April 25, 2025

The Beatles - Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School Concert, Buckinghamshire, Britain, 04-04-1963



Here's something that's pretty amazing, if you're a Beatles fan. I'm writing this in December 2023. Back in September, there were some articles in the mainstream media about a recently discovered bootleg recording of a 1963 Beatles concert at the Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, Britain. Here's one such article. I suggest you read it to be familiar with what I'm talking about:

The Beatles Stowe School Concert Is Unlike Any Other Show in History (thedailybeast.com)

I'll explain more about the story behind this concert and how it got recorded in a bit. But first, I want to say that I tracked down that recording after reading about it, and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed, due to poor sound quality. Amongst many other problems, the vocals were so low that they often couldn't be heard at all. I tried my best to fix things with my limited ability using the artificial intelligence based audio editing programs that have come out in recent years, but the recording was too poor to be salvageable. I didn't even bother keeping a copy of the concert in my music collection, because it wasn't worth hearing for me.

Or so I thought. Enter Lord Reith. He's someone who has been editing and improving Beatles recordings for years. I don't know if he's a magician or what, but what he did with this Stowe School bootleg is nothing short of miraculous! There are still some problems, which I will get to in a bit, but he's completely transformed the sound quality, making it almost sound as good as some soundboard recordings. In particular, he did wonders to make the vocals audible. So, in my opinion, this has gone from not worth listening to more than once (if that) to being one of the most interesting and listenable live Beatles recordings, period. If you're a fan, and you can tolerate some sound quality issues, definitely give this a listen.

Now, let me explain a bit more about what this concert is and why it's so unique. Again, I highly recommend you read the above newspaper article, but in case you don't, here's a short summary. At the time of this concert, the Beatles were right on the cusp of being big stars in Britain, but they weren't quite there yet. They'd released their first single, "Love Me Do," in late 1962. It made the Top Twenty in Britain, which was a good start. Then, in January 1963, they released the single "Please Please Me." It reached Number One in most British charts. In late March 1963, they released their first album, also called "Please Please Me." That would go on to be a huge hit, staying in the Top Ten of the charts for over a year, which would set a record for the next fifty years. Then, only one week after this concert, the single "From Me to You" would be released, and that would be another Number One hit in Britain. 

So, mere weeks after this concert, Beatlemania hit Britain in a big way, just as it would hit the U.S. in early 1964. From that point on, pretty much all Beatles concerts would be short, a half an hour or less, and so filled with screams from overexcited girls that one couldn't really hear the music. If you're heard live Beatles recordings, then you know it's usually a pretty rough listening experience, due to all that screaming and cheering.

Previously, the Beatles had spent a couple of years in Hamburg, Germany, honing their music skills by playing in small clubs. There are some rough live recordings from that, and they're very interesting, but they consisted almost entirely of cover songs. 

This recording is unique, however, in part because the Stowe School is very unusual. In 1963, it was only for boys aged 13 to 18. As you can see from this photo, it was only for the children of the elite. It looks less like a high school and more like a palace! The Beatles were booked to perform there months before the concert date, when their fame was a lot less. But they upheld their agreement and played there in April 1963 anyway. Not only that, but they played for over an hour, instead of the mere half hour or less they were already doing for screaming fans in other shows. 

But what's really great is, because the audience considered entirely of boys, and well-behaved upper class boys, no less, there was no screaming. According to articles I read, most of the boys in the audience hadn't even heard of the Beatles yet, so they weren't swept up in any hysteria. The Beatles played virtually all the songs from the "Please Please Me" album, plus "From Me to You" and its B-side "Thank You Girl," despite the fact those last two songs still hadn't been released. Yet they also played a bunch of cover songs that they'd done in Hamburg. This is probably the last time most of those covers were played by them in concert, as they switched to doing very short concerts consisting entirely of their best known songs. So this is the one and only concert recording with a mix of the "old" Beatles of Hamburg cover versions and the "new" Beatles with their remarkable original songs. How lucky we are that one of the boys in the audience snuck in a tape recorder and recorded it.

So that's the good news. The bad news is, even after Lord Reith's miraculous transformation of the recording, there still are sound quality issues. The biggest problem is the banter between songs. There was a lot banter, between almost all the songs. Unfortunately, the recording of those bits were very quiet, way more quiet than the music. So I suspect there just wasn't much there on the recording for Lord Reith to work with. I took his version, with the banter way down low, and boosted the volume of those bits so the banter can be clearly heard. But unfortunately, all that means in that quiet jibber jabber is now louder jibber jabber. I've included a couple of extra text files. One of them is a list of all the changes Lord Reith made to make this listenable. The other is a transcript of what he and other die-hard Beatles fans have managed to figure out from the banter. If you read that as you listen, you can catch most of it. But otherwise, the talking is pretty hard to understand, other than the occasional phrase.

Due to this seemingly unfixable problem, I'm posting two versions of this album. One contains the banter and the songs, and the other one contains just the songs. I much, much prefer the music only version. The banter is interesting to hear once or twice, but beyond that, it drags down the overall recording. So maybe you'll want to download both, and listen to one version and then the other.

There's one other big problem. The tape in the tape recorder only lasted for about sixty minutes. The recorder was up at the stage and the boy who recorded it was sitting in the audience, so when the tape ran out, there was no way for him to flip it over and keep recording. Thus, the end of a second version of "I Saw Her Standing There" was cut off, plus all of the last two songs, "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Long Tall Sally." Most of the second version of  "I Saw Her Standing There" survived, and luckily it happened to be the only song played twice. So I patched in the ending from the first version earlier in the show. But the last two songs are lost.

And there's one more lost song. Right before that second version of "I Saw Her Standing There," the Beatles played "Money (That's What I Want)." Unfortunately, there's only about twenty seconds of this on the recording, and then it gets replaced by the hit version of "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen! Probably what happened was that the boy who recorded it accidentally recorded that song off the radio over the Beatles concert. I removed the snippet of "Money" and the little bit of banter before it, because it's frustrating to get only such a short part of that. 

Furthermore, note that even after all of Lord Reith's edits, there were still some problems with the vocals. I used UVR5 to boost all the vocals a bit. I think that helped to make the singing easier to hear. But some songs are better than others. For "Matchbox" in particular, only bits and pieces of the lead vocals can be heard. I figure that's because that song was sung by Ringo Starr, the drummer, and maybe he was sitting back and too busy with drumming to keep his mouth near the microphone all the time. (That reminds me: there are no lead vocals from George Harrison because he was recovering from a cold.)

If you want to know even more about this remarkable concert, I recommend this link:

The Beatles concert at Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School in Buckingham on Apr 4, 1963 (the-paulmccartney-project.com)

It includes lots of great photos and stories. You can learn the whole story of how this bootleg came to be recorded and then rediscovered decades later. It's really interesting stuff, if you're a Beatles fan. That also includes a transcript of the banter between songs.

Here's the track list to the version that includes the banter. This version is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Beatles)

02 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)

03 Too Much Monkey Business (Beatles)

04 talk (Beatles)

05 Love Me Do (Beatles)

06 talk (Beatles)

07 Some Other Guy (Beatles)

08 talk (Beatles)

09 Misery (Beatles)

10 talk (Beatles)

11 I Just Don't Understand (Beatles)

12 talk (Beatles)

13 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Beatles)

14 talk (Beatles)

15 Boys (Beatles)

16 talk (Beatles)

17 Matchbox (Beatles)

18 talk (Beatles)

19 From Me to You (Beatles)

20 talk (Beatles)

21 Thank You Girl (Beatles)

22 talk (Beatles)

23 Memphis, Tennessee (Beatles)

24 talk (Beatles)

25 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)

26 talk (Beatles)

27 Twist and Shout (Beatles)

28 talk (Beatles)

29 Anna [Go to Him] (Beatles)

30 talk (Beatles)

31 Please Please Me (Beatles)

32 talk (Beatles)

33 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)

34 talk (Beatles)

35 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)

36 talk (Beatles)

37 Ask Me Why (Beatles)

38 talk (Beatles)

39 Till There Was You (Beatles)

40 talk (Beatles)

41 I Saw Her Standing There [Edit] (Beatles)


And here's the link to the version with the banter:

NOTE: The download link has been removed due to a copyright issue, sorry. But check the comments below.

Here's the track list for the version with only the music. This version is 50 minutes long, eight minutes shorter than the other version.

01 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)

02 Too Much Monkey Business (Beatles)

03 Love Me Do (Beatles)

04 Some Other Guy (Beatles)

05 Misery (Beatles)

06 I Just Don't Understand (Beatles)

07 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Beatles)

08 Boys (Beatles)

09 Matchbox (Beatles)

10 From Me to You (Beatles)

11 Thank You Girl (Beatles)

12 Memphis, Tennessee (Beatles)

13 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)

14 Twist and Shout (Beatles)

15 Anna [Go to Him] (Beatles)

16 Please Please Me (Beatles)

17 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)

18 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)

19 Ask Me Why (Beatles)

20 Till There Was You (Beatles)

21 I Saw Her Standing There [Edit] (Beatles)

Here's the link to the version with no banter, and only songs. 

NOTE: The download link has been removed due to a copyright issue, sorry. But, again, check the comments below.

Again, especially if you're not a die-hard fan, I recommend just getting the music only version.

For the cover photo, I used one of the photos from this exact concert and colorized it, using the Palette program. You can see a larger and uncropped version of the original black and white photo in one of the above article links.

Posted by Paul at 4:12 PM 













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Labels: 1963, Beatles, George Harrison, John Lennon, live, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr

16 comments:

PaulDecember 6, 2023 at 5:33 PM

By the way, thanks to Mike Solof for alerting me to Lord Reith's edits, which totally changed my opinion about this recording. Lord Reith has done similar eye-opening work on the Beatles' recordings from the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany. I plan on posting that here soon as well.

