Original Beatles Albums to Be Reissued

[The Computer Audiophile]

From NYT

 

"Finally. After watching the Beatles’ company, Apple Corps, devote the last few years to developing a site-specific show in Las Vegas, a video game and a line of pricey memorabilia, Beatles fans are finally getting something they’ve been demanding for at least the last decade: sonically upgraded reissues of the group’s original British albums, in stereo and mono. Apple Corps and EMI announced on Tuesday that the much-postponed remasters would be released on individual stereo CDs and in two boxed sets — one stereo, the other mono — on Sept. 9, the same day the Beatles edition of Rock Band, the music video game, is scheduled for release.

 

Downloadable versions of this music, however, remain in limbo. In December Paul McCartney said that they were being held up because of a dispute between Apple Corps and EMI. More recently, Dhani Harrison, George Harrison’s son, suggested that Apple Corps was dissatisfied with the price Apple, the computer company, was charging for iTunes downloads, and hinted that the Beatles might sell digital downloads through a system of their own. That could be resolved by September as well."

 

Complete Story http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/arts/music/08beat.html

 

[ted_b]

Yeah, we got the news in yesterday mornings email from Beatles.com, then went crazy! (Hoffman forum had 1800 posts in 12 hours).

 

For this crowd my main issue is this: the chosen EMI mastering folks (good guys, seem to be aware of big push against no-noise and excessive limiting; their previous work like "Living In the Material World" remaster are very well done; here's hoping it's not "1") have A/D'd this catalog to 24/192. How about native 24/192 releases!!! (drool!!)

Ted

 

[wgb113]

It's great news. I never thought it would happen after Harrison passed and George Martin went partially deaf. Hopefully they did a tasteful job and avoided over-compressing it, leaving the dynamic range they put down on tape.

 

I had wished they gave it a hybrid SACD release but I'll settle for plain old redbook anyday.

 

Now...to start saving for those two boxed sets and the RockBand package...that's going to be an expensive day in this household.

 

Bill

 

[wavac]

There are also some japan paper sleeve beatles albums, some of them have really great sound!!!

 

[usernaim250]

I'm sure there will be hi-rez, after they sell everyone redbook copies. It will be two, three, five years, if I were to speculate.

 

So far as I know, except for very early Canadian copies of Help and Rubber Soul, and the original Japan release of Abbey Road, all of which are ultra scarce and trade for $150 and up, every other Beatles CD ever made has come from the masters prepared by Martin in 1987, paper sleeve or not.

 

[wgb113]

Plan on seeing Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on stage with Steve Jobs on 09/09/09 as Apple Inc. releases a new version of iTunes (along with new iPods of course) sporting their "Cocktail" full-album download bundle with the first albums available...you guessed it...the newly remastered Beatles catalog.

 

That date will be the biggest day in music this year...I cannot wait.

 

Bill

 

[icebreaker]

from the Beatles Rock Band video game is brilliant. If there are some who haven't seen it yet well here it is:

The Beatles

Rock Band

 

[jtwrace]

Just finished uploading the Mono & Stereo sets. What have you all done for artwork? When I select Get Album Artwork, it doesn't find any. Guess off to www.seekacover.com

 

[ted_b]

nt

 

[jtwrace]

guess I'm just really surprised that itunes finds the album and even says Stereo or Mono version but doesn't have the updated artwork. Hmm....

 

[Audio_ELF]

This is probably been said before and you probably already know it ... but the track listings and artwork used by iTunes come from two different sources.

 

The Track Listings come from Gracenote (the database formerly known as CDDB)

Artwork, where available, comes from the iTunes store.

 

iTunes doesn't currently sell The Beatles, therefore there is no artwork available for it.

 

Eloise

 

[esimms86]

Amazon is now advertising the Beatles remastered in stereo 14 album box set stored on an apple-shaped USB(very cute idea), to go on sale december 8th for a limted edition run. While I can appreciate the convenience, the "cool factor," and the compatibility with PC and Mac systems, I don't understand why they're putting this out in "FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 Kbps formats." They already have the remasters in the vault in 24/192 format, and the target audience for the USB is obviously the Beatles fan who wants to play the music with a computer interface, so why not give the consumers something more than 44.1khz? It's also ironic that the Beatles catalog is not available on iTunes, yet (assuming no DRM) the USB allows iTunes users to take the stereo remasters in mp3 format and upload them into iTunes.

- Esau

 

[ted_b]

thread. Do a search. We reached the same conclusions. Seems absurd to do 24/44.1 (I still think 24 bit might be a typo )

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/24-bit-Beatles-Remasters