His reMastered Voice
The Beatles in Mono: (13 CDs; 185 songs). All ten original
UK mono albums plus 2-CD collection of the singles and EP tracks.
Digitally remastered by Abbey Road, London, pressed in Japan
(released 09/09/2009). Help! and Rubber Soul CDs
include 1965 stereo mixes. CDs are presented in Japanese “mini-LP”
format with repro miniature original vinyl inner sleeves. 44-page
booklet in white carton. Six albums (from
Help! to “The White Album”) are released
on CD in mono for the first time.
The Beatles: (DVD + 16 CDs; 217 songs). All thirteen
original UK stereo albums plus 2-CD collection of the Beatles
singles and EP tracks. Digitally remastered by Abbey Road, pressed
in EU (released 09/09/2009). All CDs presented in wide gatefold
format enhanced with mini documentary video (for PC) and DVD
(Region 0; 49 minutes). Four albums (from
Please Please Me to Beatles for sale) are released
on CD in stereo for the first time.
Purchase
details
All 13 original stereo UK albums (16 CDs) also available separately.
*Albums omitted in the mono presentation set; **mono CD which
adds stereo versions of the album.
Please Please Me; With the Beatles; A Hard day’s Night;
Beatles for Sale; Help!**; Rubber Soul**; Revolver; Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band; Magical Mystery Tour; “White
Album”; Yellow Submarine*; Abbey Road*; Let it Be*;
2-CD collection of singles and EP (non album) songs.
Remastering engineers credited: Guy Massey, Steve Rooke, and
Sam Okell, with Paul Hicks and Sean Magee (stereo); Paul Hicks
and Sean Magee with Guy Massey and Steve Rooke (mono).
Timings are not expressed by the manufacturer, respecting analogue
LP tradition.
Selected comparisons:
Original LPs: With the Beatles (mono and stereo); Sgt.
Pepper; Abbey Road.
Original CD’s: With the Beatles; Revolver; Sgt Pepper.
Remastered LPs: Abbey Road; 1.
Remastered CDs: 1; Let it Be … Naked; Let it Roll
(2009, George Harrison).
Recommended Reading:
The Complete Beatles Chronicle, Mark Lewisohn, 1992
Revolution in the Head, Ian Macdonald, revised ed 2005
PART ONE: REVOLUTION IN THE HEAD
Aaron Copland supposedly said that in order to understand the
sixties you must listen to the Beatles’ music. It
is hard (for ageing hippies) to believe that the band was formed
almost fifty years ago and dissolved in 1970 producing twelve
studio albums in only seven years. Of “the Fab Four”
only two survive. Harrison hopefully has found nirvana and Lennon
is probably still arguing with St Peter at the pearly gates.
Whatever he had in mind the claim to be more popular than Jesus
angered many but highlighted a dilemma. While the Church declined,
a new generation - for better or worse - sought a guru from
the psychedelic age. The Beatles changed the British mindset
much more than the most popular Blues singer or rock band affected
the more conservative American culture.
In 1967, Lennon’s intellectual counterbalance in the group,
George Harrison, introduced the sacred element from the Hindu
tradition via the Maharishi’s school. Thus we had the
antidote to drug culture which the American Right grasped and
bankrolled, a contradiction which caused me to leave the infiltrated
organisation around the early ’seventies and make my career,
by default, as a Hi-Fi Dealer.
I hope this qualifies me because (for once) this review it is
not about music or performance. These are inseparable and they
are well-known. My opinions and favourites are no more authoritative
than yours. I approach The Beatles Remastered as a review
of technology - how it serves and preserves this heart-tugging
and perennial music. Does it bring these performances home?
Have Abbey Road captured them faithfully and do EMI offer value
for money? Most of us have bought older copies given that Beatles
sales are said to approach a billion discs worldwide.
The pre-release speculation over The Beatles Remastered
concerns (1) the relatively primitive recording equipment of
Abbey Road used in the early albums; (2) in later years their
alleged abuse of multi-miking and multi-tracking, plus post-production;
(3) what the studio has done over the past four years to correct
these shortcomings for the 2009 edition; and (4) - the price.
On Amazon we are asked to pay £46.95 for Sony’s
remastered Mahler symphonies with Leonard Bernstein on 12 fully-filled
CDs review but
£169.90 for 16 EMI CDs (or a penny under £200 for
13 in mono). EMI’s pricing anomaly is great considering
the fact that Mahler (another ’sixties phenomenon) will
sell a lot less than the Beatles to recover a single and similar
re-mastering cost. Sony have proved to be responsible custodians
and sonic saviours of their musical heritage. Abbey Road are
prominent in sound refurbishing; they offer this service to
labels worldwide. It is a big business with much recorded material
over fifty years old now free from copyright. Re-mastering establishes
a new term of property right.