Reply

Michael solofDecember 6, 2023 at 8:17 PM

:-) Glad the BEatle of service!

Reply

Replies

PaulDecember 6, 2023 at 8:29 PM

I see what you did there.

Reply

lemonflagDecember 6, 2023 at 8:36 PM

Thanks Paul Thanks Mike.

Lord Reith has also done the BBC recordings.

Reply

GmanDecember 6, 2023 at 8:55 PM

fantastic!

Reply

juan manuel muñozDecember 6, 2023 at 9:09 PM

Excelente, amigo. Muchas gracias.

Reply

Dr RobertDecember 6, 2023 at 9:49 PM

Maybe one to look at is the recording of a concert from Melbourne on their '64 tour of Australia - I think all the audio is available but not all the visual of the show.

Reply

Replies

PaulDecember 7, 2023 at 11:17 PM

That's an interesting idea. I just heard a recording, it's very good, but I'm still annoyed by the level of screaming throughout (though it's a lot less than usual for their live recordings). I wonder if there's a way to get rid of the remnants of that? I'll look into it. So much is possible these days with new technology.

EasilyConfusedDecember 5, 2024 at 2:10 AM

x-minus.pro now has an excellent crowd removal programme.

Reply

EZ6December 6, 2023 at 10:51 PM

Thanks !

Reply

copacetic47December 7, 2023 at 4:24 AM

WOW!!! Thank you very, very much. Your work is much appreciated.

Reply

Replies

PaulDecember 7, 2023 at 11:18 PM

I dig your Wow. Thanks.

Reply

Brett AlanDecember 7, 2023 at 11:07 PM

This is AMAZING! It's still not an audiophile's dream, but it's pleasant to listen to. And historically--a recording of a show from 1963, but a full hour show where they do covers they never recorded except at the BBC--a collector's dream! I read about this show many years ago in Mark Lewisohn's first book. Never dreamed I'd hear it! Thank you so much.

Reply

Replies

PaulDecember 7, 2023 at 11:18 PM

That's great, that you're psyched about it. What to you think about the version with banter vs. the version without?

Reply

PaulSeptember 13, 2024 at 9:30 PM

Here's a link to download the music (music only version):

https://atseghost.blogspot.com/2024/09/blog-post.html

And here's a second download link (the music and banter version):

https://atseghost.blogspot.com/2024/09/blog-post_6.html

Reply

juanApril 19, 2025 at 11:20 PM

wow !!! muchas gracias...

Source: https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-beatles-roxburgh-hall-stowe-school.html




April 24, 2025

Looking back at: The Beatles: The Complete BBC Sessions by Great Dane-10 Disks

This was such a ground breaking collection of Beatles complete BBC radio performances never before available. It deserves another look and listen. You can still find these CD sets on eBay. Enjoy.

The Complete BBC Sessions is a bootleg 10 CD box set from Great Dane Records, Italy. Total running time is approximately 10 hrs. 16 min. It is comprised of all the available recordings (from private collectors) of The Beatles appearances on BBC radio from March '62 to June '65. (All of these recordings couldn't have been recorded off the air because a couple from '64 are clearly the working recording sessions.) There were a total of 52 known appearances (not counting interviews), of which this collection has 44 (complete and partial).

I have compiled a track listing of the 9 CDs plus the unavailable performances. Since the source is from the tapes of collectors, the sound quality ranges from very poor to excellent. I've made an attempt to grade each song: P (poor), G (good), VG (very good), E (excellent)

To keep my sanity, I didn't try to be that precise with the grading. I just used my intitial reaction to each song. So some would undoubtably rate some "G"s as "P"s, "VG"s as "E"s, and so on. I just wanted to give an idea of how much the sound quality varies. Of course this reflects just the sound not the performance (which IMO is excellent throughout).

I highly recommend this box set to anyone who wants all the BBC broadcasts (especially if one doesn't already have many BBC bootlegs). Others may find this overwhelming and repetitious. Some may want to seek out a good compilation. And (finally!) there is the new "Live at the BBC" from EMI.

One last note: I have heard that Great Dane is to release a 2 CD update to the box set this coming February. (old post)





The Complete BBC Sessions

Disc 1 (71:58) Show Trk Song Qlty

1 Teenager's Turn NA Hello Little Girl (not broadcast) (Here We Go) 1 Dream Baby P r 3/7/62 a 3/8/62 2 Memphis P 3 Please Mr. Postman P 2 Here We Go 4 Ask Me Why P r 6/11 a 6/15 5 Besame Mucho P 6 A Picture Of You P 3 Here We Go NA Sheila (not broadcast) r 10/25 a 10/26 NA Love Me Do NA A Taste Of Honey NA P.S. I Love You 4 Talent Spot NA Love Me Do r 11/27 a 12/4 NA P.S. I Love You NA Twist And Shout

5 Here We Go NA Chains r 1/16/63 a 1/25/63 NA Please Please Me NA Ask Me Why NA Three Cool Cats (not broadcast)

6 Saturday Club 7 Some Other Guy P r 1/22 a 1/26 8 Keep Your Hands Off My Baby P 9 Beautiful Dreamer P NA Love Me Do NA Please Please Me

7 Talent Spot NA Please Please Me r 1/22 a 1/29 NA Ask Me Why NA Some Other Guy

8 Parade Of Pops NA Love Me Do r 2/20 a 2/20 NA Please Please Me

9 Here We Go NA Misery r 3/6 a 3/12 NA Do You Want To Know A Secret? NA Please Please Me NA I Saw Her Standing There (not broadcast) 10 Saturday Club 10 I Saw Her Standing There P r 3/16 a 3/16 11 Misery P 12 Too Much Monkey Business P 13 I'm Talking About You P 14 Please Please Me P 15 The Hippy Hippy Shake P

11 On The Scene NA Misery r 3/21 a 3/28 NA Do You Want To Know A Secret? NA Please Please Me

12 Easy Beat NA Please Please Me r 4/3 a 4/7 NA Misery 16 From Me To You P 13 Swingin' Sound 17 Twist And Shout P r 4/18 a 4/18 18 From Me To You P

14 Side By Side NA Side By Side Theme r 4/1 a 4/22 NA I Saw Her Standing There NA Do You Want To Know A Secret? NA Baby It's You NA Please Please Me NA From Me To You NA Misery 15 Side By Side 19 Side By Side Theme VG r 4/1 a 5/13 20 Long Tall Sally VG 21 A Taste Of Honey VG 22 Chains VG 23 Thank You Girl VG 24 Boys VG NA From Me To You

16 Saturday Club 25 I Saw Her Standing There G r 5/21 a 5/25 26 Do You Want To Know A Secret? G 27 Boys G 28 Long Tall Sally G 29 From Me To You G 30 Money G

17 Steppin' Out 31 Please Please Me P r 5/21 a 6/3 32 I Saw Her Standing There P NA Roll Over Beethoven NA Thank You Girl NA From Me To You NA Twist And Shout (not broadcast)




Disc 2 (77:55) Show Trk Song Qlty

18 Pop Go The 1 Pop Go The Beatles Beatles NA From Me To You r 5/25/63 a 6/4/63 2 Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby G 3 Do You Want To Know A Secret? G 4 You Really Got A Hold On Me G 5 Misery P 6 The Hippy Hippy Shake P 7 Pop Go The Beatles G 19 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 8 Too Much Monkey Business VG r 6/1 a 6/11 9 I Got To Find My Baby VG 10 Young Blood VG 11 Baby It's You VG 12 Till There Was You VG 13 Love Me Do P Pop Go The Beatles+

20 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 14 A Shot Of Rythm And Blues G r 6/1 a 6/18 15 Memphis P 16 A Taste Of Honey VG 17 Sure To Fall VG 18 Money VG 19 From Me To You P Pop Go The Beatles+ 21 Easy Beat 20 Some Other Guy G r 6/19 a 6/23 21 A Taste Of Honey VG 22 Thank You Girl G 23 From Me To You G

22 Side By Side Side By Side Theme+ r 4/4 a 6/24 24 Too Much Monkey Business VG NA Love Me Do 25 Boys G 26 I'll Be On Way VG 27 From Me To You G

23 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 28 Anna G r 6/17 a 6/25 29 I Saw Her Standing There G 30 Boys G 31 Chains G 32 P.S. I Love You G 33 Twist And Shout G Pop Go The Beatles+ NA A Taste Of Honey (not broadcast)




Disc 3 (70:55) Show Trk Song Qlty 24 Saturday Club 1 I Got To Find My Baby VG r 6/24/63 a 6/29/63 2 Memphis VG 3 Money P 4 Till There Was You P 5 From Me To You G 6 Roll Over Beethoven G

25 The Beat Show NA From Me To You r 7/3 a 7/4 7 A Taste Of Honey P 8 Twist And Shout P 26 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 9 That's All Right (Mama) G r 7/2 a 7/16 10 There's A Place G 11 Carol VG 12 Soldier Of Love VG 13 Lend Me Your Comb VG 14 Clarabella VG Pop Go The Beatles+ NA Three Cool Cats (not broadcast) NA Sweet Little Sixteen (not broadcast) NA Ask Me Why (not broadcast)

27 Easy Beat 15 I Saw Her Standing There P r 7/17 a 7/21 16 A Shot Of Rythm And Blues P 17 There's A Place P 18 Twist And Shout P

28 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 19 Sweet Little Sixteen G r 7/10 a 7/23 NA A Taste Of Honey 20 Nothin' Shakin' VG 21 Love Me Do P 22 Lonesome Tears In My Eyes VG 23 So How Come No One Loves Me VG Pop Go The Beatles+ 29 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 24 Memphis VG r 7/10 a 7/30 25 Do You Want To Know A Secret? G 26 Till There Was You VG 27 Matchbox G 28 Please Mr. Postman G 29 The Hippy Hippy Shake VG Pop Go The Beatles+







