beatles boxed remastered
Beatles Remastered in Mono?
ok i want to buy the Beatles remastered. And im leaning towards the mono versions. But i heard that 3 albums, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, and Let It Be won’t be included in the mono box set. Does that mean ill need to buy them separately in the stereo versions or what? I checked on Amazon.com and the mono box set with the three additional albums in stereo is $70 more expensive than just getting the stereo box set. Any help???
i heard that the Beatles paid more attention to the mono versions of the songs and would actually leave when the stereo mixing began
In the early to mid-60′s mono radio was how most people heard their music (especially pop/rock music), so most records were mixed for mono. Stereo was a new technology and the engineers weren’t quite sure how to record it, let alone mix it for stereo records. Often, to create a wider space between the left and right channels, they would mix all vocals to the left and all instruments to the right with a tambourine or something with a small frequency range in the center (a lot of the Hollies stereo mixes are like this).
By the late 60′s the engineers were more knowledgable about properly recording and mixing the instruments and vocals for stereo. Plus they had more tracks to work with in the studio equipment, so they could spread the instruments and vocals across the left and right channels more appropriately. High-quality stereo listening equipment was becoming exponentially more popular than mono (think of the two year growth period when CD’s exploded and utilized 2x to 3x more shelf space then wax.) So the last three Beatles albums were only mixed in stereo. That’s why they are not even available in mono.
The mono versions are the mixes the Beatles were present for, so for the Beatles “purist” these could be considered the “real” albums. But for all their pureness, mono still a less-dimensional audio experience than stereo since “mono” (one channel of information) is the same on both left and right speakers, vs stereo that puts the listener in the “center” of the performance with left and right channels having different information.
The 60′s engineer’s stereo mixes created after the mono mixes were the best the engineers could do at the time (amazingly, the budgets in the 60′s for studio time were laughably stingy, even for a great group like The Beatles, so even if the engineeres wanted to “do it right” some corporate exec likely told them “it’s not in the budget.”) And for all those Beatle fans who were complaining about the remixing that occurred for “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” and “Love”, if you compare just these tracks to their original 60′s engineering mixes, you’ll understand how technology and mixing expertise have made the songs more alive than ever, and closer to the impact of the original mixes (especially the single 45 version of “Revolution”). I’m not talking about the mash-ups or the editing of the songs to fit the “Love” program, I’m talking about the MIXING of the instruments across the left and right channels:
Nowhere Man (Yellow Submarine Songtrack vs Rubber Soul)
Elanor Rigby (Yellow Submarine Songtrack vs Revolver)
All You Need Is Love (Love vs. Magical Mystery Tour)
Revolution (Love vs. Past Masters)
I anxiously await both the stereo & mono versions for different reasons: the mono to hear how the Beatles heard their music at the time, and the Stereo versions that should (IF Apple has indeed “done it right” this time) bring to life the spaciousness and depth of the vocals and instruments that were squashed due to the limitations of 60′s mixing expertise and techniques.
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The Beatles Stereo Box Set $161.99 BEATLES THE STEREO BOXSET WITH DOCS (16CD+1DVD)… |
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All Things Must Pass [BOXED EDITION] $12.35 HARRISON GEORGE ALL THINGS MUST PAST… |
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The Beatles Mono Box Set $129.93 BEATLES THE IN MONO (BOX 13 CD)… |
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The Beatles Anthology $53.76 BEATLES ANTHOLOGY – DVD Movie… |
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The McCartney Years $20.79 MCCARTNEY YEARS – DVD Movie… |
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The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night [Blu-ray] $29.99 Available for the first time on Blu-ray, A Hard Day’s Night includes new footage, enhanced picture, digitally restored soundtrack, and a 12 page collectible photo insert. Special features includes hours of rare and new material. Video is in 1080i 16×9 high definition with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. Amazon.com essential video The Fab Four from Liverpool–John Lennon, Paul … |
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The Beatles Box of Vision $69.98 THE ESSENTIAL NEW COLLECTION FOR BEATLES FANS…Store, Organize and Display THE BEATLES entire body of work in a gorgeous table-top package… Including a 200 page LP size book of brilliantly restored album artwork… |
