New Beatles Box Sets

they are great. don't wait.....beatlemania as it was experienced in america......

Possible recall on Beatle Box 2.Ouestions if the proper masters were used on all of the disc.

Well, for what it's worth, these are the American "Capitol" remixes of the original Beatles songs. In many cases, extra reverb and/or delay/echo was added to "Americanize" the songs for airplay here in the USA by Capitol records. The song order was also changed, along with cover art.
The Beatles appropriately disowned these bastard versions of their precious albums, and really, IMHO the mixes do suck. Just listen to "I Feel Fine" for a perfect example of turning a great song with wonderfully articulate guitar and complicated bass/drum work into a reverb and echo soaked mess. "Wall of Sound "indeed!
The sound itself is just OK, nothing great here, unlike the wonderful remastered versions of Number One Hits on the "One" album, or the Yellow Submarine mixes on the incredible DVD (screw the cartoon, just listen to the music!), or "Let it Be" (Naked), which, although the mixes/versions/selections are questionable, actually sounds quite good.
So, bottom line, if you're looking for great remasters of these classics, do NOT buy the Capitol box sets. Go find some original LPs, pays yer dollars, and enjoy them until some brave soul navigates the tangled legal web and undoes the animosity between Paulie and Yoki to produce reference versions of these revered albums.
I truly don't expect to see these remastered in my lifetime. And yeah, whatta colossal bummer.

I am extremely disappointed with the quality of these discs.
The distortion on Please Please Me & I'm Looking Through You, made me regret spending $46. Not ONE of the other discs was an improvement over previous releases. As a radio programmer & audiophile I can't believe Capitol put this out.

compared to the old 80's remastering they are great in my opinion. unlike someone else I do not like the job done on the #1's set; but am VERY happy with cap albums vol 2.

of course I grew up on the american junk and love it (except for the "stereo" mutilation on all the early stuff).
I know others who love them also, but then again, I mostly play my lps.

I'm not trying to hijack the thread or anything but...... I too grew up on the Capitol (God awful) stereo mixes of the Beatles. Their music is some of the most precious there is for me. I recently spent big $$$ on some original Parlophone UK "mono" pressings of Rubber Soul, Beatles for Sale, etc. and am completely blown away. It's a whole new world; they are so much better (even at almost 40 years old). I just wish I had deep enough pockets to go out and buy a lot more of these discs.

Chris

the parlophone uk pressings are mastered from the george martin 1980's updates that were also used to create the cd's at that time. the original pressings(u.s. and u.k. were cut using different masters, even if the differences are not radical

I don't have the second edition, but the first bunch of Capitol is terrible. I can't sit through one CD at a time, more like 5-10 minutes at the most. Extremely bright, forward, shouty and metallic sounding. A complete waste of money. I would not risk spending any on Vol.2

Based upon this:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/13/technology/beatles.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
I think I'm going to wait and see what transpires.

the early beatle records were indeed bright,forward,shouty, and metalic. they were also brilliant. you have to enjoy these for what they were, and still are...the most important rock music ever made.

Slaw3: Having grown up on the American Capitol mix of "I Feel Fine", ever since radio switched over the CD remixes I've dearly missed hearing that gloriously reverb-laden version when it comes on while I'm driving in the car. OK, so the CD remixes were a bad idea from the start IMO -- I bought "Rubber Soul" back when it first came out just to see and practically got sick to my stomach, just awful -- and the comparitively threadbare version we hear on radio today is no more "correct" to my mind than Capitol's version, which at least is reflective of its historical period. As John Lennon said, the record's the thing -- there is no original performance to accurately recreate with a pop record; the sound of the record itself is the artwork, and that includes choices made in mastering which become part of our consciousness of that art. Stickin' with my 60's LP's and 45's...

I'll take the UK Parlophone CD's for my money. If you can't have the Parlophone, Odeon, or lastly the Mofi OMR vinyl IMHO these are the next best. I have compared them to each of these vinyls and they are not half bad. Why would you want the Capitol pressings that are way down the dup chain?
Happy Listening!

Hey Zaikesman: I don't disagree, the versions you grew up with ARE the versions for you, and that makes good sense to me. I was lucky enough to have an British friend who sent me the "real" versions whenI was a kid, so I never listened to the American albums (although I bought and still have them all, most still sealed). I did hear the songs on the radio, and always shook my head and wondered why they felt the need to do that. But man, the CDs -all of them - have always suuuuucked. So my advice stands - buy the original British (or American if you must) LPs, and play the heck out them. They still sound great today!

I have only one Parlophone LP, a later pressing of the UK-only compilation "A Collection Of Beatles Oldies" (originally released for Xmas '66 and deleted not long after the group broke up). The cover art is great, but the sound doesn't strike me as anything special compared to Capitol and Apple releases of some of the same material.

RF: It's not that I "want" or "don't want" the pressings I have -- it's that they're either what I've always had since I was young, or what I've come across by chance in my used record scrounging (not at record stores -- at garage sales, thrift stores and such). The Beatles are nominally my favorite rock band of all time, but I don't pursue building my collection from either an audiophile or a Beatles-collector point of view, and have never paid money worth mentioning for any of it. I just have what I have, and to tell the truth, hardly ever listen to The Beatles at home, as it's so familiar and I'm always getting more not-so-familiar records to listen to. But maybe I ought to try one of the Parolophone CD's you mention, since I presently have no Beatles on CD -- any best bets to your mind?

Zaikesman, Not to belabor a point but what I find most interesting about the original (pressing) sound is… well, that that is the way the band intended it to be. So to my liking, I find it more emotional and up front, a little rawer, a little more to the point, that’s all.