Disc 4 (66:57) Show Trk Song Qlty 30 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 1 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down VG r 7/16/63 a 8/8/63 And Cry Over You 2 Cry, Waiting, Hoping VG 3 Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey G 4 To Know Her Is To Love Her VG 5 The Honeymoon Song VG 6 Twist And Shout G Pop Go The Beatles+ 31 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 7 Long Tall Sally G r 7/16 a 8/13 8 Please Please Me G 9 She Loves You VG 10 You Really Got A Hold On Me VG 11 I'll Get You VG 12 I Got A Woman VG Pop Go The Beatles+ 32 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 13 She Loves You G r 7/16 a 8/20 14 Words Of Love G 15 Glad All Over G 16 I Just Don't Understand G 17 Devil In Her Heart G 18 Slow Down P Pop Go The Beatles+ 33 Saturday Club 19 Long Tall Sally P r 7/30 a 8/24 20 She Loves You P 21 Glad All Over P NA Twist And Shout NA You Really Got A Hold On Me 22 I'll Get You P 34 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 23 Ooh! My Soul P r 8/1 a 8/27 24 Don't Ever Change G 25 Twist And Shout G NA She Loves You 26 Anna P 27 A Shot Of Rythm And Blues G Pop Go The Beatles+




Disc 5 (71:13) Show Trk Song Qlty 35 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 1 From Me To You P r 8/1/63 a 9/3/63 NA I'll Get You 2 Money P 3 There's A Place G 4 Honey Don't (John) G 5 Roll Over Beethoven G Pop Go The Beatles+ NA Lucille (not broadcast) NA Baby It's You (not broadcast)

36 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 6 Too Much Monkey Business VG r 9/3 a 9/10 7 Love Me Do G 8 She Loves You G 9 I'll Get You G 10 A Taste Of Honey VG 11 The Hippy Hippy Shake VG Pop Go The Beatles+ 37 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 12 Chains VG r 9/3 a 9/17 13 You Really Got A Hold On Me VG 14 Misery VG 15 Lucille VG 16 From Me To You VG 17 Boys VG Pop Go The Beatles+ 38 Pop Go The Pop Go The Beatles+ Beatles 18 She Loves You* G r 9/3 a 9/24 19 Ask Me Why VG 20 Devil In My Heart G * from 9/10 21 I Saw Her Standing There G PGTB 22 Sure To Fall G 23 Twist And Shout G Pop Go The Beatles+

39 Saturday Club 24 I Saw Her Standing There E r 9/7 a 10/5 25 Memphis E 26 Happy Birthday Saturday Club E 26 I'll Get You E 27 She Loves You E 28 Lucille E




Disc 6 (72:41) Show Trk Song Qlty

40 Easy Beat 1 I Saw Her Standing There G r 10/16/63 a 10/20/63 2 Love Me Do G 3 Please Please Me G 4 From Me To You G 5 She Loves You G

41 Ken Dodd Show 6 She Loves You P r 10/9 a 11/3

42 Saturday Club 7 All I Want For Christmas r 12/17 a 12/21 NA All My Loving 8 This Boy G 9 I Want To Hold Your Hand G 10 Till There Was You VG 11 Roll Over Beethoven VG *from 10/5 12 She Loves You* G Sat Club 13 Crimble Medley G

43 From Us To You 14 From Us To You G r 12/18 a 12/26 15 She Loves You G 16 All My Loving G 17 Roll Over Beethoven G 18 Till There Was You VG 19 Boys VG 20 Money G 21 I Saw Her Standing There G 22 Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport G 23 I Want To Hold Your Hand VG 24 From Us To You G 44 Saturday Club 25 All My Loving G r 1/7 a 2/15 26 Money G 27 The Hippy Hippy Shake G *From 12/21 28 I Want To Hold Your Hand* G Sat Club 29 Roll Over Beethoven G 30 Johnny B. Goode G 31 I Wanna Be Your Man G




Disc 7 (65:35) Show Trk Song Qlty

45 From Us To You 1 From Us To You G r 2/28/64 a 3/30/64 2 You Can't Do That G 3 Roll Over Beethoven VG 4 Till There Was You VG 5 I Wanna Be Your Man G 6 Please Mr. Postman G 7 All My Loving VG 8 This Boy G 9 Can't Buy Me Love VG 10 From Us To You G

46 Saturday Club 11 Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby P r 3/31 a 4/4 12 I Call Your Name P 13 I Got A Woman VG 14 You Can't Do That P 15 Can't Buy Me Love P 16 Sure To Fall VG 17 Long Tall Sally G

47 From Us To You 18 From Us To You G r 5/1 a 5/18 19 Whit Monday To You G 20 I Saw Her Standing There G 21 Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey P 22 I Forgot To Remember To Forget G 23 You Can't Do That P 24 Sure To Fall P 25 Can't Buy Me Love P 26 Matchbox P 27 Honey Don't (John) P






Disc 8 (51:20) Show Trk Song Qlty

48 Top Gear 1 Top Gear Spot r 7/14/64 a 7/16/64 2 Long Tall Sally E 3 Things We Said Today E 4 A Hard Day's Night E 5 And I Love Her E 6 I Should Have Known Better G 7 If I Fell P 8 You Can't Do That P

49 From Us To You 9 From Us To You P r 7/17 a 8/3 10 Long Tall Sally G 11 If I Fell G 12 I'm Happy Just To Dance With You G 13 Things We Said Today G 14 I Should Have Know Better G 15 Boys G 16 Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey G 17 A Hard Day's Night G 18 From Us To You P

49a From Us To You 19 From Us To You P recording session 20 From Us To You P 7/17 21 I'm Happy Just To Dance With You P 22 I Should Have Known Better P 23 I Should Have Known Better P




Disc 9 (67:37) Show Trk Song Qlty

50 Top Gear 1 I'm A Loser VG r 11/17/64 a 11/26/64 2 (Chat) 3 Honey Don't E 4 She's A Woman E 5 Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby E 6 I'll Follow The Sun E

7 (Chat) 8 I Feel Fine E

51 Saturday Club 9 Rock And Roll Music G r 11/25 a 12/26 10 (Chat) 11 I'm A Loser* VG * same as 11/26 12 Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby* E Top Gear 13 I Feel Fine* E 14 Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey E 15 She's A Woman* E

51a Sat Club/Top Gear 16 I Feel Fine VG recording session 17 She's A Woman E 52 Invite You To Take 18 Ticket To Ride (short) G A Ticket To Ride 19 Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby G r 5/20/65 a 6/7/65 20 I'm A loser G 21 (Chat) 22 The Night Before G 23 Honey Don't G 24 Dizzy Miss Lizzy E 25 She's A Woman G 26 Ticket To Ride (long) VG




9 disc set with bonus tenth disc and booklet.




Source: https://www.beatlesagain.com/barchive/gdane.html



More info is available here:

Disc 1-2 https://tinyurl.com/sodgcbm

Disc 3-4 https://tinyurl.com/rwclvnc

Disc 5-6 https://tinyurl.com/shfqnhw

Disc 7-8 https://tinyurl.com/w337svm

Disc 9-info https://tinyurl.com/val8k7t






April 19, 2025

How Apple Constructed Let It Be Naked - from Mix Magazine 2004

How Apple Constructed Let It Be Naked-
The Naked Truth About The Beatles' Let It BeNaked
Jan 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Matt Hurwitz – Mix Magazine


Ever wondered what The Beatles' Let It Be album would have sounded like had it been properly completed instead of released as a companion disc to their 1970 fly-on-the-wall motion picture of the same name? Such was the charge given to EMI's Abbey Road Studios by the group's Apple Corps Ltd. The result is the recently released Let It Be…Naked (Apple/Capitol-EMI).

After the tumultuous sessions for the 1968 album The Beatles (aka, The White Album), the Fabs regrouped at Twickenham Film Studios in London in January 1969 to make a TV special showing the group rehearsing and recording an album. The concept was a “warts and all” view of the band with no overdubs; everything was as live as possible. After those sessions broke down, the production moved to the basement studio of The Beatles' own Apple offices, where recording continued through the month. The sessions culminated in a historic live performance (The Beatles' last) on the office's rooftop on January 30 of the same year with their new temporary “fifth Beatle,” keyboardist Billy Preston (himself an Apple recording artist by the end of the sessions), who played on the studio recordings, as well.



Glyn Johns, who had recorded the sessions, was given the task of mixing and compiling the recordings into an LP (originally titled Get Back) in May of that year, though the group chose not to release it. Johns tried a second compilation in January 1970, though that version also failed to see the light of day. John Lennon, on new manager Allen Klein's advice, brought in legendary producer Phil Spector to revamp the album in March 1970, which he did, adding orchestration to three tracks and editing others. The result — with studio chatter and quips intact — was the May 1970 Apple release Let It Be, The Beatles' last original album (although , which came out in 1969, was actually recorded after Let It Be).

In February 2002, following a chance meeting of Paul McCartney and the film's original director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Abbey Road veteran Allan Rouse received a call from Apple's Neil Aspinall asking him to take a stab at remixing the album. Rouse had acted as project coordinator for a number of Beatles remix projects, among them The Beatles Anthology, Yellow Submarine Songtrack and Lennon's Imagine. While the task for those projects had always been to re-create the original mixes known to millions of fans using current technology, the charge for the Let It Be project was different.

“This was not an attempt to remaster an existing album,” Rouse says. “We were asked to make it sound the way the band had believed the finished album was going to sound.” This meant, for the most part, producing mixes that reflected only what the four bandmembers (or five, including Preston) could play live: no overdubbed guitars or vocals, and certainly no orchestras.

