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boxing day


A quick guide to the remastered box sets for those who don't have them.
1. The stereo box is Spizer-book heavy, and have fun removing it from the slipcase. The box is pretty sturdy, but it is easy to remove the cds; just pull on the sashes. The mono box is smaller and lighter, a different design, but also really easy to remove the cds.
2. The mono cds are all individually wrapped (but not sealed) in plastic, and come in mini-replica album covers (quite accurate, including back cover lyrics for Pepper, a true White Album, and the cd for "Beatles For Sale" residing within the gatefold), with EMI inner sleeves for "Please Please Me" through "Revolver", the Fool inner sleeve for Pepper, and the black inner sleeves for the White Album. And all the cds are in a plastic inner sleeve to boot.
4. Bonuses for buying a box? The dvd with the stereo set (nice, but all the cds already have the mini-docs), and a booklet with the mono box, which is really a modification of the "Past Masters" booklet.
5. Historical accuracy? The packaging for the stereo cds...no. Nice booklets with additional liner notes and pics, and all come in a nice fold out digipack. Sad though, that the only way a current generation fan will see the White Album as intended will have to buy the mono box. And if you think you're getting the original albums as they would have sounded had they had today's technology back then...
a. Since the two-track masters of "Love Me Do" and "PS I Love You" have been missing since 1963, instead of using the rechanneled stereo that was used for the original stereo album, they've swapped them for the mono masters...which is actually a somewhat disoncerting listening experience.
b. The stereo mixes for the "Help" and "Rubber Soul" cds are the ones George Martin did in the '80s. (The original stereo mixes are on the mono cds. Har!)
c. Since the stereo mix of "Only A Northern Song" is just two mono mixes playing simultaneously (a trick also used on "Money"), that's been swapped out for an unrleased mono mix.
6. And where did that come from? The mono master for the unreleased "Yellow Submarine" ep...which is also from where the unreleased mono mixes of "All Together Now", "Hey Bulldog", "It's All Too Much" and "Across the Universe" are. Oh, and in the mono box, it's "Mono Masters", no "Past Masters".
7. And no, the mono cds do no have the mini-docs.
Hopefully, that should settle any questions one would have regards the presentation of the discs. Next post: the sound of the Beatles.
9/24/2009, 11:06 am Link to this post Send Email to HARRYOATMEAL   Send PM to HARRYOATMEAL Yahoo Blog
 
Steve A Profile
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Re: boxing day


thanks Harry B. Look forward to hearing your review of the new sound.
So far I have Pepper, Abbey, White, and Revolver all stereo. I still want to get the Mono Box. Couldn't resist the Pepper Box that had the t-shirt and cd for 20 Bucks.

9/25/2009, 11:38 am Link to this post Send Email to Steve A   Send PM to Steve A
 
HARRYOATMEAL Profile
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Re: boxing day


After listening to all the stereo remasters, I have to recommend buying the box set...can't imagine anyone here not wanting them all. Also recommend for a first listen doing so with eyes closed without distractions. You've got the rest of your lives to listen for fun and enjoyment (which will be impossible not to do). Each one is a huge improvement on anything previously released, while not superior to "Yellow Submarine Songtrack", certainly sound better. The first thing to notice is the clarity of the instrumental separation. The great irony...from the very beginning the Beatles and George Martin were dedicated to making great records...not recreating a live performance. Only now it sounds as if the Fabs are in your living room. Perhaps the only thing that sounds nearly as wonderful as John & Paul vocally is the sound of the world's greatest rhythm section. If you thought they were briliant before...well, now you can really hear them. And you can also hear the effects of marijuana on them. Firstly with George now hearing music as pure sound and vibration, leading him to playing the wah-wah pedal as an instrument rather than an effect, meditation and Ravi Damn Shankar. (Do I owe Rojo a t-shirt for infringing on his copywrite?) For John, it resulted in a yearlong wallow in self-pity, only relieved by acid. (Just listen to the first three songs on "Beatles For Sale" and it carries on through "Help".) For Paul, having supplied most of the collective ambition of the Beatles was free to step out from being John's junior partner songwise to unleashing his personal ambitions...writing more and better songs and playing lead guitar.
More than anything else though...just be astounded by amazing perfection and great tambourine playing. The lesser known material benefits most from the sonic upgrade, and as albums "Sgt Pepper" and "Abbey Road" are the most wonderful experiences. The least "live" sounding is oddly "Let It Be". Spector's overdubs sound drab and silly, and in "The Long & Winding Road" totally obscures anything musically of the Fabs apart from John's bass and Ringo's overdubbed drums. And I will go to my grave swearing that Paul's vocal was recorded in January 1970, not 1969, and intended as a doubtracked vocal. And the mix of the title track is horrendous. Other than that, some of the overdubs and distortion on MMT clash with the clarity of everything else, particularly "I am the Walrus". And some of the mid-60s singles on "Past Masters" could do with some remixing...even though some of them weren't mixed until years after they were first released in mono. Other than that...what can I say? It's the bloody remastered Beatles!


Last edited by HARRYOATMEAL, 10/13/2009, 1:28 pm
9/25/2009, 8:27 pm Link to this post Send Email to HARRYOATMEAL   Send PM to HARRYOATMEAL Yahoo Blog
 
L L Profile
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Re: boxing day


 emoticon






number 9









number 9











number 9








9/26/2009, 2:18 pm Link to this post Send Email to L L   Send PM to L L
 
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Re: boxing day


Having listened to all the mono and stereo cds twice now...
1. Nearly all the mono mixes are superior to the stereo mixes.
2. Nearly all the stereo remasters are superior to the mono masters.
3. Why? Because the mono masters were not treated to the same technology as the stereo masters. (The '65 "Help"/"Rubber Soul" stereo mixes were included with the mono masters.) So the mono cds sound less defined, a bit muddy, compressed and trebly...well, because they were.
4. The mono mix of "It's All Too Much" greatly differs from the stereo mix.
5. Lewisohn be damned..the mono mix of "You Won't See Me" does reveal the presence of Mal "Organ" Evans on Hammond.
6. The great undiscovered gem? "Wait" (all 3 mixes).

10/13/2009, 5:59 pm Link to this post Send Email to HARRYOATMEAL   Send PM to HARRYOATMEAL Yahoo Blog
 


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