Ralph Lauren: We are responsible
Glow in the dark mushrooms
I'm a bit late posting this, but BB pal/guestblogger/kindred mutant Richard Metzger has penned (pixelled?) what I believe to be the definitive review on the recently-released Beatles remasters. Before you read, a caveat:
I'm an unashamed audiophile. I do not listen to MP3s on my computer, I listen to music on a proper "hi fidelity stereo" (one that I bought used, so no charges of elitism, please) with good speakers.The review is detailed, and lovingly exhaustive. Here's a core slice:
Whether or not you opt for the Beatles Mono box or the stereo versions, a few things are not in dispute: They've managed to bring McCartney's bass out in a manner never before revealed. His bass patterns were far more intricate than we've ever been able to hear before and there is a noticeable fullness in the mid-range that was lacking on the 1987 versions. His prodigious musical genius seems even more dazzling when seen in this new light. Ringo's drums, uniformly throughout all the records, sound as crisp as can be: you don't just hear his drums, you hear the sound of the stick hitting the drum and how hard it is being hit. Nuanced is the word I keep using to describe them to friends and it's the right one. The layered backing vocals, hand claps, tambourines, all the exotic instrumentation, orchestrations and tape manipulations have a wide-screen presence as never before. The group sounds "friskier" throughout. When the piano keys are pounded, you can tell how hard they were being pounded. The Beatles remasters--continuously--reveal things we've never heard before until now.YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY: METZGER ON THE BEATLES REMASTERS (Dangerous Minds)
Amazon Link to purchase the remastered recordings.
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I'm also an audiophile, although I do put up with mp3s - and I miss record covers too.
The Beatles remasters sound (to to speak) really good; and for once I'll have something to put on my Christmas list. Usually, I dither until people wander away and decide to give me socks or the like.
(I'm kidding about the socks, pretty much...)
Penned or pixelled? If you're looking for a more literal description for writing in the digital age, try the "typed." But presumably that word should have replaced "penned" long before the digital age when most writers began to use typeriters over pens. Yet the word "penned," lived on. Why bother changing it now?
I've been reading bad reviews, and now this. You've made me reconsider my decision not to buy.
I am confused by his review, he says both: "I want to hear the best reproduction of the music possible, as close to what the musicians heard in the control room when they pronounced it finished,"
and:
"The stereo versions, even as early back as Please, Please Me, sound far more alive and vital. Tighter. Rawer. For me at least, it’s not an issue of authenticity, but much more the matter of what sounds the best and I give the stereo versions —by far— the upper hand nearly every time."
A bit unfair don't you think? the review starts by warning us that it is based on a set of notions, ones we may not agree with, and then proceeds to argue against them.
I agree on the whole with the article, but there are notable exceptions. Some of the remasters sound not just remastered, but differently mixed to me, most notably "Day Tripper" "Hey Bulldog" and a few others, with the same mistake: The vocals are mixed down a bit compared to the instruments. I was all set to sell back all my older Beatles cannon, but now that I have listened to the remasters, I feel I must keep the older versions for the vocal mixes. Most tracks are an amazingly different experience in a wondrous way, as eloquently described by Metzger, but like I said, I am kinda disappointed with the vocal mixes on a handful of tracks out of the whole set. I'd say it was still worth the money overall. Paul may have been wrong in this instance. =D
I agree entirely with the bass and drum assessments. The kick drum (bass drum I guess in the UK) sounds particularly full and resonant. Certain tracks really shine on the mono masters (Hey Jude) others are better in stereo. The real tifosi will need both versions.
Good news if you want to "try before you buy." I see that FLAC files of both sets are readily available you know where.
Translation: elitist who doesn't like to think of himself as an elitist.
Embrace the snob within!
If you really want to be blown away, get the original records. It's probably cheaper than the remastered box set. I have both the remastered collection and the original (American version mixes) records. I prefer the vinyl. I'm not an audiophile, but I am a professional audio recording engineer. This review sounds like he smoked a bit too much weed.
I wonder what studio magic they employed on these remasters...Drum replacement perhaps?