In addition, all of the between-song chatter, breakdowns, jokes and ditties — including “Maggie Mae” and the “Dig It” jam — were dropped. Says Rouse, “They just didn't really fit in with an album of 11 songs and neither did the dialog. Those little bits were fine for a soundtrack album, which Glyn's was, but they didn't fit comfortably with the concept of a straight album.”

Rouse tapped two young staff engineers, Paul Hicks and Guy Massey, for the job. Both had worked on prior Beatles projects (and had, coincidentally, started at the studio on the same day in 1994), including the 5.1 surround mixes for the recently released The Beatles Anthology DVD set.



The group took a team approach, making decisions democratically, each chipping in suggestions but deciding with one voice. During a two-week period, the three listened to all 30 reels of 1-inch 8-track session tapes, which had been recorded through a pair of borrowed 4-track consoles onto a 3M 8-track machine. As a reference, the producer/engineers also studied the released Spector album and both of Johns' versions. “We mainly listened to identify the takes they used,” says Rouse. They also noted where Spector had made any edits, deciding if there was a good reason to either keep or discard those edits. “As it turns out, Glyn and Phil had done most of the legwork. We ended up using the vast majority of their takes.”

But because the group's mission was to make the best possible album, they didn't limit themselves to what had been done previously. “Once we started, we would A/B against the Spector disc to see if what we were doing was an improvement,” says Massey.

Upon listening to the tapes in Rouse's room at the studio, they were transferred into Pro Tools 5.2 using a Prism Sound Dream ADA 8 A/D converter. And, as part of the improvement process, once the recordings were in the digital world, the engineers began researching which takes were the best performances, and, if more than one take of a song had strong attributes, trial edits were made to see what combination would make the best overall performance. “Once we had the building blocks in the digital domain,” says Massey, “we'd delve into a bit more detail. If there were fluffed lines or pops, etc., if there was another take without the errors, we'd try inserting that part from the other take.”

Adds Hicks, “Sometimes we did the tiniest little things. If something wasn't quite right — if there was a bend in a note or something — we did actually replace it with a slightly better one. Again, our main theme was to make it as strong as possible.”

The live rooftop recordings offered their own special challenges, given that the band was playing on a blustery winter day. Because the group was being filmed, the film crew had chosen an unobtrusive vocal microphone during the sessions, the Neumann KM84i, which features a small capsule on the end of an extension tube, with the mic's preamp located at the bottom near the floor. (The mic was commonly used for TV talk shows and awards programs.) The same mics were brought upstairs to the roof, where second engineer Alan Parsons simply tied clippings of pantyhose over the capsules to act as windscreens. “The wind noise was actually quite manageable,” says Hicks. “It was really only when they weren't singing that you could hear it.” For the inevitable hard consonants and mic pops, “We mainly handled that with a combination of filtering and EQ,” notes Hicks. A small amount of de-noising was done using an analog Behringer dynamic filter.





The following is a breakdown of what was done to each Let It Be…Naked track (in running order, along with the mix engineer's name in parentheses):

“Get Back” (Hicks): While Johns and Martin used a master recorded on January 28, 1969, for the aborted LP and released single, Spector had used a recording from the day before, and the same master is used on this album. Notably absent is the song's coda, which appeared on the single. “It turns out that the coda had been recorded as an edit piece four or five reels later,” explains Hicks. “Since it wasn't on the original session recording for the song, it wouldn't have represented what actually took place in the studio during that take, so it was decided to leave it off.”

“Dig a Pony” (Massey): Those who've heard bootlegs of Johns' mixes know the song originally featured an “All I Want Is You” intro and outro, which Spector removed for his LP. “The tuning is particularly bad in the beginning,” says Massey, prompting the decision to eliminate them in the new version, as well.

“For You Blue” (Hicks): Using the same master as Spector used, Hicks mainly focused on keeping the sounds bright and clear. What was interesting, he says, was learning about the unique sound McCartney got out of his piano. “It's a fuzzy, metallic sound, which he did by putting a piece of paper in the piano strings, causing them to vibrate against the paper when struck. You can hear on the session tape Paul's fiddling around, trying to get the right sound.” And because McCartney is playing piano, he does not play bass on the song. “The bass comes from the piano,” says Hicks, with McCartney playing a bass line on the keys. George Harrison's vocal, it turns out, was one of the few overdubs used. “We took out his live vocal, which was basically a guide vocal. It wasn't a complete take, really, and I don't think it was ever intended to be used.”

“The Long and Winding Road” (Hicks): Perhaps the greatest achievement on the album is the improvement to this track, easily accomplished by removing Spector's overblown orchestra. Actually, though, the master on Let It Be…Naked is not even the one used by Spector; it's the only take on the album that was changed in its entirety. The group returned to the Apple basement the day after their rooftop show to record three more songs, this one among them. Says Rouse, “Spector had used one take recorded five days earlier.” “This version, recorded on January 31, we felt was a stronger basic performance,” says Hicks. “There's also a slight lyric change,” adds Rouse, who suggests that, this being the later recording, it represents McCartney's final lyric choice.

As a listening experience, it's a first for Beatles fans to hear them play the song instead of an orchestra. The recording features McCartney on piano, Harrison playing lead guitar through a Leslie speaker, Lennon on a newly acquired Fender Bass VI and Ringo Starr keeping light time with his hi-hat.

“Two of Us” (Massey): The same master used by Spector, also from January 31, 1969, features Lennon and McCartney on acoustic guitars, Harrison on electric and Starr providing a simple bass drum/snare/tom beat. By the way, Starr's drums were typically recorded onto a single track, precluding mixing them into stereo. Small amounts of de-essing and rumble filtering were also performed.

“I've Got a Feeling” (Massey/Hicks): A rooftop recording, this song was edited by Massey before being mixed by his colleague. Massey used the best of each of two rooftop takes of the song, creating a version, Hicks says, with the most energy. And while Johns had opted for a studio recording of the song for his version of the album, there was no beating the live performances. Notes Hicks, “I don't know if it was just the fact that they were playing live and knew it or just because they were so cold, but there was just so much more energy in the live recordings.” Sonically, he notes, the live recordings — minus the wind and pops — are not much different from their studio counterparts, making a surprisingly good match when listening to the album.




“One After 909” (Hicks): Another rooftop performance, though, interestingly, the team did consider using a studio version. “We did research to see if there was another version,” says Hicks. “But it was just much slower, and it had a completely different feel. There was no contest, really. It's one of the more up-tempo numbers, so we went with the live one.” Hicks is proudest of his drum sound, bringing Starr out to the fore. “We found so many details we wanted to bring out, which we tried our best to do. Everything is a lot more focused.”

“Don't Let Me Down” (Hicks/Massey): Though not included on Spector's album, this song was a product of those sessions. A studio version from January 28, 1969, was released as the B-side to the “Get Back” single. This version, however, is an edit of the two rooftop versions. The Beatles recorded a second take because Lennon forgot the lyrics during the first take.

“I Me Mine” (Massey): This song was not originally recorded at Apple in January 1969, though Harrison is seen in the film playing it briefly at Twickenham. In January 1970, Harrison, McCartney and Starr recorded a studio version of the song, with Harrison playing acoustic guitar and singing a guide vocal, McCartney on bass and Starr on drums for the master take. Electric piano, electric guitar, lead vocal, backing vocals, organ and a second acoustic guitar were added as overdubs. The recording was a brief 1:34 in length, so before adding his orchestra, Spector lengthened it by repeating one of the verses, resulting in a 2:25 final master. The Naked team decided to leave in the overdubs — which made the recording complete as The Beatles had envisioned it — and Spector's edit. “We were originally going to do it unedited,” says Massey, “but if you listen to it at that length, it's just far too short.” Jokes Rouse, “That was our one concession to Mr. Spector.” Massey also built up the mix as the song progressed by adding elements of the mix as the song enters the second verse.

“Across the Universe” (Massey): Again, while no studio recordings of this song were made at Apple, Lennon is seen playing the song at Twickenham in the film. “Across the Universe” was actually recorded a year earlier, in February 1968, at the same Abbey Road sessions that produced “Lady Madonna” and “Hey Bulldog.” The basic track featured Lennon on acoustic guitar, his vocal and a tom-tom (all recorded onto one track), with Harrison playing a tamboura. At the time, George Martin had added background vocals and animal sound effects. Spector's version removed the latter two parts, as well as the tamboura, replacing them with an orchestra and a choir.

The new mix features Lennon's guitar and vocal, Starr's drums and the tamboura. “Again, because the concept was whatever the guys could play live onstage, we took everything else away,” says Rouse. The ending has been given a spiritual touch, with a building echo (via real Abbey Road tape delay) added.

“Let It Be” (Massey): another recording from January 31, 1969, the day after rooftop, with McCartney on piano, Lennon on Fender Bass VI, Harrison on lead guitar (through a Leslie), Starr on drums and Preston on organ. Three months later in April, Martin added a new electric guitar lead from Harrison, and in January 1970, added backing vocals from McCartney and Harrison, brass and cellos and yet another pass at a Harrison lead. Martin produced the single release of the song, issued in March 1970 (pre-Spector), featuring the April 1969 guitar solo. Upon Spector's arrival, the song was lengthened by repeating a chorus and issued featuring the January 1970 guitar lead.

The new version features the same master and uses a few edits from other takes, most notably the Harrison guitar solo that came from the take of the song that appears in the film. “We'd always thought that the guitar lead in the version in the film was just really soaring,” says Massey. “We edited it in, just as a trial take, and we all thought it sounded great.”

