I've read a fair amount about un-official cd releases of the Beatles albums being better than the official ones and I'm interested to know what people think of the official cds that have been in print since about 1987.
Are they really that bad???



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-04 18:41 by vudicus.

Unless I am mistaken,
Yellow Submarine is the only one that's been re-mastered.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

(Plus the stuff for "Love" if you want to count that.)

NO - just like the original ones - no good at all.

Buy Stones, Led Zepp etc. - they are good.

so are they all remixed or are they re-mastered poorly?
I'd like to know what's actually wrong with them.
Cheers!

Quote
bumbum
NO - just like the original ones - no good at all.

...You beat me to the punch.





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-04 19:32 by The Ghost Of Good taste.

The question is: Are the Beatles any good?

Not that old chesnut!

Surely someone here can tell me if they're remixed or if they are remasters of the original remixes???

:-) Don't make me beg now!

the beatles cds that were released in the 80's sound flat . there have been many advances in cd remastering since then. the unoffical dr. ebbetts cds sound a 100 times better and you are able to choose between the stereo or mono versions of most of the material.

The existing Beatles CDs were not remastered. The original releases are the English versions and were compiled by George Martin. The only remastered CDs are the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack, and Love, and both are incredible. Yellow Sub will give you a glimpse into what the impending releases will sound like. Simply stunning with a lot of depth and layers to be discovered. The recent Capital box set with the US releases of their early albums up to Rubber Soul are also quite good and have both the fake stereo and mono versions.

The remastered Beatles CDs are done and ready to go in print, but there seems to be some legal troubles with the administration. I'm really craving them hard, since the CDs from the 80s sound very bad. The only ones remastered are the tracks from Yellow Submarine (Which is the songs used in the film. I.e. not the "original score" soundtrack), the ones remastered for "Beatles - 1" and finally the ones used for "Love".

I heard Neil Aspinall didn't want to have remastered Beatles CDs out. He thought it would be great if The Beatles were the only old and big act that DIDN'T have remasters out.

JumpingKentFlash

George Martin did remix the Help! and Rubber Soul stereo albums for CDs in the 80s.He thought those two were the only spotty ones.
He added a bit of reverb to Help! and cleaned up
the hard-panned stereo version of Rubber Soul.
According to MArtin, he did very little regarding a remix,
he only had 4 tracks to work with and changed very little.
Also, there was a limited edition 30th anniversary White Album
that was put out in 1998 with terrific packaging.
To my ears, this was rermastered somewhat, a bit more separation
and a bit more bass.
I find the Yellow Submarine remix/remaster too loud and too clean,
but that's just me. I think the Beatles (62-67) sound best in mono.
If they're gonna do any Cd reisssues in the future, they better have
the original mono mixes along with whatever new stereo mixes they do,
especially Sgt. Pepper, where the mono mix beats any mix past, present,
or future they do. The singles, too. The mono Paperback Writer
is better than any stereo mix of that.

I believe John Lennon - said in one of his last interviews (1980) that he would like to re-record a lot of the Beatles stuff. By that I assume he meant his OWN compostions, not Paulies.
The Anthology collection by and large are inferior works compared to the finished products. Of course, listening to Strawberry Fields in its early acoustic incarnation is quite magical, but by and large the final versions seemd to be far and away the best.
Another of John's fantasies I guess.

Well if they haven't remastered them by now they had better make like a rabbit and hop to it because those tapes aren't gonna hold together forever.

A bootleg label called "Purple Chick" has "remastered" the entire Beatles catalog, and they supposedly sound great.

I just read in Mojo, October 2008, that the new remasters sounds glorious. Well, at least the ten songs from the White Album that Mojo, as first magazine, were invited to listen to at Abbey Road. The whole catalogue is due to be released in 2009 according to Allan Rouse at EMI.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-10-06 22:03 by Svartmer.

The Purple Chick collections are very good but their rmastring usually just applies to the outs and oddball stuff. The album tracks are usually straight "needle drop" transfers(like Dr, Ebbets) from the DESS stereo and UK Mono vinyl releases. Dr. Ebbets also has some straight tranfers of the 1982 Japaneses Red Wax MONO releases(I've heard the best! dont know) and MFSL Stereo releases as well as the DESS,Blue Box,UK and US Stereo and Mono releases.

The Canadian early releases in Wide Stereo(and I DO mean WWWWWWWWWIIIIDDDDDEEEE!)are pretty good too!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-10-06 23:54 by scottkeef.

What if we already have bought them once before?

Can we get any discount buying them again?

Thats why I try to download them. Like it says on the Purple Chick cds"FAN CREATED DISC-NEVER FOR SALE!" If you paid for this you got ripped off!!

google(and I DO mean google) morninggloryseed-blog.blogspot.com/ and see what you think. Hint: FLAC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-10-06 23:56 by scottkeef.

Personally, I've stayed away from all the cd reissues, Beatles, Stones or others. I've got most of the original MFSL vinyl releases and I can't imagine them doing a better job than these. The sound jumps out of the speakers.

Scotty

Quote
Svartmer
I just read in Mojo, October 2008, that the new remasters sounds glorious. Well, at least the ten songs from the White Album that Mojo, as first magazine, were invited to listen to at Abbey Road. The whole catalogue is due to be released in 2009 according to Allan Rouse at EMI.

Well, if you have the chance to listen to (already known) music in a great studio with nice surroundings,chances are very good that you get the impression of a fantastic musical experience!
Plus they all work hand in hand . .
We'll see!

I've just obtained the canadian "Disque Americ" cd version of "Rubber Soul" which features the original Stereo UK mixes and it sounds pretty good to me.

There is also the Stereo UK version of "Help!" from the same series which should sounds as good.

Also theres the Toshiba "Black Triangle" version of "Abbey Road" which is apparently far superior to the UK CD version.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-10-17 16:43 by vudicus.