Roboton, you can do so, so much with multiband compressors and a bit of sidechaining that I doubt they'd have to go as far as drum replacement.
And I doubt Ringo or Paul would have approved of it, let alone the TrueFans.
(Then again, worse descisions have been made in remastering stuff)
Anyone who thinks that remasters are automatically good should listen to Street Fighting Man by the Rolling Stones side by side with the remaster and the original vinyl. Yes, the remaster is clearer and thicker sounding. But the overall mix is totally different and very wimpy. Vintage effects like tape slaps, vocal EQ futzes and wire reverbs haven't been duplicated with digital. There are filters called "wire reverb" and "tape slap", but they don't sound anything like a real one.
Let it Be (Naked) was a horrible mess. It was completely reconceived to the point where it didn't resemble the Beatles or Spector's vision for the album. I'm proceeding with caution with these remasters.
But can I hear Ringo's stomach digesting food, those masterful gastrointestinal melodies? I need my Audiophilic Beatles Mausoleum to be perfect, damn it!
ASIFA@~10:
1) I think the remastered Street Fighting Man sounds pretty darn awesome. -The best of the Stones' remastered tracks I have heard. It picks up plenty of kick hitherto not as present, with no mud in the mix (and as Metzger says, you really hear the difference Brian Jones added to their sound like never before.)
2) You seem to have totally missed the point / back story of Let It Be Naked. This was the mix that Paul did, before Phil Spector got his hands on it that mysteriously "disappeared" until uncovered recently (my theory is that Paul himself vaulted that mix because he got out-voted on the decision to use Spector. The boys were really headed in very different directions at this point, as evidenced in the movie, making such drastic actions plausible.) I think the "naked" versions are much better than the mess Spector made of it until now, most notably in the lack of strings on The Long And Winding Road that made that track intolerable to me previously; not to mention all that ubiquitous muddy reverb throughout. But the remasters reveal instruments like horns on For You Blue that were previously inaudible as such. I think their handling of Let It Be is one of the most marked achievements of the remasters, actually, finally overcoming Spector's botched job.
That's not at all true. EMI had the original Let it Be tapes remixed and produced LIB Naked. It had nothing to do with a hidden McCartney master.
I stand corrected. Paul's mix never did resurface. Paul aimed at recapturing the stripped down feel of that mix in re-creating the Naked versions from the original LIB tracks. Around the time it came out, I had heard this was the case and the reason for the different track order, but research has proven this incorrect.
Ok, this is from a sound tech/music maker guy after comparing the old and new cd versions of Revolver, my favourite B album.
The sound is obviously more clear and crisp, but loses a little musicality in the process. Vocals especially have turned a bit harsh, and the added separation of sounds distracts the already scattered stereo mix even more. On the good side, the bass really is more present and ballsy, a wonderful thing considering McCartneys prodigious lines. Drums also benefit from added punch.
The whole thing is a mixed affair (ha!); it's nice to hear new parts and a modern mix of the classics, but like contemplating a perfectly beautiful woman, who'd like to see the intestines and bowels in microscopic detail? Also, hard to be objective after 30 years of listening the vinyls & old cds. I demand yet another definitive round of mastering, a compromise between these two!
Oh, and Tomorrow Never Knows kicks ass on the new mastering.
All that work and they didn't re-release it on vinyl?
You seem to have totally missed the point / back story of Let It Be Naked. This was the mix that Paul did, before Phil Spector
No it isn't anything like that. The concept behind the "Get Back" album (as it was called then) was to forgo overdubbing and editing tracks and just do straight ahead takes live with minimal editing. I have a copy of the acetate the Beatles gave to Peter Sellers of the album as it existed when they left it. It was *totally* different than Let It Be (Naked).
As for Street Fighting Man sounding better on the remaster. Yes, it sounds cleaner, but it isn't "Street Fighting Man". I grew up with that track and the harsh edges are more an integral part of the song than the inconsequential details that the remaster focused on.
Thanks, Lauriok. You answered my questions about this set better than the linked article. It seems to be another case of something being restored to the way it never was.