Returning to the present reissue, Beatles Remastered
, EMI’s mono alternative highlights an “authenticity”
issue they were unable to resolve. It falls within topic (4)
above: the post-session production and final mix. Were the Beatles’
songs crafted in mono, mindful of home and car radio sets? Was
stereo an artificial enhancement or the true recreation of the
studio’s space and ambience? If so, why not offer SACD
hybrid discs which would offer extended resolution stereo and
surround to those who have 5.1 home-cinema loudspeaker systems?
It was done for the Rolling Stones catalogue in 2002.
THE BEATLES REMASTERED - (1) 1987
When the analogue tapes were first transferred to CD the opportunity
was taken to standardise the Beatles catalogue globally by following
the British albums (except for Magical Mystery Tour). In
the following year two CDs (Past Masters Vol 1 and 2) were
issued to round up the non-album singles and EPs. However the
Beatles Remastered story begins in 1979 when the newly formed
Mobile Fidelity label in USA issued Abbey Road (catalogue
1-023) in audiophile quality vinyl. It was transferred from
an original master (which many believed at the time to be the
first generation studio tape but in fact was sourced from Capitol,
EMI’s US subsidiary.) It sounded far superior to the High
Street product. MoFi used high-end equipment, half-speed lacquer
cutting, and 180 grams of JVC’s virgin vinyl (compared
to the wafer-thin 100 grams). MoFi followed with other Beatles
culminating in a limited edition 14-LP box set (BC-1) released
in October 1982. I retailed six of these sets, much delayed
from Japan, and can confirm the fact that many were purchased
for £199.99 for investment. In sealed cartons they will
today fetch at least three times the cost.
By the mid-eighties Compact Disc was taking over. EMI compiled
fifty-four songs on two double CD sets “the red album”
(1962-66) and “the blue album” (1967-70). The eighties
were well named grey and the Beatles sounded as bland as the
boxes looked; of course they were premium-priced. The digital
re-mastering of 1987 was attributed to one Mike Jarratt at Abbey
Road. One cannot blame him for the result: 16-bit processing
was in its infancy and the studio was not well-equipped in those
days. In 1991 a new digital archive of the analogue masters
was made by EMI for back-up and safety.
THE BEATLES REMASTERED - (2) The Millennium Collection
During the ’nineties the pressing issues (pun intended)
concerned discussions and comparisons of, say, German direct-cut
records with Japanese releases, but these are matters of mastering;
re-mastering is (or should be) about the revisiting of
the first generation of studio tapes with authentic or advanced
retrieval techniques.
In 2000 the inspired “1” was issued by Apple/EMI
on CD and vinyl (2-LP set). Twenty-seven songs, every No. 1
hit the band made, twenty-four in glorious living stereo; re-mastered
at Abbey Road by Peter Mew. At last here was re-mastering to
delight the audiophiles and collectors who, the major labels
had learned, would buy the same material every decade if “re-mastered.”
1 was like a pristine vintage car and EMI was rewarded.
The Beatles had been reborn and the cash registers outpaced
the disc stampers: 3.7 million discs sold in the first week
and 12 million in three weeks worldwide, way beyond critical
or commercial expectations. Thirty years after Paul McCartney
wrote to dissolve the partnership, the Beatles had refused to
die. 1 was Number One in thirty-five countries and became
the fastest selling album of all time.
THE CLASH OF THE MASTERS - (3)
Get Back, Spector and the return of Sir George
Lessons learned. How to get rich quick. The next Beatles album
EMI considered for reissue was the group’s final album.
The most radical example of the word re-mastering: Let it
Be had been recorded in 1969 but issued by EMI after the
band’s dissolution. Post-production was out of the hands
of the Beatles; the label had handed the tapes to Phil Spector
to apply his wall-of-sound trademark. Three years after 1,
Let it Be … Naked was finally issued “as it
was meant to be.” Abbey Road had revisited the studio
tapes and cast aside the American producer’s after-sessions
mix.
Presumably George Martin relished the revenge when his employer
restored the only Beatles album he had not produced. Remember
that Martin, “the 5th Beatle,” was the
man who not only signed the group after many producers at EMI
as well as Decca turned the lads away; he was also their muse.
When the Beatles strove for progress and influence, the biggest
direction came from George Martin. Classically-trained, the
strings and string quartets, the orchestras and the instruments
of the orchestra were introduced by Martin.