The album comes with a 22-minute companion “fly-on-the-wall” dialog/music disc put together by the BBC's Kevin Howlett and engineer Brian Thompson. Howlett listened to more than 80 hours of tapes, recorded in mono by the film crew during both the Twickenham and Apple sessions, discovering a number of previously unknown Lennon/McCartney tunes (which are included on the disc), as well as some other surprises. “I had expected to hear the kind of disagreements and arguing we've all heard about,” Howlett tells Mix. “Instead, I heard the bandmembers actually having a good time. By the end, they were, in fact, quite excited about what they were doing.”

Remixing an album by the greatest rock band of all time can be, well, daunting. “It's hard to make it as up-to-date as stuff nowadays, because it wasn't recorded these days,” says Massey. “From that point of view, it was a challenge to make it sound as punchy and as present as possible. But it's a good representation of what they were like then.”

Adds Hicks, “We all collectively felt that we wanted it to stand along all the other Beatles albums, and hopefully, we've achieved that.”

Let It Be . . . Naked

How much better, you could be forgiven for wondering, could Let It Be be? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is "a bit". Let It Be, while obviously better than almost everything ever recorded by anyone else, was compromised by the fact that the Beatles were disintegrating as a unit during the recording sessions, the rancour most famously illustrated by John Lennon calling in Phil Spector behind Paul McCartney's back to rework "The Long and Winding Road". Let It Be... Naked, then, is the album as the Beatles would have heard it while they were making it.

2004
Side 1
1. Get Back
2. Dig A Pony
3. For You Blue
4. The Long And Winding Road
5. Two Of Us
6. I've Got A Feeling Side 2
7. One After 909
8. Don't Let Me Down
9. I Me Mine
10. Across The Universe
11. Let It Be




Let It Be  (Original)


Recorded in January 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios just outside London, Let It Be was a miserable experience for all concerned. The Beatles were constantly filmed while making the album in the process of falling apart. They were so dispirited that, having recorded the tracks, none of them could be bothered to do the necessary post-production work, which was delegated first to producer George Martin, then to Glyn Johns, and finally to Phil Spector. Their unlucky 13th, and last, album, Let It Be was released on May 8, 1970, in the U.K., topping the chart two weeks later. In America, with 3.7 million advance orders, it achieved the highest initial sale of any album in history, and subsequently picked up an Oscar as best Soundtrack of the Year.

George Martin: We'd do take after take after take--and then John would be asking whether Take 67 was better than Take 39. I'd say, "John, I honestly don't know." "You're no f***ing good then, are you?" he'd say. That was the general atmosphere.

John Lennon: It was a dreadful, dreadful feeling in Twickenham Studios being filmed all the time. You couldn't make music at 10 in the morning, or whatever it was, with people filming you and colored lights.

Engineer Glyn Johns edited the original session tapes into a a finished album called Get Back. The Beatles could not agree on the final product and the entire project was shelved for over a year until Allen Klein, the Beatles' new manager, dusted it off.



Klein wasn't happy with the quality of the tapes Johns had edited and hired Phil Spector to produce a soundtrack album, giving him the formidable task of sifting through hundreds of hours of studio and live tapes to produce something marketable. Spector, who had never worked with the Beatles before, added orchestrations and female choruses. The resulting record was a disappointment to many Beatle fans and the Beatles themselves. Still, Let It Be was a No. 1 record.

John Lennon: By the time we got to 'Let It Be', we couldn't play the game anymore; we couldn't do it anymore. It came to the point where it was no longer creating magic, and the camera, being in the room with us, sort of made us aware of that, that it was a phony situation ... "It was hell making the film Let It Be. When it came out, a lot of people complained about Yoko looking miserable in it. But even the biggest Beatle fan couldn't have sat through those six weeks of misery. It was the most miserable session on earth.



Paul McCartney: In fact, what happened, when we got in there, we showed how a break-up of a group works. We didn't realize that we were sort of breaking up as it was happening.

George Harrison: As everybody knows, we never had much privacy and, you know, this thing that was happening was they were filming us rehearsing. There was a bit of a row going on between Paul and I. You can see it, where he's saying, 'Well don't play this', or something and I'm saying, 'Well, you know I'll play what you want or I won't play if you don't want it, you know, just make up your mind.' That kind of stuff was going on. And they were filming us, recording us having a row, you know, it was like, terrible really. I thought, 'I'm quite capable of being relatively happy on my own and I'm not able to be happy in this situation, you know, I'm getting out of here.'

Ringo Starr: I think everyone was getting a little tired of us by then because we were taking a long time and there were many discussions going on by then — many heated discussions."

By the end of 1970, the Beatles had sold over 500 million records.

1970
Side 1
1. Two of Us
2. Dig a Pony
3. Across the Universe
4. I Me Mine
5. Dig It
6. Let It Be
7. [Maggie Mae]
Side 2
1. I've Got a Feeling
2. One After 909
3. The Long and Winding Road
4. For You Blue
5. Get Back











January 22, 2025

The Beatles 1987 CDs Still Preferred By Many


A lot of people are not fans of the recent Beatles Deluxe reissues. Some claim the sound is lacking in dynamic range compared to the original recordings. The 1987 first CD issues were taken from the original master tapes and many are "flat transfers" (confirmed). You can hear the tracks in their pure form. And while most agree the 2009 remasters are much improved in bass, they also cut the dynamic range in favor of louder recordings. If you want to hear the most natural recordings, the 1987 CDs are still preferred, especially from the period Sgt. Pepper forward. Of course, everyone has their favorites. And for this reason, the 1987 CDs have a place in every Beatles collection. These CDs also provide the durable jewel cases and artwork. Grab these CDs while you can off eBay and other sources, because they are no longer available for purchase new. The Mono Masters on CD are also preferred due to their greater dynamic range. Either way you can always listen to the CDs since they no longer appear on streaming sites. So here are several articles on the topic:


The 1987 CD mixes


In 1987, as the Beatles catalog was due for their first CD release, producer George Martin wanted to go back and remix the sixties version of stereo to something a bit more updated for the modern ear. Because of a rushed release schedule, he couldn’t do this for the first four albums, Please Please Me, With The Beatles, Beatles For Sale and A Hard Day’s Night, as they were due for release in February 1987. So, as a compromise, they were released in mono, which were mixes the producer was satisfied with.

The next batch of releases were Help!, Rubber Soul and Revolver, due out in April 1987, and this time, Sir George had time to prepare updated mixes for these. He had a listen, and while he thought Help! and Rubber Soul needed remixing, he was satisfied with the sixties stereo mix of Revolver and all the albums that followed.

So he remixed Help! and Rubber Soul, and when they were released on CD they had an “eighties” stereo soundscape. (Except for some Canadian pressings of these CD’s where the original sixties stereo mixes had been used by mistake.)

Over the years, Beatles fans and music lovers have been rather critical to the 1987 mixes of those two albums, especially because they brought in an amount of echo and reverb which hadn’t been present on the sixties stereo mixes. Then, when the remasters were announced, these fans were shocked that they were once again to use these inferior 1987 remixes for the general release of the remastered catalog (albums available individually and as part of the stereo remasters boxed set).

In a telephone interview that Detroit’s Classic Rock station’s (FM 94,7) Deminski and Doyle conducted with Giles Martin, son of Sir George, the producer unexpectedly was able to shed some light on why the eighties mix was re-used.

Deminski and Doyle had made several erraneous assumptions, first of all they thought that Giles was involved in the remasters project, secondly they assumed that the remasters were also remixed, not just remastered. As these assumptions were both untrue, the interview do provide an insight into the narrow world behind the walls of Abbey Road studios and the hap-hazard manner in which things happen.

Giles Martin was in the studio, remixing the Beatles songs that were going to be used in the The Beatles:Rock Band game, singling out specific instruments from otherwise interlocked studio tapes, so he was able to talk a bit about that process.

But he was also involved in the “Love” project, and he was an insider at Abbey Road, so he was also able to listen in to the remasters project that was going on at the same time as he was mixing for RockBand. Here’s what he said (transcribed by me from the podcast of the interview) about those infamous 1987 remixes:

Giles Martin: Rubber Soul and Help! were remixed by my dad in 1988 or ’87 for CD. And when we did “Love”, we got to do Yesterday, and I couldn’t understand why there were so much echo and reverb on the voice ’cause it was very non-Beatles. And it was only when I came back and I was listening to the remasters I asked “how come this is the case?” and they said “well we are remastering the eighties versions of [Rubber Soul and Help!]” and I said “why aren’t we remastering the originals, we should remaster what came out then [in 1965]?”

And they said “Well, your father wouldn’t be very happy with us not remastering the versions he did in the eighties.”

So I spoke to my Dad and I asked “Do you mind if they remaster the sixties version?” and he went “I don’t even remember doing them in the eighties!”

Allan Rouse in an interview with Record Collector: “The remasters were based on the master-tapes, with the exception of two albums: George Martin’s 1987 mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul. People are questioning why we used those. George Martin is the fifth Beatle. He chose to do it. You can argue with him, but I’m not going to.”

So there you have it! The stereo remasters are the 1987 remixes out of the involved remastering engineers’ misguided respect for Sir George!

Now, the original 1965 stereo mixes are not lost to the world, because they are an added bonus on the mono remasters of those albums, but these are only part of the mono boxed set, and are not for sale to the general public as individual albums.

Source: https://webgrafikk.com/blog/uncategorized/1987-cd-mixes/



Beatles 1987 vs 2009 Stereo CDs - which do you prefer?

I'm in the camp that prefers the 1987 CDs.

Besides my preference for the more neutral EQ of the 1987s over the more bassy 2009s, there's an issue of historical accuracy when it comes to the 2009s (and not just the stereo, but the mono ones too)

On multiple occasions, the 2009 remasters actually removed certain sounds that were present on the original releases. Most often these are lip smacks and plosives, but the sound of a guitar's pickup switch was even edited out of I Want You (She's So Heavy), along with some mic distortion on John's voice during the long "yeeeaaaaaahhhhhhh!" part.