I just want the original mixes presented as cleanly as possible. I like the way the Beatles were in the 60s. I don't need them gussied up for the two thousand oughts. I doubt that we'll ever get that though. Corporate media seems determined to sell us the same music in as many different versions as possible. Kids who didn't grow up with this music may not mind, but to me it's like colorizing Citizen Kane.
Soooo then ... they've been cheating us all these years when they sold us recording that didn't reveal "The layered backing vocals, hand claps, tambourines ... and tape manipulations" ????
And yet somehow they managed to conquer the world without having to re-define 'hi-fi' again. I rest my case.
I don't really think this is meaningful, but it's "funny" that everyone agrees that the new sets just happen to provide a better sound for the two guys in the band who are still alive.
I look forward to Metzger's report on his double blind testing of MP3 playback via the same amp & speaker system he uses with his "real audio setup". I've yet to see any report that confirms that more than a tiny percentage of the population can tell the difference between CD quality PCM data and reasonably well encoded MP3. I do listen to MP3's and ogg/vorbis on my computer, albeit via a high end audio interface, a rather expensive D/A unit, a decent amplifier and studio monitors. Maybe Metzger should consider adding a proper playback signal path to his "computer" rather than relying on the consumer/gaming quality crap that it came with.
See also: Star Wars IV - VI re-releases.
Sure, it's cool to get a nerdgasm from seeing all those extra creatures and aliens, but at the end you're just sorta left with some raped memories and a feeling of uncertainty.
Which also sounds a bit like my weekends.
It's about time someone did that! Then next someone should paint over the original Mona Lisa because, Leonardo would have definitely used aerosol paints if they'd been available at the time.
People should leave the classics as they are.
The new mastering sounds quite like the subtle retouching of the Beatles photo above.
And you know that old joke about Ringo's drumming? It's not true - the man has chops.
...and I don't understand how people can be satisfied with a CD that has a fraction of the information that a live performance has.
(I am actually partly serious about this- orchestras are very different in the flesh, and sitting in the choir during a performance of Messiaen's La Nativité du Seigneur on a cathedral organ was a revelation to me, despite having heard recordings.)
Who are these Beatles you speak of. Never heard of this group. I sure hope they get the coverage they deserve.
The one good thing about the Beatles Remasters is that people are listening again or for the first time to the Beatles. I bought last weekend the new remastered Sgt.Pepper and was hoping it would blow me away. It didn't, comparing first to the 87 release which is pressed in W. Germany and from a UK boxset made for the Japanese market. I did years ago when I owned a cd store compared that to the American release and found no difference in sound. It sounded cleaner with the right amount of detail and yes I could hear Pauls bass just fine. The new remaster was overly bass heavy and artificially richer sounding and I felt on one track She's Leaving Home sounded good.
BUT I strongly feel that they should have really rolled up their sleeves and put some real effort into remixing like they did with the 1999 Yellow
Submarine Songtracks cd. The Sgt.Pepper tracks are
wonderful sounding on that release close to ideal.
This is my opinion and I hope others will join in
if they feel the same and put pressure on these people at Abbey Road to do it right.
It seems you have to do more than run it through
pro tools at 24bit/192khz and ship it out and charge lot's money for fans to replace their whole
Beatle collection. This is the same team that put
out Yellow Sub 1999!
Take Led Zeppelin's Mothership that was remixed and of course remastered(all cds are remastered)
that release shows that it can be done right.
I have been a Beatle fan since I saw a Mike Wallace morning news show about the end of 63 reporting on the Moptops from Liverpool and they
were performing I Want To Hold Your Hand. This was right after JFK was assasinated and the country was still recovering from the shock- top
40 radio was crap at that time. Except for Motown
James Brown and other great R&B artists it was the BEATLES that revived rock & roll with their positive attitude and led the British Invasion.
So my point is I feel that this group and their fans deserve the best and they didn't in my opinion get it so Please GET BACK into the studio
and do the right thing PLEASE PLEASE ME!!!!