By 2001, he set out with his son Giles to re-work twenty-six
songs with audiophile clarity and orchestral arrangements -
The Beatles Love. Whatever one thinks of the hybrid post-production
(and I don’t like it) it is a well-made piece of work.
But it isn’t the Beatles.
THE BEATLES REMASTERED - (4) 2009
From 2005 word began to leak of an ambitious project which was
officially announced by Apple Corps/EMI on 7th April
2009 … The Beatles Remastered (as it would be called).
Almost four years of rethinking aims and preparing methods before
the play buttons were pressed and (I hope) the first generation
studio tapes were threaded in restored original decks. The analysis
was radical: this was to be EMI’s definitive digital mastering
with 24 bit/192kHz sampling of the analogue tapes using a Prism
A/D converter. The analogue tapes would not last forever without
deterioration although EMI claimed that their own magnetic tape
of the time did not shed oxide. As we all know, digital is perfect
and lasts forever but the 1991 archive would be way below state-of-the
art digital by today’s engineering.
Re-mastered, but not re-recorded. What could be done about the
relatively primitive recording equipment of Abbey Road used
in the early albums; even if the post-production problems had
been addressed? During the ’sixties Abbey Road’s
pop studios were second-class and segregated by the snobbish
classical engineers and producers. While the latter were creating
a golden age of audiophile recording using simple but quality
valve equipment, the pop studios were manufacturing products
for the masses. Well into the ’eighties, when investment
in new equipment came, it was solid-state with complex signal
paths which degraded the sound; the engineers were not audiophiles
and the demand for Hi-Fi sound was not acknowledged until well
into the ’nineties. In a nutshell, and in common with
almost all the majors, EMI produced rather bland studio tapes.
If the exception proves the rule, Pink Floyd had enough awareness
and clout to make EMI produce vivid tapes from their sessions.
In 2005, in belated recognition of the challenge presented by
the much inferior Beatles tapes, EMI began a four year project
with an analysis of the objectives and the material at hand.
The object, you might think, was to reproduce at home a vivid
recreation of original performances, but this is a simplistic
Hi-Fi myth. The Beatles quit touring because live concerts were
badly organised and even hazardous (I believe Lennon foresaw
his demise) and the Beatles were innovative musicians. They
saw recording as the 20th century’s potent
medium or place to be. Electronics had gone beyond capturing
a live (musical) event. The Beatles’ biographers and historians
refer to the years from 1966 as “the Studio Years”
and they perceptively state that the Beatles used the studio
as an instrument. Abbey Road was open to them 24/7 and they
used all kinds of musical, electronic and “concrete”
sounds to push the boundaries.
By drugs and meditation the Beatles created. There is no acoustical
event to recreate, only a soundscape. Music and lyrics heard
within the mind. It was a Freudian dreamscape which was limited
by EMI’s primitive engineering, not only in the early
days. As multi-tracking equipment and solid-state processors
proliferated in Abbey Road, the sound became, for a time, sterile
and muffled.
The mono argument, referred to above, is an example of EMI’s
need to define the objectives of the new 24/192 re-mastering.
If the Beatles and their engineers focused on mono mixes because
these were what 99% of the population would hear on their radios
then was mono the “director’s cut”? In modern
audiophile circles, there has been a return not only to valves
and vinyl but to mono vinyl! These people think that stereo
is artificial and depletes the energy of a single channel. I
have heard the past and it works!
The problem of the Beatles stereo is that it is not stereo;
it is very artificial use of multi-miking and multi-channels.
The result is vocals from the left speaker and instruments from
the right. EMI will face the problem of whether they have tracks
that can be remixed. The decision announced in April 2009 (to
release mono) may hint at the answer. EMI also announced that
the stereo CDs, but not the mono, would be subject to some compression,
but not the excessive compression of their previous discs. What
is compression? It is the enemy of dynamics; all commercial
records are squashed because an orchestra or a rock band would
otherwise destroy your loudspeakers!!
EMI, in their well-organised product launch, withheld review
copies but invited a few journalists to hear the re-mastered
CDs at Abbey Road. On their own equipment the result was bound
to impress - and the reports have been favourable.
My worry is that possibly, just possibly, EMI will fail. The
George Harrison 2009 Remaster Let it Roll (CD already
issued in June but with much less fuss) was not worth buying
for improved sonics if you already own the material.
Sop Part One concludes. My aim is to prepare the most useful
consumer assessment of the re-mastering rather than the earliest.
The sets are very costly and offer the choices of mono and stereo
sets, or individual stereo albums separately.