If you want to hear a particularly egregious edit, listen to the strange, digital sounding "p" sound in the first "appear" of I'm A Loser. This was an attempt by the 2009s to edit out a plosive which wasn't even bad sounding to begin with (the original can be heard on the 1987 Beatles For Sale CD as well as The Capitol Albums Vol. 1 CD set), and the end result is far worse than the original "error" in my opinion.

A crucial lip smack in my book comes before the vocals start in You Won't See Me: it totally adds to the sass of the lyrics in my opinion, and after getting used to hearing it (as well as others throughout the song) on the 80s CD, I find it difficult to listen to the sanitized 2009 remaster.

On top of this, there are a few songs on the 2009 stereo remasters that sound worse than previous CD versions. For one, She Said She Said had the treble sucked out of it in the '09, making it sound muffled in comparison to the 80s CD. Also, the beginning of A Hard Day's Night has a weird shift in EQ that wasn't present on the 90s Red Album CD release. The final one that I know of is Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand, which sounds much clearer on the aforementioned Capitol Albums Vol. 1 set (the 2009 also edited out some studio dialogue in the right ear at the beginning of the song!)

TLDR: The 2009 remasters are missing Beatles ASMR that was present on the original vinyl as well as the 1987 CDs. Some songs also sound objectively worse on the 2009 stereo remasters compared to previous CD versions.

From Al Lopez-https://www.reddit.com/r/beatles/comments/v031td/beatles_1987_vs_2009_stereo_cds_which_do_you/?rdt=48026






BEATLES ON CD: YEAH, YEAH, NAH 
03-08-1987, from the New York Times

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO TOday, the BBC broadcast an innocuous pop variety show called ''Teen-ager's Turn'' - a program that would probably have slipped through the cracks of pop-music history but for the fact that one of the bands making its radio debut that afternoon was a quartet called the Beatles. At the time, the Beatles were a dance-hall rock group with a growing following in northern England and in certain racier districts of Hamburg. But broader success was eluding them. Two months earlier, they had auditioned for Decca Records, which turned them down on the ground that guitar groups were passe. And they would collect record label rejection slips for several more months before George Martin, a producer at EMI's moribund Parlophone subsidiary, decided to give them a chance.

The resonance of that decision remains with us to this day, for while Beatlemania may be more subdued than it was in the 1960's, a remnant of it has remained alive through the 17 years since the group disbanded. Right now it's having one of its periodic waves of high visibility, and that has traditionally meant that there's money to be made for those with Beatles trinkets to sell. This year's hot items aren't Beatles lunchboxes, wallpaper or gum cards, but rather, increasingly high-tech ways of collecting the band's work.

Ten days ago, EMI released the first four Beatles albums on compact disk. These CD transfers have been a long time coming, but have they been worth the wait? In a general sense, yes: they put forth a crisp, powerful and beautifully detailed sound, but they're also short - less than 35 minutes each - and they're in mono. These aspects and several others leave one wondering whether the label's Beatles CD program ought to be reconsidered.

Meanwhile, there has been other Beatles activity. Two weeks ago, for instance, ''Help!'' was released on video tape (with a full stereo soundtrack), joining the already available home video versions of ''A Hard Day's Night,'' ''Magical Mystery Tour'' and ''Let It Be.'' A laser video disk of ''Help!'' featuring segments deleted from the theatrical version is forthcoming, as is ''The Making of 'A Hard Day's Night,' '' a video documentary also featuring footage previously seen only by the most obsessive collectors. Beatles cartoons are back on TV. And two documentaries marking the 20th anniversary this June of ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' are in the works.

Say what you like about Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Police or Bruce Springsteen, no performer of the rock era has had anything like the social and cultural impact the Beatles had, nor has any pop ensemble produced so consistently brilliant, influential, varied and durable a body of work. Between their first EMI recording session, on Sept. 4, 1962, and their last, on Jan. 3, 1970, the Beatles recorded and released 211 songs, or nearly 10 hours of music.

The four new CD's, which use the cover art, liner notes, track orders and even the Parlophone logo of the British originals, are ''Please Please Me'' (CDP 7 46435), ''With the Beatles'' (CDP 7 46436), ''A Hard Day's Night'' (CDP 7 45437) and ''Beatles For Sale'' (CDP 7 46438) - a chronological sequence that takes the band's album releases through the end of 1964. According to EMI's plan, ''Help!,'' ''Rubber Soul'' and ''Revolver'' will be released in April. June will bring ''Sgt. Pepper,'' and by the end of the year, ''The Beatles (White Album),'' ''Yellow Submarine,'' ''Abbey Road'' and ''Let It Be'' will be out too. That covers the 174 tracks that were originally issued on LP. Missing, however, will be the 37 songs (plus four alternate takes) released as singles and EP tracks -in other words, most of the group's biggest hits. These, or some of them, will be issued next year in a compilation that EMI has not yet formulated.

On the four CD's just issued, the sound is magnificent - solid, crystal clear, beautifully textured and fully detailed. One hears very little in the way of tape hiss or extraneous noise; heard side by side with their equivalent mono Parlophone LP's, the CD's sound, for the most part, as bright or brighter on top, and a good deal richer in the bass.

Moreover, the domestic release of these British disks also redresses a longstanding flaw in the Beatles' American discography -the fact that until ''Sgt. Pepper'' the Beatles' American disks bore very little resemblance to those the group and George Martin carefully constructed at the Abbey Road studio in London. Typically, a run of Beatles sessions would produce about 16 tracks, two of which were issued as a single, while 14 were sequenced for the LP - the group's rather considerate philosophy being that someone who bought the single shouldn't have to pay for the same tracks on an album. Often, a second single was issued between two LP's, so that every six months or so, the Beatles would have released 16 to 18 tracks.

When these recordings were sent to Capitol, EMI's American arm, however, they were promptly dismantled and made to conform to a set of house rules. First, it was Capitol's policy that an LP contain no more than 12 selections; so two were dropped from the British album sequence right off the top. Second, it was felt that songs released as singles should appear on LP's, so more album tracks were dropped to make room for the latest of the 45's. Finally, it was decreed that American record buyers expected a brighter, hotter kind of sound than their British counterparts, so the tapes were lavishly immersed in artificial echo. So, for every three British LP's, Capitol sold the American public four shorter and sonically murkier albums.

Don’t Look Now, but Kidz Boppers Have Graduated From College
But while the CD's offer the original sequencings and sound quality, they raise other questions that bear examination. From the campaign EMI has been building around these disks, it strikes me that a number of questionable decisions were made, both in terms of the Beatles CD program on the whole, and with regard to these first disks.

For instance, the fact that these first four CD's have been issued in mono is bound to bother some collectors. In the case of ''Please Please Me'' and ''With the Beatles,'' that's certainly a defensible approach, for when they were recorded, in 1963, George Martin had only two-track equipment at his disposal. At the sessions, he recorded the instruments on one channel and the vocals on the other - an arrangement he found convenient in producing a mono mix, but awkward for stereo.

Without question, the mono mixes pack a greater punch. What the stereo versions (instruments on the left, vocals on the right) have going for them, though, is that they allow one to peer freely into the details of the arrangements - a fascinating pursuit if one's interest in the Beatles is musical rather than nostalgic.

But ''A Hard Day's Night'' and ''Beatles for Sale'' were recorded on four-track equipment, and their stereo mixes are bright, spacious and really quite lovely. Why mono CD's then? Bhaskar Menon, chairman of EMI Music Worldwide, recently explained that ''in very close discussion with George Martin, we determined that there was no question we must preserve the original mixes - that the releases really must be in mono because stereo was not the intent of the performers.''

But George Martin tells it this way: ''Expediency, in a word,'' he said. ''EMI did not consult me until December, by which time they were ready to have the disks pressed. When I heard the stereo CD's, I thought they sounded awful. I told them that the first two should go out in mono, and that if they had to issue the others in stereo, the mixes should be cleaned up and re-equalized for CD. Unfortunately, there was a deadline to be met, so they said, 'Look, we'll release all four in mono, and if you like, perhaps you can prepare stereo mixes for ''A Hard Day's Night'' and ''Beatles for Sale'' later on.' ''

Far be it from me to disparage the mono mixes. From ''Please Please Me'' through ''Yellow Submarine,'' each of the Beatles albums was simultaneously issued in both mono and stereo, and one of the great joys of Beatles collecting is that moment when you realize that, in quite a few cases, these separately prepared mixes feature either alternate vocal takes, radically different instrumental balances, or, in the later recordings, different sorts of effects. ''We tended to change our minds a lot,'' Mr. Martin explained, ''mainly because we didn't think it was that important to be consistent. Of course, history has found us out.''

In some cases, the mono mixes are clearly more interesting, particularly on the later albums. On the mono ''Sgt. Pepper,'' for instance, John Lennon's vocal in ''Lucy in the Sky'' is set in a spacey, echoic haze, perfectly appropriate for the song, but lost in the stereo mix. On the same disk, ''She's Leaving Home'' is speeded up in mono, changing the pitch, and that version doesn't drag nearly as much as the stereo one. And on the ''White Album'' (which was released in mono in England, but only in stereo here) about half the tracks boast fascinating mixing variations.

In fact, what's objectionable about EMI's campaign is not the use of the mono tapes, but the company's trumpeting of its claim that ''these are the first four British albums, in their original mono mixes'' - as if the British stereo mixes were less original. It's a murky topic, though. When the question of the original mixes was raised, EMI's London-based spokesman said, ''The first two albums were issued only in mono in 1963. It was not until 1964 or 1965 that they were remixed for stereo.''

