynne is still around, tho.

Imagine there are dragons
It's easy if you try

Funny how this thread was borne out of the frustration that nothing was being done with the Beatles' records, and now it's gone really far in the wrong direction.

haha

"I have had it up to here with the endless remasters of the Beatles catalogue"

It's only in the last few years that I've actually started to dive into the Beatles' catalogue. I knew most of these songs already of course. When I was a kid a lot of these songs sounded old but they were still relevant. It still felt like a lot of popular groups had taken cues from them. I mean even The Offspring had a big hit with a song that completely copped a Beatles tune. And all the TV and movies was being written by 60s kids who shoved Beatles references into everything. Well now we're a full generation away from that, with an entire crop of pop stars who might not really know shit about the Beatles, and I'm telling you, right now their music sounds like it was made 500 years ago

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/Baroquebeatlesbook.jpg

That’s for sure. It’s crazy how much the Beatles seeped into ‘80s and ‘90s culture (television shows, films), but ever since Guitar Hero, I feel like they’ve definitely become much more of a long bygone era type of thing, like Sinatra probably was towards the end of his career. McCartney can actually take the train now - I doubt that would have been possible 20 years ago.

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)

CED (vinyl video disks) were obsolete from the day they first went on sale

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

Yup. Probably the source of the bootleg DVD-R's out there.

http://www.rarebeatles.com/photopg5/letitbe.htm

I remember that CED! I was in a media studies class about 20 years ago and the professor asked us to do a show & tell on arcane formats. Somebody brought in CEDs of Let It Be and The Compleat Beatles doc.