In Part Two (under preparation) I hope to compare the Beatles
originals and prior re-masters using a wide variety of domestic
High-Fidelity systems. From popular and portable systems through
to three “high performance” stereo systems of different
traditions. Are The Beatles voiced for a west-coast [JBL] sound,
or for European [Tannoy or BBC] loudspeakers, and, finally,
how do the restored Beatles sound on a Gryphon Poseidon system,
probably the world’s ultimate Hi-Fi - a quarter of a million
pounds and two thousand watts over a thousand kilograms of speaker
towers. This system is probably more ruthless in revealing flaws
- or thrills - than anything used at Abbey Road. How does each
system put the musicians and the performance in the room. Sadly,
product placement has clouded the issue; EMI engineers keep
their favourite monitors a secret but to achieve the best results
you don’t develop Kodak film with Ilford chemicals!
PART TWO: MUSIC’S GREAT SECRET
The big corporates are control freaks when it comes to cash
flow from celebrity exclusive artistes. On, or just before,
9th September 2009 EMI delivered to their retailers
but the rumoured sell-out was confirmed by a failure of further
deliveries … including mine. Worldwide, the Beatles
in Mono (made in Japan) was definitely sold out. After seven
days I panicked and set out on a round trip of the three Glasgow
city branches of HMV. Two had three mono sets each and the third
had “put aside” one of only two stereo sets received
that day.
Three hundred and seventy pounds lighter I headed home with
two boxes and a smile; Part Two of my review could begin. Within
minutes the bottom line became clear: the boys at EMI have done
a great job, in fact quite unimaginable. Gone is the congested
sound of the sixties made worse by the sterile grey of the eighties
CDs. Truly, it is possible to re-appraise and rediscover just
why the thrilling three are amongst the greatest songwriters
of the 20th century and why the five were amongst
the greatest musicians … because George Martin emerges
as such; more on this later.
Your favourite songs emerge pristine; others emerge as new favourites.
But before we get high on it, let’s rationalise the sound
quality which EMI offer and you can buy. (1) Mono or stereo?
(2) Analogue or digital sound? (3) 24 bit masters published
on 16-bit resolution CDs?
(1) MONO OR STEREO?
The collectors’ mono set is packaged in a stout white
carton containing authentic mini-LP presentations; they are
complete with original inner sleeves and protective rice pouches.
As I complete this review, it transpires that the Japanese Mono
set will be an edition completed by a second print, on sale
around the third week in October (six weeks after 090909). The
ongoing stereo set is a larger but flimsier black cardboard
box. Individual discs are presented in arty, extended gatefold
sleeves, high on photos but low on protecting CDs from dust
or scratches.
I guess that EMI made the mono master tapes for a future in
which CDs may play a small part. As in the sixties, and again,
and always, music is for “people in motion” - once
for radios and record changers, now for mobile phones and palmtops;
and for shopping malls and MP3 - today as before people are
neither seated nor centred as the mixing engineers (with John
and Paul breathing down their necks) … or the audiophiles
(with wife and kids tugging).
But for serious listening, I must reject the arguments suggesting
the superiority or authenticity of mono. In 1962 stereo was
well established, at least as the studio master format. All
Beatles albums were mixed as stereo and released as stereo.
The mono LPs Please Please Me and With the Beatles
were folded down from two-track tapes because the majority of
youngsters listened on trannies rather than Hi-Fi in the home,
or car, or headphones, etc. As the Beatles became a recording
group and studio effects took over from the concept of a captured
club or live concert, stereo became an important element of
the Beatles’ art.
That is my argument subject to a detour in which we must define
stereo. It was invented in the early 1930s by Alan Blumlein,
a genius who worked for none other than EMI. Blumlein’s
discovery was 2C-3D, in other words, two channels like two ears
can reproduce a three-dimensional soundstage. This enigma was
never fully grasped by engineers or the record-buying public.
At EMI during the sixties purist classical engineers used simple,
paired mics and established a golden era of recording quality
with simple, tubed amps. The audiophile art is all about minimal
signal path and first generation tapes! Down the corridor at
Abbey Road the pop engineers used multi-mike and multi-track
tapes, so the Beatles so-called stereo is not stereo.
It is an open effect which is nevertheless very pleasing. On
most Hi-Fi systems I tried, the excellent Japanese pressings
and a few points in favour of the early mono mixes are left
behind by these revealing multi-channel effects which were an
important part of the way the Beatles used so many electronic,
admittedly artificial, means of generating psychedelic sound!
During the late sixties Abbey Road’s pop studios re-equipped
slowly but unfortunately the complex solid-state equipment combined
with anti-audiophile engineers arguably degraded the sound of
the next few albums. On 31st July to 2nd
August 1968 the Beatles founded Apple and recorded Hey
Jude at Trident Studios rather than Abbey Road due to
superior equipment and engineering techniques. Was it coincidental
that this song became their biggest selling single and stayed
at number one for their longest run of nine weeks?