Yet, a check of Parlophone's 1963 advertisements for these disks, when they were newly released, confirms that they were indeed issued in both stereo and mono. ''I can't understand that,'' George Martin said when this was pointed out. ''Certainly, I didn't mix them in stereo, nor did the Beatles, and I don't think I was aware that they were out in stereo at the time. Now, that may sound extraordinary to you, but in 1963, I scarcely had time to eat breakfast, let alone keep up with what EMI was releasing.'' That would account for only the first two disks. But if the main reason the others are in mono is that EMI didn't have the time to make the stereo disk properly, must the label coerce history into supporting its last-minute decision?

Having been invited, belatedly, to participate in the CD preparations, Mr. Martin is now in the process of remixing ''Help!,'' ''Rubber Soul'' and ''Revolver'' from the four-track masters. ''My intention was not to change anything,'' he explains, ''but the original mixes sounded a little woolly to me, so I was able to harden up the sound and cut down on some background noise.'' Mr. Martin says, however, that the last few disks in the series - from ''Sgt. Pepper'' onward - will probably not be remixed.

The best solution, of course, would have been to include both the stereo and mono mixes of each album on each CD, and let the listeners decide for themselves. There's lots of room: these four disks run a bit over 30 minutes apiece, and most of the pre-''Pepper'' disks are similarly brief.

Alternatively, EMI could have added, at the end of each CD, the singles and EP tracks that were issued concurrently, with a suitable addendum at the end of the program notes booklet. For that matter, while reprinting the original liner notes was a nice (and, from a collector's point of view, necessary) touch, a supplementary essay setting forth recording and release dates, and discussing the music in the context of the band's full output, should not have been too much to expect at this point.

Finally, it seems silly to stand on ceremony about the ''original 12'' British albums in every case. Is it really sensible to skip a unified compilation like ''Magical Mystery Tour'' simply because it wasn't originally issued on LP, while a CD version of ''Yellow Submarine''- an album containing one track from a previous disk, five otherwise untransferred Beatles tunes and a side of incidental film music - is imminent? Both would fit on a single (and chronologically appropriate) CD.

During the four years between the arrival of CD and the release of these disks, Beatles collectors wondered how EMI would present the Beatles on CD. Unfortunately, EMI seems to have devoted less thought to its CD program than many of the disks' prospective buyers have.

The transfers are fine, and the music is as exhilarating as ever. But as has often been the case, one gets the impression that EMI is intent on providing the minimum and feigning authenticity, largely because its executives haven't properly thought the series through. It's a pity, really, because with a little effort, EMI could have lived up to the advance fanfare for these CD's, and made the series something special. Perhaps it's not too late.

A version of this article appears in print on March 8, 1987, Section 2, Page 25 of the National edition with the headline: BEATLES ON CD: YEAH, YEAH, NAH. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe


Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/08/arts/beatles-on-cd-yeah-yeah-nah.html

The Beatles Remasters- The Stereo Albums and The Beatles In Mono
 -from The Absolute Sound, by Neil Gader Sep 11, 2009

The year was 1987 and digital audio was still emerging unsteadily from its technological stone-age. The year was also noteworthy for the highly anticipated, first-ever release of the Beatles catalog on compact disc. Although the transfers were engineered under the watchful eye of the Beatles longtime producer George Martin the discs were met with a collective sigh of dismay and reinforced the view that digital sound wasn’t ready for primetime.  Dry and brittle, flat and cold–it was as some would argue, perversely soulless. Most audiophiles scurried back to the safety of their turntables and treasure trove of Beatles vinyl, the early EMI/Parlophones, the later Japanese pressings and the 1982 Mobile Fidelity Beatles Box.

Twenty-two years later, EMI/Apple Records has taken another stab at setting the record straight by releasing the fully remastered Beatles catalog.  But this time they have hit the mark. Housed in a pair of shining CD box sets they are a sonic triumph that have, more or less, completely avoided the pitfalls of their predecessor’s dubious past–even if they’re almost pre-destined not to please all comers.  Certainly analog loyalists with the toniest turntable rigs will nitpick these discs to death. But the newfound energy, detail and transparency these remasters embody are a quantum leap from 1987. And for the legions of younger listeners without the benefit of the best Beatles vinyl these discs will be nothing short of a revelation.

Released as two individually distributed box CD sets–a stereo collection and The Beatles in Mono– the former includes the 13 core UK albums plus Past Masters Volume I and II compiled on one disc.Individual albums are housed in glossy eco-friendly DigiPacks and feature the original cover art with insightful historical and recording notes by producer and documentarian Kevin Howlett . Each stereo disc also contains a QuickTime mini-doc depicting the making of each album. The box includes a bonus DVD compilation of these non-controversial “Anthology-lite” videos as well.




Although the stereo albums are available individually, not so for the mono recordings (pictured above). They’ll be restricted to the box set and include all 10 titles plus the Mono Masters and alas,  no mini-docs. But as a bonus the mono “Help” and “Rubber Soul” disc will include the original 1965 stereo mixes which had not been previously released on CD. Said to be targeted at collectors EMI will limit the run to 10,000 units. Why mono? The Beatles’ albums were recorded during the transitional era of mono to stereo and all but their final pair of records, Abbey Road and Let It Be were mixed to mono. More importantly only the monos were mixed with the Fab Four present in the control room. For many this distinction alone makes the mono set the more accurate barometer of the band’s intent. Generally, the overall packaging of individual discs is well done, but the slip cases hinder easy access and are hardly posh. Sensing an opportunity, a company is marketing its own storage solution; check out The Beatles Box of Vision in a separate blog)

The remastering project was led by veteran Abbey Road project coordinator Allan Rouse, engineer Guy Massey and audio restoration engineer Simon Gibson and spanned a period of four years. Exhaustive research and listening tests were conducted prior to committing the original EMI 811 analogue master tapes  to the digital medium. Even the earliest UK vinyl pressings were on hand for comparison. Working song-by-song from vintage Studer tape machines, the state-of-the-art transfer was completed using a Pro Tools workstation running at 24-bit/192kHz resolution via a Prism Sound A/D convertor. In all instances the artistic integrity of the songs trumped technical considerations and only the rare glitch–a click, a vocal mike pop, or a rough edit were improved when possible. De-noising technology was used but sparingly­–only five of 525 minutes of running time was processed in this fashion. More provocative was the use of compression on the stereo transfers. A common way of bumping up the overall volume and sonically fattening today’s pop music the engineers stated that at most, a modest +3-4dB of compression was used–a drop in the bucket compared with the signal crunching +12-13dB often used today.

For even the most casual Beatles fan, the improvement in sonics from these remasters  will be nothing less than thrilling. Like a painstaking restoration of a work of art the Beatles music sounds as if an almost imperceptible-build-up of decades-old glaze was suddenly removed from the surface of the sonic canvas revealing the artist’s bright and bold original palette. And compared with the 1987 CDs, the remasters  are warmer, more detailed, and possess a livelier midrange energy and distinctively fuller bloom in the lower mids and upper bass.  The treble is non-edgy and tonally more akin to the Parlophone LPs. They also, mercifully avoid the treble boost of the otherwise solid MoFi Box set. Taken together, you’ll hear more clang to “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”. Ringo’s drum fills are fuller and louder. The string orchestra and winds of “Good Night” more fluid and naturalistic. Whether it was the fuzzy guitar feedback of “I Feel Fine” the open-chord intro of “A Hard Day’s Night” the crashing final chord and squeaky piano bench that concludes “A Day In the Life”, as the discs continued to  spin, one iconic moment after another reclaimed my attention and provided new insights.

But above all it’s the glorious singing and rich inventive harmonies and double-tracked vocals that shimmer and shine and electrify with ranges of expression broader and more transparent than ever before. Like freshly minted coins, Paul’s tender “Mother Nature’s Son” and John’s acerbic “Good Morning Good Morning” hardly sound like the same songs. And you’re going to want to grab a soothing glass of milk after Lennon’s lacerating, volcanic  “Twist and Shout” vocal.

However depending on which camp you’ve pitched your tent, you’ll either be delighted or disenchanted with the well-muscled bass reproduction. For purists, this may likely be the most controversial aspect of these remasters. However, acolytes of Paul McCartney will thrill at the clarity and acrobatic dexterity of his bass lines.  Ringo’s fans will be equally stunned at the reverberant impact off the skins. But I’ve never heard “Fixing A Hole” with a footprint this heavy before. Certainly a touch of compression would account for some of the added punch and presence in the low end but to these ears a bit of added bass EQ also seems likely. Tasteful certainly–accurate, doubtful. And as good as these remasters are, they still retain trace elements of digital sterility, and the best Beatles LPs rival them in some areas with an almost organic, airy delicacy.

As for the mono recordings, they are so good they may unwittingly revive a cult. The strong central image actually permits the early two-track material more bang and integrity (and yes, layering) over the hard-panned processed stereo versions–where a lead vocal was often isolated in one channel while bass, drums, and guitar piggybacked in the other. Overall they sound a bit softer and lack the tight bottom end of the later stereos, but then there’s a track like “Helter Skelter” from The White Album which, in its immediacy and speed will rip your driver a new diaphragm. However the best part of the mono set is easily Sgt. Pepper, the album where one can argue that the notably unique mono and the stereo versions cross the finish line in a dead heat. I wouldn’t choose the mono set over the stereo discs but for completists willing to explore the subtle discrepancies and minutiae buried in the rival mixes, the monos are special.

 At a pre-launch press conference I attended at Capitol Records this past June (see picture below), key issues remain tantalizingly unaddressed–like a potential Blu-ray disc box that combines a refreshed Beatles anthology in high definition with high-resolution versions of the albums? Also, Apple Records is keenly aware of surging turntable sales but do they see this as an opportunity for one last royal 180gram box set? And if so, would EMI go to the trouble of cutting vinyl from the original masters or just use the newly archived 24-bit/192kHz files? Regarding vinyl, the Apple exec paused as if to ponder the possibilities, “It’s not a matter of if, only a matter of when.” he replied. As for whether the analog masters will once more be pressed into service, the answer is out there,  somewhere, or as the late John Lennon once sang, “Nothing is real”.




