by admin on January 6, 2010
If you’re a Beatles fan who already owns all of their albums on CD I can understand feeling like it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to buy the new remastered Beatles CDs. You maybe thinking “How much difference does it really make?” or “I’ve already spent hundreds of dollars on The Beatles CDs, do I really need to spend more?” Yes, I can understand this feeling, but I completely disagree with it! I bought the Beatles box sets as soon as they became available for pre-order and in this article I hope to explain why all other serious Beatles fans should also buy these CD box sets.
I think the importance of the Mono Box Set is actually quite obvious. This is the first time that these original mono mixes have been made available on CD. And it doesn’t take too much of a history lesson to understand why these mono mixes matter so much. These were the mixes that the band itself worked on so hard in the 1960s. These were the mixes that they thought of as the real final version of their albums. Why? Because throughout most of the 1960s (up until the final couple of years) mono was the “standard” by which almost everyone listened to their music so it made sense for The Beatles to work much harder on the mono mixes than on the stereo mixes. Believe it or not, stereo was thought by many to be a “fad” at the time.
So clearly these original mono mixes are an important part of the history of The Beatles and anyone who wants to hear their music as it was originally hears in the ’60s should be very curious to hear these new mixes. But there’s more to it than that. It’s not just about the historical importance of these mono mixes and a “curiosity factor. ” Lots of Beatles fans have claimed that these mono versions of famous albums such as Sgt. Pepper are actually better than the stereo versions. John Lennon himself said that the mono Sgt. Pepper was much better than the stereo mix.
The Mono Box Set includes The Beatles first 10 UK studio albums (all of them up through the self title double album that’s known as The White Album) and a compilation of non album tracks in their original mono titled Mono Masters. This non album tracks compilation is actually a vital part of this box set because many of The Beatles greatest songs were never included on a studio album (including “Hey Jude” & “Day Tripper” among many others. ) Beyond the music, this box set also includes some very cool packaging, most notably the vinyl replica artwork for each album in the collection.
A cool bonus feature of the Mono Box Set is that it also includes the original stereo mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul which had been lost to history because both albums were remixed for stereo in 1987 when The Beatles albums were first released on CD. This is the first time that the original stereo mixes of these two albums will be released on CD.
The importance of the remastered Stereo Box Set may not be quite as obvious but it should be noted that these new stereo versions of The Beatles classic albums will be the new “standard” these will be the only versions of the albums available for sale as individual CDs. In other words these are going to be the CDs that everyone else is hearing, don’t you want to know what they’re hearing? Plus these newly remastered versions should reveal interesting new details in The Beatles music that you may not have heard before due to an unprecedented clarity in the recordings.
Johnny Moon recommends that all Beatles fans: Buy The Stereo Box Set and The Mono Box Set. Read this Music Blog for cool Beatles related articles.
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by admin on January 3, 2010
It was 22 years ago (in 1987) that the Beatles albums first came out in the CD format. As vinyl and tape sales slowed significantly, CD became the standard way of listening to music and these versions of The Beatles albums have become those that people listen to. Unfortunately these versions of The Beatles albums aren’t actually the best they could be. The mastering job on that original CD release was less than perfect. And the packaging was pretty lame too!
On 9/9/9 all of that changes! Why? Because that’s the day that the newly remastered Beatles CDs become the new standard for The Beatles albums and from all reports these newly remastered Beatles albums sound amazing. There is new clarity and detail in the songs and nobody has reported any issues with over compression or a lack of warmth. On top of that, the packaging is a lot better too! Now the CDs will available in “vinyl replica” packaging which is a lot cooler than the old plastic cases that the CDs have been in.
The best way to buy all of these newly remastered Beatles CDs is with the new Beatles CD box sets. There’s a stereo box set which includes all 13 of The Beatles UK albums (yes, that includes Magical Mystery Tour even though it’s not really a real Beatles album) and the Past Masters set of non-album tracks so that it includes a newly remastered stereo version of every song The Beatles originally released from 1962 through 1970.
There’s also a mono box set which has the original mono mixes of The Beatles first 10 albums (along with the Mono Masters set which has mono mixes of all of their non-album songs) along with the original stereo mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul. This is the first time that these mixes have been available on CD.
Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, & Let It Be are not included in this mono box set because they were never mixed in mono. By 1969 mono was dead and stereo was the standard.
But prior to the switchover to stereo, mono was the standard. Most people listened to mono versions of the Beatles albums through most of the ’60s. And because of that the band and their producers spent almost all of their time and energy on mixing the mono mixes. In comparison the stereo mixes were not given significant thought. Stereo was thought by some at the time to be a “fad” or just an “experimental” thing. I know that seems crazy to us now, but that’s what people thought back then.