(2) EARLIER BEATLES REMASTERS - analogue or digital?
The 2009 remastered mono and stereo CDs sound so good that we
forget they are issued on 16-bit format, already passé
in 2009, and we forgive them for bypassing SACD. That is, until
one turns to the Mobile Fidelity 1980-82 half-speed mastered
issues on vinyl (14 albums or Box Set). All analogue, it makes
an eloquent, passionate, and unassailable statement against
digital. In fairness, behind the sound of the 2009 CDs we can
hear the hints of more clarity and detail -- crisp and clean
compared even to the vinyl, and certainly without any of the
tragedy and travesty of the original CDs which condemned the
format forever in the ears of the enlightened. Vinyl, in comparison
to state-of-the art CD, is not just warmer, but more real, vivid
and solid.
EMI released both 1 and Love on
2-LP sets. If the Beatles mastertapes are issued on vinyl, EMI
will get my money like an addict pays a pusher … but only
if they are pure analogue. However, the subject of this review
is the Beatles on CD.
(3) PREVIOUS BEATLES REMASTERS ON RED BOOK DIGITAL
As stated in Part One, the George Harrison compilation Let
it Roll, 2009 remastered on CD, issued three months
earlier, did not reach the sonic engineering of 1.
Previously, in 2003 Let it Be … Naked was
issued to show what could be done and to remove the controversial
wall of sound post-produced by Phil Spector. At the time the
Beatles disbanded this was the only album EMI gave to a producer
who was not named George Martin. I found that the 2009 version
has even better transparency, presence, for example the cymbals
are so alive and vibrant.
But George Martin already had taken his revenge when he remastered
and reissued 26 Beatles songs in the album Love
in 2006. At the time, I was put off by talk of tampering with
the original music and I shelved the CD after hearing less than
two tracks.
 |
|
| “The
Beatles LOVE” -- 26 songs “reworked” says
EMI, but more remastered than re-arranged (by George Martin
in 2006). Pictured here in CD, 2-LP and DVD-audio formats
(do not confuse with the DVD film). The DVD-a states compatible
with all DVD players but few will access 24-bit/96kHz PCM
layer embedded on the DVD-audio as opposed to the 5.1 Dolby
and 5.1 DTS which are lower resolution. The 24/96 is the
reality glimpse into the future of sound.” |
|
The best discoveries are sometimes made upon revisiting. This
one became a revelation. Why? At first I simply played it through,
unable to press stop. Then I rationalised the purism and genius
of Mr (sorry) Sir George; the fifth Beatle, the man who produced
their albums. The essence of the group genius was not only five
heads better than one but the spontaneity: there were no hard
lines drawn between the composing, the performing, and the arranging.
And there was no one better to reproduce a Beatles album than
the Beatles producer. If that is not enough,
Love
boasted the participation and imprimatur of Paul, Ringo, Yoko,
and Olivia.
For this review, I returned to it unprejudiced and Loved every
minute of it. Even the arrangement of my favourite Harrison ballad,
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (for which Martin scored
strings just as he had done forty years before (
Yesterday,
1965) and it was unobtrusive and just as successful.
And then the discovery struck me. Could it be? How could it be?
The original Beatles in Better Sound in 2006 than 2009?? Oh,
Sir George, the naughty boy who knew where to find the sweeties
in the cupboard. I am guessing that he has used some earlier generation
takes before dubbing degraded their pristine purity. Far from
60s sound plus 21
st century orchestration it is all
so vivid. The post-production is very simple and sympathetic.
The original sound is so new I ask myself (jokingly) if they recruited
a Lennon double and had a new drummer remake Ringo!! Listen to
Eleanor Rigby. I am the Walrus
on the
Love CD is a living mammal! Somehow the
2006 sound smoothes over the artificial multi-tracking (the annoying
left, right and hole in the middle): here it sounds like three-dimensional
stereo, more than the 2009 issues.
I would suggest that
1 and
Love,
CDs now selling at competitive prices, could well be an economic
acquisition of the Beatles legacy as both are so finely remastered.
In both EMI issued 2-LP sets, boasting quiet surfaces, they show
that although CD has progressed the digital master on vinyl brings
you a more authentic natural sound from the 24 bit remake. I won’t
embarrass EMI and the BPI by expressing in the Table below that
my non-audiophile panel preferred the original stereo LPs from
the 1960s to the 2009 CDs.
