The Beatles CD's & Game Launch Sept. 9th

[Evil Avatar]

http://evilavatar.com/images/thumbs/beatles_logo.jpg

Electronic Arts, Apple and EMI music send along word that a new remastered set of Beatles CD's will launch on September 9th, along side the new The Beatles: Rock Band game.

Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are delighted to announce the release of the original Beatles catalogue, which has been digitally re-mastered for the first time, for worldwide CD release on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (9-9-09), the same date as the release of the widely anticipated “The Beatles: Rock Band” video game. Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released.

The albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.

The collection comprises all 12 Beatles albums in stereo, with track listings and artwork as originally released in the UK, and 'Magical Mystery Tour,' which became part of The Beatles’ core catalogue when the CDs were first released in 1987. In addition, the collections 'Past Masters Vol. I and II' are now combined as one title, for a total of 14 titles over 16 discs. This will mark the first time that the first four Beatles albums will be available in stereo in their entirety on compact disc. These 14 albums, along with a DVD collection of the documentaries, will also be available for purchase together in a stereo boxed set.

[captainspankypants]

I'm more excited about the CDs than the game.

[XxSATANxX]

Look I'm 50 so the Beatles are one of my groups.

I am so confused by the "re-mastered" statement. I guess I'll have to hear it to decide if it's just marketing Blaa Blaa or a real effect.

My first Beatles Album is in mono. I'm confused as to what they can do with it that is'nt already basically done.

Anyone? I'd like to know?

[Roc Ingersol]

I'm confused as to what they can do with it that is'nt already basically done.Re-mastering just means they took the source recordings and mixed it again.

Quality-wise, since masters (particularly then) are analog, technology advances in digitizers, hardware and software would let them pull and work with higher quality samples in the mixing stage than they could, say, 10 years ago. Even though the resulting output is still a 22khz stereo CD, mixing with the higher quality samples would mean fewer artifacts in the data.

But re-mastering could simply mean that they're tweaking the mix for a subjective change. The goal might not be a more faithful or higher quality reproduction, but simply to change a few things.

Maybe they tweak a horn section to be a little louder relative to the drums.
Maybe they fade the guitar in or out of a section differently. Maybe they add a stereo effect to a song that never had one (fades in or out from the sides).
Hopefully they don't jump into the 'loudness wars' nonsense. But they could; actually destroying quality in the search for a particular 'sound'.

[Zander]

Hopefully they don't jump into the 'loudness wars' nonsense. But they could; actually destroying quality in the search for a particular 'sound'.

See Death Magnetic CD vs Death Magnetic Rock Band tracks. CD version was a loudness war casualty.

[XxSATANxX]

Thanks ROC,

My family has been basically a tireless Beatles storehouse. We have recordings that are very rare. Including the Elvis jam session and the album only released in the USSR.

Minus the input of the originals this seems like gimmick to get the last nickle out of the group. I'll be stuck getting the damn thing anyway. At this point we have put the entire collection Movies, Images, Music and Pictures and Posters on a drive parked some where on the intertubes. It's over 500 Gigs!

Last year I allowed my original 1964 record to be played and ripped. Ya know what I really don't want them to change that sound.

Hopefully, it's not just ploy and indeed it's put together with love and care. The Beatle redos
for that Vegas show were just awful. But yeah we have those as well...lolz

[bulldozer.sweden]

Really great news :) I have a nice collection of their albums :)

[net7runner]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Diagram in article is of a Beatles song, ironically.

[Larnek]

I'm almost more excited by what other bands may be on the game. It would be nice to see a large montage of assorted classic rock/pop.

[GunnSgtHartman]

These remasters are better be available in DVD-Audio in 24-bit/96Khz!!!

Even some recent remasters in 16-bit/44khz sound so much better than the original masters (such as the recent 1970-1975 Genesis boxset).

Yes, I've got the headphones to hear the difference. :D

[GunnSgtHartman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Diagram in article is of a Beatles song, ironically.

So true. Let us add loudness if we want but don't master it with the low's and high's ridiculously louder.

I also absolutely hate brickwall limiting. With decent headphones it makes the songs sound harsh and very tiring (for example, Green Day's last album is very very bad!). Radios already compress the sound as much as possible, so there's no need for brickwall limiting on CD's!

I hope they release decent 24-bit remasters with enough headroom to effectively hear dynamics, especially in the Beatles' later albums.

[Roc Ingersol]

Hopefully, it's not just ploy and indeed it's put together with love and care.Unfortunately, there's about zero chance that any digitally remastered tune will come out sounding anything like a classic vinyl pressing. If that's the sound you love, take care of what you've got and adjust your expectations for this new stuff accordingly.

Personally, I'd hold out more hope for the result of Harmonix's mix. Whereas the labels are only too happy to turn music into dog food to make a buck, Harmonix has a track record of approaching it more like a curator than a crass salesman.

But even the result of their process is going to be notably distinct from that warm LP tone.

[karaokequeen3]

The Beatles lover in me is looking forward to the releases (hoping to God that it's not going to be another war casualty).

The cynic in me thinks that it's just a pretext to ensure that the songs stay in copyright for the next few years or so. Like a mega renewal of sorts...

[karaokequeen3]

EDIT: sorry, to clarify, one last revenue gaining push before some of the early Beatles works become public domain circa 2012 (providing that UK recorded music copyright limits stay at 50 years, and not the 95 that some proposed).

[GunnSgtHartman]

EDIT: sorry, to clarify, one last revenue gaining push before some of the early Beatles works become public domain circa 2012 (providing that UK recorded music copyright limits stay at 50 years, and not the 95 that some proposed).

Isn't it after all the composers/creators died? Paul isn't dead... well it depends if you're one of those who believes he died just before Sgt Pepper's :p

[ScottBravesFan]

I'm a Beatles whore so I'll probably buy most of the CDs again. It's cool they are putting Past Masters vol.1 and 2 together. I wonder how Abby Road is going to sound.

[vivafletcher]

Beatles Rock band sounds interesting, but I like playing drums. If Ringo can play it, how can there even be an "expert" level?

[Roc Ingersol]

The cynic in me thinks that it's just a pretext to ensure that the songs stay in copyright for the next few years or so. Like a mega renewal of sorts...The new songs would be under a new copyright term, but it would do nothing to extend the term of the original releases. As far as copyright law is concerned, each final product is its own distinct work.

That said, it doesn't matter. Our government has been essentially bought on this subject. Nothing's going into the public domain anymore except through abandonment. When Mickey's copyright term comes up again in 2020, they'll just get the term extended. Again.