As for recommendations... I really recommend Revolver on Parlophone CD for one because it was a turning point in their carrier from the pop rock sound to a more sophisticated and moderately psychedelic sound, complex construction of songs, experimental use (at the time) with sitar, classical instruments, etc making many of their works more on the order of compositions than just songs.

You can't beat the White album for its diversity. Two albums of pure genius for the time or even for today in my mind, moving though so many differing moods. That’s a lot of diverse songs to release in one package. IMHO it’s great stuff.

Sgt. Pepper was a landmark, it shook the foundations of rock music, even the Stones felt compelled to (try) and match it.

Happy Listening!

RF: I was asking more about the sonic success of the CD, in your mind, than I was about the music -- of course we all know the music. Anyway, the 'White Album' was Apple on both sides of the pond (and sounds excellent in the US issue). What I'm interested in is, which Parlophone CD is the most significant improvement on its closest Capitol LP counterpart? Neither Sgt. Pepper or particularly Revolver sounds all that good on the Capitol LP, but the earlier releases are probably the ones Capitol altered the mastering of the most. Anyway, I don't know about the theory that the band "intended" the UK releases to sound the way they did -- they may sound better, but I doubt the group had anything to do with the mastering process (more likely that the different song selections were better reflective of what they had in mind).

we can all agree, the fab four are still unbelievable. my memories of those 45's and albums blairing from a 'suitcase style' magnavox stereo. purchased from the proceeds of a returned trombone and failed music lessions, that stereo and those records were more than just great music, they literally changed our attitudes and daily behavior. i guess you had to be there to get the full effects. will somebody please do right by the dave clark 5 in this lifetime. have a 'wild weekend' everyone.

I think I have all the DC5 Epic LP's, but they're no Beatles :-) I was born in '64 and was given my first Beatles record, Rubber Soul, around the time the group broke up (not that I knew), when I was six. That record (American version) is still my favorite Beatles album overall, and probably my favorite album ever, period. I have mint mono and stereo American versions and some later international pressings, but not an original Parlophone.

Considering that the recordings are 40 years old , I think they sound quite lively. Better in fact than the British CD's (mostly.)
But, I didnt expect much, so, I am not disapointed.

If I am not mistaken, the Beatles CD's made the CD format take off.

Just think, of the Beatles pristine Master tapes perhaps hidden inside of Yoko's secret trunk. Yoko thinking she was keeping solo recordings of herself to be played back for her cat upon her death . Only to discover the Beatles unequalized first generation sessions!

Using the various high tech remastering techniques recreating the sound quality of the instruments from that era avaialable in SACD...
What that could do for the SACD format.

zaikesman-Rubber Soul is one of my favorites too.....its kinda they bridged what they had done and where about to do........rubber soul always sounds better starting with 'i've just seen a face'...the cuts left off the u.s. version ironically sound more at home on 'yesterday and today' which may be the greatest lp of odds and ends ever. an official 'butcher block' release would be nice. the dc5 were not in the same league, but they do deserve better preservation. dave clark was smart enough to own the music, and unfortunately, blind enough, to not allow a reasonable licensing deal.

Jaybo: Your audiophile (or chef?) slip is showing -- there's no "block" in the butcher cover ;^) A friend of mine who's a hardcore Beatles collector owns I think three of them.

Hi Zaik,
For CDs from a sonic standpoint, I recommend The White Album, the anniversary edition if you can find it; Abbey Road is OK, the Japanese import is better but more $$. Otherwise, the rest are pretty bad sonically.

Thanks, but like I said, those are exactly the LPs of which the regular American Apple versions don't want for much in the way of sonics, particularly the former. It's more the Capitol stuff that would interest me if a superior-sounding CD version were available.

Did anyone read in the current Rolling Stone, Neil Aspinall and Apple have announced that the complete Beatles catalog will be remastered? Maybe we will soon have yet another version to choose from. They made no mention of timing or what formats will be supported but the music will be available on line for the first time.
Happy Listening!

the Giles and George Martin Love reworkings came from the original master tapes. Some interesting reworkings and sequeways of the Beatles canon

"Did anyone read in the current Rolling Stone, Neil Aspinall and Apple have announced that the complete Beatles catalog will be remastered?"

Look out Lookout now, do not swallow the hype. The Music cannot be improved or brought back to its original sound quality. You cant possibly think that any crap you can download on line will be anything but worse then what we already have. Sgt. Pepper was recorded on a four track machine. The equipment used to make the original master tapes was all analogue. It just can't be done anyway but wrong.

This is not opinion "any new recording remastered or not cannot accurately
reproduce what was the Beatles intentions.The work that George Martin did in colaboration with the Beatles on the Mono Mixes was the sound the Beatles wanted. After the mono mixes were finished stereomixing was left to the hands of George Martin and John, Paul and George were pretty much done- Ken Scott

Ken Scott goes on to say(he started as an engineer on Rubber Soul, before that he was a studio gopher) that he would not have had it any other way. The education he got learning to work within and around the studios limits was what gave them the sound everybody wanted. It was pretty much run the limiters full treble, full bass pin the needles and use your ears.

I would rather listen to the Mystic Moods Orchestra do the Lennon McCartney Songbook then any downloaded lossy compressed penny pinching accountants dream come true.

There was once a time when the Beatles controlled every detail of the sounds we heard. Now we get Target advertisements (thanks to Micheal Jackson) dubbing "With Love from Me to You"

Read "Recording The Beatles"

Best Regards and a
Very Crispy Cringle

Groovey Records

Listening to Beatles For Sale-PARLOPHONE PCS 3062 Stereo
From The Beatles Collection Box BC-13