The value, the quality, the authenticity of twenty-six songs on
The Beatles LOVE made me wonder if it was not this
CD that most challenges the 2009 remasters except for purists,
collectors, etc, and then one of my colleagues mentioned a DVD-a
which revealed a surprise: there is a layer with 24 bit sound
along with the lower resolution 5.1 Dolby and 5.1 DTS. The industry
conspiracy is that many DVD players will down-mix these so that
you don’t know what you are missing. If you have the right
machine, you can access the advanced resolution PCM. Here’s
why you would want to do just that.
The limitation of 2009 is that 16-bit CDs cannot reproduce 24-bit
remasters taken from the analogue tapes. DVD-audio can but usually
doesn’t. The trouble is that, unlike DVD-video the format
is confused and limited to an audiophile niche. The major labels
either don’t use it or releases dumb it down for compatibility
with High Street Hi-Fi and Home Cinema, so it isn’t 24-bit
PCM. Can you imagine 2009 on 24 bit resolution? In your dreams,
say EMI. But
Love is available as CD, 2-LP, and
… (drum roll)
DVD-audio with genuine 24 bit sound
tucked away. One click on Amazon and I was standing at the door
waiting on the post the next morning. Yes, I have died and gone
to Heaven. The layers on the DVD really offer 24-bit/ 96kHz PCM
stereo, or 5.1 surround Dolby and DTS (neither of which I have
tried) but stereo done right is as 3-D just as Blumlein said it
would be. As
Love opens, the birds twitter outside
your windows, and you are With the Beatles. John Lennon places
his hand on your shoulder; Ringo lights up behind you as you sit
at the desk checking the mix. But only if you have the proper
equipment. High Street Hi-Fi is for the birds. On CD you don’t
know what you are missing. And if you want to find out, let us
take a further detour.
HIS MASTER’S VOICING
Many EMI CDs carry a product placement which is misleading (if
anyone is so naïve). A domestic High Street loudspeaker brand
is said to be used in the studios. Speaking to Abbey Road engineers,
they smile in eloquent silence.
The problem is that
The Beatles Remastered (and all records)
are voiced on studio loudspeakers of more than one brand. It used
to be JBL or Tannoy but now we have at least four families of
sound. The relevance is that you will reproduce at home the authentic
sound when using the same monitors at home. There is the American
“west-coast” family from Altec which influenced the
American James B. Lancing companies, Yamaha of Japan, and Zingali
in Italy etc. Then there is the fabulous Tannoy sound, found in
many studios of the sixties, and the “cleaner” BBC
designs (manufactured by Celestion, KEF, Rogers, Harbeth, etc)
and finally the super-clean active and digital loudspeakers. Sadly,
the big monitors are more useful in professional fault-finding
than enjoying music at home. But what do you get when you combine
high resolution vinyl … or DVD-a with (say) a £125,000
/ 1,000 watt / 34 drivers / 1,000 kg of 2 metre, 4-tower, loudspeakers
forming a surround semi-circle … made by Gryphon of Denmark?
You get, The Real Thing!
As promised in Part One, I have reviewed carefully
The Beatles
Remastered on various Hi-Fi systems from small domestic/ desk-top
computers/ lifestyle to larger systems right up to the ultimate,
the Gryphon Poseidon. The more a home system emulated the scale
of the studio loudspeakers, the more the stereo system reproduced
what the boys created and heard in Abbey Road. In stereo it was
spooky. It was a high!
For smaller and portable systems and public address,
The Beatles
in Mono wins because it focuses on a simpler amplitude energy
free from acoustics and phase cancellations. The original analogue
sixties LPs (on a good turntable) still beat the 2009 CDs, excellent
though they are. But when a young lady, just old enough to remember
the sixties (!!) heard the high resolution DVD-a on the astounding
Gryphon Poseidon system, she shrivelled with the goose-bumps when
my guitar gently weeps and she fell on the floor sobbing. Embarrassing,
humbling, but professionally very gratifying. This was no audiophile
discussing techno crap; this was the acid test!
THE WINNERS
This is not a review of the Beatles but of the formats. I have
avoided describing each album’s historical, musical, or
recording merits; this is well-written up elsewhere and the quality
of the songs is as much your opinion as mine.
In summary it has been a great pleasure revisiting the Beatles
in 2009. It has changed and humbled me. As a result of the 2009
remastering it is a rediscovery: the music will never date. Five
strong and talented song-writers exchanged energies over a decade
(yes, Martin, Harrison and Starr contributed plenty) and they
fused the arts of imagination, performance, social comment, utter
nonsense, and studio technology.
Both mono and stereo are great improvements on the first generation
CDs which have grey, sterile sound much compressed. We confirmed,
in this comprehensive survey of formats, that CD has advanced
but vinyl is still superior, especially all in the analogue domain.
