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

mmmm.

What up for that "Something" 9 min version? Me too?

Bonus track on the 12-inch: "Commonwealth Song"

Yeah that something outtake is under 6 mins, not 9 minutes. It's on quite a few Abbey Road boots...

I have a 9 min version; like I said it's more of a lyrical jam to the melody than an actual song, but still.

woah. see all i know is the one that is pretty much an early take of the album version, then it ends and they just jam on 2 chords for a couple minutes is the 9 minute one different?

I know the one you're thinking of...the one I have they have the basic melody and some of the lyrics, and John and George are adding on dummy lyrics and instrumental pieces as they go. It's interesting to listen to just get an idea of how the songwriting process works.

C/D: burning purple chick cds for your dad's xmas present and the tags are fucked up and all the tracks are out of order.

sorry, just wanted to share

fuck all you lazy internet sloths ruining christmases across the galaxy

yeah i know, last minute, fuck you i'll trade my 2008 for yours

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/here-comes-the-sun-the-beatles-finally-get-remastered/

Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music announced Tuesday morning that the Fab Four’s entire album catalog has been digitally remastered, and would be re-released on CD on Sept. 9. In a news release, Apple Corps and EMI said that the remastering effort, conducted at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London, took four years to complete, using a combination of modern-day recording technology and vintage studio equipment. The new CD releases, which include the 12 Beatles studio albums (the British versions) in stereo, as well as “Magical Mystery Tour” and “Past Masters Vol. I and II” (which have been combined into a single title) will feature the original UK album art, as well as original and newly written liner notes. On Sept. 9 (the same day that the video game The Beatles: Rock Band arrives in stores), Apple Corps and EMI said that two new Beatles boxed CD collections of the material would also be released, one comprising all 14 CDs plus a DVD documentary collection, the other consisting of 10 albums’ original mono mixes plus two additional CDs of mono masters. In a statement, the two companies added: “Discussions regarding the digital distribution of the catalogue will continue. There is no further information available at this time.”

Sept. 9 (the same day that the video game The Beatles: Rock Band arrives in stores)

Uh.

Re-mastering the Beatles catalogue

The re-mastering process commenced with an extensive period conducting tests before finally copying the analogue master tapes into the digital medium. When this was completed, the transfer was achieved using a Pro Tools workstation operating at 24 bit 192 kHz resolution via a Prism A-D converter. Transferring was a lengthy procedure done a track at a time. Although EMI tape does not suffer the oxide loss associated with some later analogue tapes, there was nevertheless a slight build up of dust, which was removed from the tape machine heads between each title.

From the onset, considerable thought was given to what audio restorative processes were going to be allowed. It was agreed that electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance and bad edits should be improved where possible, so long as it didn’t impact on the original integrity of the songs.

In addition, de-noising technology, which is often associated with re-mastering, was to be used, but subtly and sparingly. Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to this process. Finally, as is common with today’s music, overall limiting - to increase the volume level of the CD - has been used, but on the stereo versions only. However, it was unanimously agreed that because of the importance of The Beatles’ music, limiting would be used moderately, so as to retain the original dynamics of the recordings.

When all of the albums had been transferred, each song was then listened to several times to locate any of the agreed imperfections. These were then addressed by Guy Massey, working with Audio Restoration engineer Simon Gibson.

Mastering could now take place, once the earliest vinyl pressings, along with the existing CDs, were loaded into Pro Tools, thus allowing comparisons to be made with the original master tapes during the equalization process. When an album had been completed, it was auditioned the next day in studio three – a room familiar to the engineers, as all of the recent Beatles mixing projects had taken place in there – and any further alteration of EQ could be addressed back in the mastering room. Following the initial satisfaction of Guy and Steve, Allan Rouse and Mike Heatley then checked each new re-master in yet another location and offered any further suggestions. This continued until all 13 albums were completed to the team’s satisfaction.

A friend already said he's ponying up for both the mono and stereo versions. I have no idea about the video game.

Oh yeah, I'll buy it all without hesitation. Apart from the game.

Remastering the Beatles catalog
http://www.boomcity.biz/librarybooks/resources/scientists.jpg

I'll get the game. Plus Abbey Road. The old cd is really "hissy".

Good good good.

Awesome I cant wait to pay 18.99 for each CD all over again.

How does that mastering process sound to you, Nick?

Does this mean there will be an upsurge of non-remastered Beatles CD's in the "used" section in the future?

It sounds pretty fine; it would be stupid to use no limiting at all, but they sound as if they've been very careful with it; I'm not against limiting per se, I'm against people using it clumsily and unsympathetically. Not using de-noise (apart from 5 mins out of 512) is a big plus, too. I love how the Love thing sounded, and I imagine this will be equally as good.

Yeah, Love sounds amazing.

cool

any word on new vinyl pressing???

it's getting pretty spendy to get really nice copies of the old originals...i can't imagine they wouldn't make bank on some nice 180g shit pressed at RTI

Sounds promising. I will be going for the stereo ones (actually have never owned the originals of the first four because I am a stereo freak) while I leave buying the mono set up to the reactionary anti-sound-quality lunatics only.

You mean like Brian Wilson?

Who you callin' reactionary? (xpost)

You mean like Brian Wilson?

Brian Wilson, for physical reasons, just cannot hear stereo properly. That being said, the stereo mix of "Pet Sounds" is for me the one and only version that matters.

It's nice.

FWIW, I have no opinion about mono being 'better' than stereo, it's more that I do not have an overriding position of "stereo is always better than mono".

The first Beatles Stereo albums had vocals on one side, instruments on the other. Which is less good than having it all mixed together for mono.

Presumably, this time round a decent Stereo mix will happen.

9-9-2009 has a good ring to it. so excited about this.

http://www.thebeatles.com/core/news/

HATS. AIR.

hmmm these look ... expensive. and nice!

will they also be updating the cover art as well? the abbey road cover has been so played out, same with sgt pepper

There's a thread idea.

attn ilx graphic designers or whatever

They're gonna fuck these up, I know it.

I wanna see the Polish movie poster versions.

I want vinyl. Also, what is the argument for buying the Mono version?

basically the recordings were mixed to be mono, and stereo versions were made artificially after the fact and sort of clumsily. i've heard that the mono mix of sgt pepper is the one that was really slaved over and the stereo mix which we are more familiar with were thrown together

any word on new vinyl pressing???

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I'm not shelling out for CDs. Vinyl, maybe. Way to totally blow it you fucking idiots.

fuck you, john lennon

I was at a record store once, and someone had just sold them a copy of Sgt. Peppers in mono. GLORIOUS MONO. And the employee simulated disgustingly real sex with it.

Ringo: "What do you feel when you turn out the light?"
record store guy: "I can't tell you, but it feels like a stand of spaghetti..."

strand, aaarrgghh...

I want vinyl. Also, what is the argument for buying the Mono version?

the mono mixes are different mixes, highlighting different thing; in the case of Pepper and the White Album, the mono mixes are radically different on some songs, with entirely different tracks that weren't used in the stereo; 'she's leaving home' isn't sped up, etc.

9-9-2009 has a good ring to it.

"One After 909"

har, nytimes is calling for the release of the 27-minute "Helter Skelter".

b/w 33 minute version of Heroes & Villains

BRING IT ON