Source: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-beatles-remasters-the-stereo-albums-and-the-beatles-in-mono/

The Beatles Remasters: A Splendid Time Is Guaranteed For Most

Michael Fremer-Dec 31, 2010

How bad were the original Beatles CDs issued back in 1987? So bad that even the clueless conditioned to believe that CDs represented an automatic sonic step up from vinyl noticed something was terribly wrong.

Amusing to some observers was the nature of the complaints: “they sound tinny,” “they sound flat,” “they sound thin and bright,” “they’re harsh and edgy,” “where’s the warmth?” etc.

Why did it take The Beatles for these folks to notice how bad almost every attempt at re-mastering great analog recordings to CD sounded?

I can’t name a single CD reissue back then that sounded as good as the original LP version, never mind any that sounded better, yet the same folks who chucked their LPs and were happily munching on their crispy CDs somehow heard all of the problems with the 1987 Beatles CDs they might have heard with all of their CDs had they paid more attention.

Leave it to the mythical Beatles to pull down the CD format’s digital pants and expose its, er, shortcomings. Not surprising since the group has held a special place in the hearts, minds and souls of generations and not surprising considering how well recorded the albums were—even the “primitive” early ones, thanks to the EMI studios, engineers Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick and of course producer George Martin.

Add low rent, almost dismissive packaging for such hallowed musical ground and the curious decision to issue the first four in mono only, when both mono and stereo versions would have fit on a single disc and you have a truly shitty reissue program, one that thumbed EMI’s corporate nose at both the surviving Beatles and especially the group’s fans.

The New Remasters

As reported elsewhere on this site and all over the media, this time EMI was determined to do a much better job and by any standard they have, both in terms of the sonics and especially the packaging.

The stereo box is deluxe in every way, with gatefolded digi-pak style jackets, original label artwork, previously unseen photos and Quick-Time mini-documentaries accompanying each disc. An additional disc holds all of the documentaries so you can watch all of them without having to go through the individual discs. In addition to the original releases, the set includes a double CD of singles and EPs not appearing on the original UK sets, which usually omitted the singles.

One curious move was the decision to use George Martin’s 1987 re-mixes of Rubber Soul and Help! instead of the original stereo mixes. These were digitized at 16 bit/44.1K resolution using what today would be considered stone aged A/D converters.

So if anyone tells you that the “new” Rubber Soul and Help! reissues sound so much better than the 1987 issues, ask them what they weren’t smoking. Surely, mood enhanced they’d notice they were listening to the same mixes, only perhaps a bit louder and punchier due to the touch of compression applied to all of these stereo reissues.

Ironically, if you want to hear the original stereo mixes of Rubber Soul and Help! transferred without compression you’ll need to buy the mono box! Yes, the producers chose to tack the original stereo mixes onto the mono CDs of these two albums. More about that later.

The compression applied is so minor it’s not worth worrying about. Yes, these reissues do sound a bit “punchier” and “louder,” but overall the reissue producers have not messed around much with what was on the tapes that they transferred at 192K/24 bit resolution, with one notable exception: clearly they’ve boosted the bass on every one of these stereo masters and I don’t write that simply because I’m used to the LPs and perhaps the LPs had their bass slightly rolled off. I’ve heard the master tape of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and there’s more bass on these reissues than I remember hearing on that tape.

On a full range playback system, one that’s reasonably flat to 20Hz, the added bass, though tastefully done, can become oppressive after a while, but for most listeners both the added bottom and the “pop” provided by the compression will sound like pleasing “fresheners” instead of deal breakers. Don’t worry: these reissue do not sound like the “modernized” abomination that was 1.

What excites most listeners about the new reissues is the return of the tactile, warm sound, or some of it at least, found on the original LPs. These CDs do sound really good, with some expression of instrumental textures, depth and inner detail resolution. For folks who grew up on the ’87 CDs and who haven’t touched base with the original vinyl (or any vinyl since 1987), these CDs are a revelation.

They are as good as one can expect from CDs but surely the process of reducing 192k/24 transfers to 44.1k/16 has taken a toll on various aspects of the sound because the original UK vinyl still beats these CDs in most ways, by a narrow margin in some and by a much wider one in others.

For instance, on the cover of Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love,” there’s a particular ring to the high pitched electric guitar lines that one hears live and on the original LPs that just doesn’t register on the CD. The ring should jump out at you as it does live and on the LP. On the CD it remains boxed in physically and is tonally truncated. And yes, you can be an aging boomer whose hearing may not be what it once was, and yet still hear it.

The handclaps sound very good but they just don’t sound fleshy-real as they do on the LP, nor do they inhabit the separate space they do on the LP. Nor do the vocals project into 3D space. The harmonies, so easily split into separate voices on the LP fuse into one on the CD. John Lennon’s voice has a chilling quality that cuts through you on LP throughout the Beatles catalog. It’s lacking on the CD. You can feel Lennon alive on the other side of the mic on the LPs, you don’t derive the sensation on the CDs good as they are.

The CDs are genuinely pleasing to listen to physically and intellectually, the LPs sound even better and they take you for an emotional roller coaster ride the CDs just don’t. That’s not just my reaction: it’s what everyone who’s listened here heard, including people who don’t have an analog axe to grind.

On the other hand, the closer the digital comes to the analog—and these CDs come closer than most—the more the differences between the two formats assert themselves, for better or worse. Listening to these excellent sounding CDs with their jet black backdrops and ultra-cleanliness means that when you put the records on, while they do sound better, you just wish you could have the superior sound of one and the pristine perfection and black backdrops of the other! Previously, what was there on the CDs was so bad sounding, the black backdrops were hardly compensatory.

So, will a Blu-ray set mastered at full 192K/24 bit resolution (maybe with the bass turned down a bit too?) produce near perfection and sound superior to clean original LPs? I don’t know, nor are we likely to find out as such a release has not been announced.

LPs are supposedly coming next year and since Sean Magee and Steve Rooke, two of the engineers who worked on the project also are expert lathe operators (they’ve cut for Pure Pleasure, Warner Brothers, Steve Albini and others) and since Abbey Road has a very good sounding DMM lathe and since the full resolution files are right there, why wouldn’t they use the 192K/24 bit masters to produce the LPs? As The Doors box proved, once you’re at that resolution, it’s almost analog.

In the case of The Doors, the deteriorated tapes made a one pass digital transfer a necessity. The Beatles tapes are in excellent condition and the original tapes could be used to cut from analog but at this point in time you can be the powers that be prefer consistently across format lines to religious purity, so don’t expect AAA, though we can hope, as we can hope for fold-over laminated cover art as well done as the fold-over, laminated mini-LP CD sleeves complete with facsimiles of the original inner sleeves found in the mono box.

The Mono Masters

Given a choice of one box or the other, I’d opt for the mono box. For one thing, the transfers were apparently done without compression or augmented equalization. They are what’s on the tape, though again, the 192k/24 bit masters have been squeezed through the redbook CD sausage machine. The mono packaging is more authentic as well. The Beatles for instance, features a miniature duplicate of the laminated, double gatefold “top loader” fold-over jacket complete with black inner sleeves, individual color portraits and fold-open poster.

The “stereo’ mixes of the first two albums, with vocals on one side and instruments on the other, produced that way to allow for vocal/instrumental balance to be adjusted later, sound interesting on the stereo box, but they sound fuller and whole in mono.

A Hard Day’s Night sound better in stereo than mono in my opinion but the mono mix is fine too. I prefer Help in stereo too (the original mix found on the mono box for sure!) but not everyone agrees with that. For Sale is preferable in stereo too, but again, the mono mix offers its own pleasures.

As for Rubber Soul and Revolver the complexities of the arrangements required track bouncing. Track bouncing made a true stereo mix difficult so you a lot hard/left right stuff as on the first few albums, so overall the original mono mixes really are preferable but nostalgiacs whose genes are now encoded with the stereo mixes will probably stick with those, though the original stereo mix of Rubber Soul found on the mono box is preferable.

The mono mixes are strikingly different from the stereo ones, particularly on the later, more complex productions as anyone who has them on vinyl knows. More than just mix differences, are differing takes and parts that are highlighted in the accompanying booklet, though most of those are on the earlier albums. Some people revel in hearing and exposing these difference, like where John fluffs a lyric on one version and not the other, but that kind of thing has never excited me so you’ll have to look elsewhere for a catalogue of those.

Not many Beatles fans have heard Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or The Beatles in mono. These are the mixes upon which the band members lavished their full attention and that will be obvious when you hear them—not that there’s anything whatsoever wrong with the stereo mixes. When I compared the original stereo Parlophone LP with the new stereo CD, it wasn’t even close: the record is richer, fuller and far more tonally pleasing. Ditto the mono LP vs the new CD.

Oh, and you also get the original stereo mixes of Rubber Soul and Help! transferred from analog at 192k/24 bit, which you don’t get in the stereo box. Needless to say those two sound much better than the remixes found on the stereo box.

The Verdict

Both the packaging and sound of these two sets (the stereo albums are available separately) are digitized editions finally worthy of The Beatles. The packaging is superb, great care went into the mastering, which attempted to bump up the sound for modern ears without ruining the ride for those used to the original sound. In that the team has mostly succeeded.

The packaging of both boxes is truly deluxe and any Beatle fan, even those who own all of the original UK vinyl, will want to have these sets for the packaging enhancements alone.

Hopefully higher resolution digital and/or analog will follow. Sure, I’d prefer new vinyl cut from the analog originals and we can all lobby for it, but I doubt it will happen.

Source: https://www.analogplanet.com/content/beatles-remasters-splendid-time-guaranteed-most-0