Mind you, we used the awe-inspiring Brinkmann LaGrange; made in
Germany it is a substantial piece of engineering. Its massive
platter is a cutting lathe in reverse. The biggest surprise (shock)
was the relatively unknown DVD-audio (no video content) whose
high resolution shows that in itself digital sound is not flawed.
I suggest that you will enjoy the Beatles in any of the top five
sonic winners listed below.
|
|
Format |
Issued |
Comments |
1 |
EMI/Apple “Love”
(28 songs - the album states “reworked” but
it is much more remastered than rearranged.) |
ADD 24 bit
(DVD-audio)
+ free CD |
2006 |
24bit/96kHz with 5.1 Dolby and DTS options but check your
system is compatible. |
2 |
Mobile Fidelity |
AAA
(LP stereo set or 14 albums available separately) |
1980-82 |
Pure analogue, half-speed mastered, pressed in Japan. |
3 |
EMI/Apple
“1” and “Love” |
ADA
(2-LP stereo) |
2003; 2006 |
Excellent analogue from hi-rez digital |
4 |
EMI/Apple
The Beatles Remastered |
ADD (16-CD set or available separately) |
2009 |
Subject of this review. |
5 |
EMI/Apple
The Beatles in Mono |
ADD
(13-CD set) |
2009 |
Subject of this review. |
THE CONCLUSION
For Beatles fans and collectors seeking authenticity and completeness,
the 2009 CDs fulfil their promise to get back closer to the
LPs. I doubt if we will ever see remastered pure analogue LPs.
For now we are getting the best Red Book resolution.
EMI is the corporate at the Gate of Perception of Heaven and
Hell. Experiencing the 24/96 digital archive is EMI’s
treasure which it may sell when it pleases. But I know a man
with access to EMI’s first generation studio takes. It
makes me smile: I have heard the future and so can you. To experience
26 of the Beatles songs, it may be that, in four words …
All You Need [is] Love. And a studio grade player
which reads the advanced resolution layer of DVD-a discs. The
Ayre C-5 is worthy of mention because it can do so, and you
don’t need a Ph.D., and a small blue LED tells you that
you are currently listening to 24/96, studio level resolution.
Jack Lawson
Jack Lawson is an audiophile specialist and runs the
Townhouse
Audio Salon in Glasgow and the Music
Room Newsletter
THE ALBUMS: EMI’S WORLD STANDARDISATION FOR CD ISSUES
1987 AND 2009, TRACK LISTING
PLEASE PLEASE ME
1. I Saw Her Standing There (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Misery (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Anna (Go To Him) (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Chains (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Boys (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. Ask Me Why (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Please Please Me (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Love Me Do (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. P.S. I Love You (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Baby It's You (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. Do You Want To Know A Secret (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. A Taste Of Honey (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. There's A Place (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Twist And Shout (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. Please Please Me Documentary
WITH THE BEATLES
1. It Won't Be Long (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. All I've Got To Do (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. All My Loving (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Don't Bother Me (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Little Child (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. Till There Was You (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Please Mr Postman (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Roll Over Beethoven (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Hold Me Tight (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. You Really Got A Hold On Me (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. I Wanna Be Your Man (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Devil In Her Heart (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Not A Second Time (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Money (That's What I Want) (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. With The Beatles Documentary
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
1. A Hard Day's Night (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. I Should Have Known Better (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. If I Fell (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. And I Love Her (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. Tell Me Why (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Can't Buy Me Love (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Any Time At All (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. I'll Cry Instead (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Things We Said Today (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. When I Get Home (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. You Can't Do That (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. I'll Be Back (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. A Hard Day's Night Documentary
BEATLES FOR SALE
1. No Reply (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. I'm A Loser (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Baby's In Black (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Rock And Roll Music (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. I'll Follow The Sun (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. Mr Moonlight (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Eight Days A Week (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Words Of Love (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Honey Don't (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. Every Little Thing (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. I Don't Want To Spoil The Party (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. What You're Doing (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. Beatles For Sale Documentary
HELP!