What this means is that these original mono mixes were really how the band intended their music to be heard and that’s why it’s so significant from a historical standpoint that these mixes are finally easily available on CD. Prior to this new CD release the only way to legally listen to these mono mixes would be to track down an original Beatles mono vinyl LP. As you can imagine that could be difficult & expensive to do. Plus you’d need a record player and most people don’t have one of those anymore.
You may think that these mono mixes are something only “Beatles historians” should be interested in but there are many people who claim that the mono albums are more than just “the way the albums were meant to be hard” but also flat out better sounding. John Lennon was known to say that he thought the mono Sgt. Pepper was vastly superior to the stereo Sgt. Pepper.
In many cases the mono versions of The Beatles song are significantly different sounding. It should be very interesting to hear those differences for Beatles fans.
While the new stereo Beatles CDs are available as a part of the stereo box set and individually (they will be the new standard Beatles albums available everywhere) the new mono CDs are only available as a part of the mono box set.
Click Here to find out how you can hear the new remastered versions of The Beatles songs to decide if you want to buy them or not. Both the Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set and the Beatles Mono CD Box Set are recommended for serious Beatles fans.
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by admin on December 31, 2009
The Beatles entered the world of compact disc in the late 1980s when their entire catalog was released on the (new at the time) medium.
Unfortunately there were a couple of big issues with the way their music was released on CD. The first was that it wasn’t mastered particularly well (some would say that’s an understatement. ) The second was that only the stereo mixes for most of their albums were released on CD, leaving the mono mixes that were the standard for most of The Beatles career on the shelf.
Both of these issues have been corrected in 2009 with the release of new Beatles remasters. Digital mastering has come a long way since the ’80s and while that hasn’t all been progress (look into the “loudness wars”) the technological advances did wonders for these remasters because those that did them had the taste not to over compress and squeeze the life out of the music.
And with the release of The Beatles in Mono Box Set, the original mono mixes that most Beatles fans listened to in the 1960s are finally available on CD.
While The Beatles in Mono was the most exciting new Beatles release for real hardcore Beatles purists, the most popular box set has definitely been The Beatles in Stereo. And that’s for a lot of very good reasons. For one it includes The Beatles entire 1960s discography (unlike the mono box set which is missing the last few albums) and for another it sounds absolutely delicious! While it’s a real treat to hear the mono mixes for the first time, I must say that it’s the stereo mixes that stay in my CD player the most because they just sound so great.
Compared to the old CDs, these new remastered stereo discs really pop. In particular I find that Paul McCartney’s wonderful bass lines (and in my opinion, he’s the best bassist in pop music history) really punch through the mix like never before. But Ringo’s drums and the beautiful harmony vocals are close runner ups as they both seem to be more clear in the mix than before.
If I had to choose just one song as an example of how much better these new stereo mixes sound I would point to “Long Long Long” which sounds like it’s under a pile of blankets on the old CD. There are bits in this song that were nearly inaudible before, that now really jump into the ear and make themselves known. It’s a revelatory experience listening to this wonderful under appreciated George Harrison written gem.
As great as the stereo box set is, there are still some “purists” who feel strongly that The Beatles in Mono is really the way to go if you want to hear The Beatles as they were originally meant to be heard. The reason they believe this is because back in the 1960s almost all of The Beatles fans actually listened to their music on mono playback systems. And John, Paul, George, & Ringo themselves grew up listening to mono.
Because of this they put almost all of their energy into making sure the mono mixes were as good as they could be. On the other hand up until around 1968 the band and it’s producers didn’t put nearly as much thought into their stereo mixes. They were usually “thrown together” after they worked out the mono mix.
Often times they would try experimental approaches such as having all of the vocals on one side and all of the drums on the other. Because of this many people find many of the stereo mixes unsettling to listen to on headphones.
These two box sets are not the only remastered Beatles compilations released in 2009. The third is The Beatles USB “Apple” flash drive which is a digital version of The Beatles in Stereo. It includes the same elements (both sound & vision) except on a USB instead of on a set of CDs.
The really cool thing about it to me is that you can essential hold The Beatles entire career in your hand. I think that’s fantastic. It’s also very cool that this USB contains “better than CD” audiophile 24bit FLAC versions of all of their stereo remasters. Of course it also includes the first official release of The Beatles in the mp3 format, and they do it right with high quality 320 mp3 files.
All three of these of these groovy products makes 2009 the year of the Remastered Beatles.
Mike Jensy recommends you collect ‘em all: (1) Remastered Beatles in Stereo Box Set. (2) Remastered Beatles in Mono Box Set (3) Remastered Beatles USB (MP3 & FLAC)
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