1. Help! (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. The Night Before (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. I Need You (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Another Girl (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. You're Going To Lose That Girl (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Ticket To Ride (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Act Naturally (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. It's Only Love (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. You Like Me Too Much (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. Tell Me What You See (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. I've Just Seen A Face (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Yesterday (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Dizzy Miss Lizzy (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. Help! Documentary
RUBBER SOUL
1. Drive My Car (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. You Won't See Me (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Nowhere Man (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Think For Yourself (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. The Word (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Michelle (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. What Goes On (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Girl (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. I'm Looking Through You (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. In My Life (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Wait (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. If I Needed Someone (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Run For Your Life (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. Rubber Soul Documentary
REVOLVER
1. Taxman (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Eleanor Rigby (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. I'm Only Sleeping (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Love You To (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Here, There And Everywhere (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. Yellow Submarine (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. She Said She Said (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Good Day Sunshine (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. And Your Bird Can Sing (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. For No One (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. Doctor Robert (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. I Want To Tell You (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Got To Get You Into My Life (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Tomorrow Never Knows (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. Revolver Documentary
SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
1. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. With A Little Help From My Friends (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Getting Better (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Fixing A Hole (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. She's Leaving Home (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Within You Without You (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. When I'm Sixty Four (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Lovely Rita (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. Good Morning Good Morning (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (2009 Digital
Remaster)
13. A Day In The Life (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Documentary
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
1. Magical Mystery Tour (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. The Fool On The Hill (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Flying (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Blue Jay Way (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Your Mother Should Know (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. I Am The Walrus (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Hello, Goodbye (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Strawberry Fields Forever (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Penny Lane (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Baby, You're A Rich Man (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. All You Need Is Love (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Magical Mystery Tour Documentary
THE BEATLES (White)
CD 1
1. Back In The U.S.S.R. (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Dear Prudence (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Glass Onion (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Wild Honey Pie (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Martha My Dear (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. I'm So Tired (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. Blackbird (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Piggies (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Rocky Raccoon (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Don't Pass Me By (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. Why Don't We Do It In The Road? (2009 Digital Remaster)
16. I Will (2009 Digital Remaster)
17. Julia (2009 Digital Remaster)
CD 2
1. Birthday (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Yer Blues (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Mother Nature's Son (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
(2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Sexy Sadie (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. Helter Skelter (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Long, Long, Long (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Revolution 1 (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Honey Pie (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Savoy Truffle (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. Cry Baby Cry (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Revolution 9 (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Good Night (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. The Beatles Documentary
YELLOW SUBMARINE
1. Yellow Submarine (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Only A Northern Song (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. All Together Now (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Hey Bulldog (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. It's All Too Much (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. All You Need Is Love (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Pepperland (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Sea Of Time (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Sea Of Holes (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Sea Of Monsters (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. March Of The Meanies (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Pepperland Laid Waste (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Yellow Submarine In Pepperland (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Yellow Submarine Documentary
ABBEY ROAD
1. Come Together (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Something (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Maxwell's Silver Hammer (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Oh! Darling (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Octopus's Garden (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. I Want You (She's So Heavy) (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Here Comes The Sun (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Because (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. You Never Give Me Your Money (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Sun King (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. Mean Mr Mustard (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Polythene Pam (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Golden Slumbers (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. Carry That Weight (2009 Digital Remaster)
16. The End (2009 Digital Remaster)
17. Her Majesty (2009 Digital Remaster)
18. Abbey Road Documentary
LET IT BE
1. Two Of Us (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Dig A Pony (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Across The Universe (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. I Me Mine (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Dig It (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. Let It Be (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Maggie Mae (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. I've Got A Feeling (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. One After 909 (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. The Long And Winding Road (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. For You Blue (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Get Back (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Let It Be Documentary
PAST MASTERS (VOLUMES 1 & 2)
CD 1
1. Love Me Do (Original Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. From Me To You (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Thank You Girl (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. She Loves You (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. I'll Get You (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. This Boy (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Sie Liebt Dich (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Long Tall Sally (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. I Call Your Name (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Slow Down (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Matchbox (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. I Feel Fine (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. She's A Woman (2009 Digital Remaster)
16. Bad Boy (2009 Digital Remaster)
17. Yes It Is (2009 Digital Remaster)
18. I'm Down (2009 Digital Remaster)
CD 2
1. Day Tripper (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. We Can Work It Out (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Paperback Writer (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. Rain (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Lady Madonna (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. The Inner Light (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Hey Jude (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Revolution (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Get Back (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. Don't Let Me Down (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. The Ballad Of John And Yoko (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Old Brown Shoe (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Across The Universe (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. Let It Be (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) (2009 Digital Remaster)
DVD
1. Please Please Me Documentary
2. With The Beatles Documentary
3. A Hard Day's Night Documentary
4. Beatles For Sale Documentary
5. Help! Documentary
6. Rubber Soul Documentary
7. Revolver Documentary
8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Documentary
9. Magical Mystery Tour Documentary
10. The Beatles Documentary
11. Yellow Submarine Documentary
12. Abbey Road Documentary
13. Let It Be Documentary
