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http://www.musicangle.com/shownews.php?id=99

While at Sterling Sound interviewing George Marino for my turntable set-up DVD, I heard some familiar music coming from Ted Jensen's room. I popped in to find him listening to the master tape of the American version of Rubber Soul, which some Beatles fans think is a better track list than the UK edition. Your choice. Jensen was working on a follow-up box set to the well received Capitol Albums Vol.1 4 CD set.

Jensen had the Rubber Soul, Help! and The Early Beatles tapes in his mastering suite, along with CD-R cut from first pressing vinyl so he could compare.

Have to wonder where Beatles IV is.

As far as sound goes, hopefully this set (if/when it comes out) will be what the last one was - good transfers of (despite what many would like to believe) pretty good sounding tapes. "But they are Nth generation copies!" Whatever. I'm sure if you took the Capitol tapes and the original masters and made sure the EQ was the same, 99% of the people bitching wouldn't hear a single difference. My main complaint with the last set was the EQ (and I really didn't like it at all), but at least that can be un-done pretty easily.

He also told me, rather casually, that EMI was working at Abbey Road on the long overdue remastering of the entire UK Beatles catalog.

THIS is big news. Unfortunately, I picture the same Behringer NR processing, crappy EQ, compression, etc. slapped on every other Beatles reissue mastered at Abbey Road.

If Mr. Grassy Knoll's speculation about Classic Records is right, at least there's a shot at good vinyl reissues. Too bad I don't have a rig.

While I understand the dire predictions about Abbey Road remasterings, the level of pre-whining in certain parts is really kind of ridiculous.

I do wish people would stop bashing the original EMI discs. Yes, they're not perfect; yes, PPME is a bit screwed up. Other than that? I think it's a minor miracle that things like "You know My Name (Look Up the Number" and the original "Love Me Do" made it to CD. Sound quality is OK, but the planning of those discs was really good. Had Pastmasters included the mono "Help," the mono "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and maybe one or two other major rarities, I can't imagine what content complaints people would resort to other than the obvious (Stereo first four).

A couple of comments...

1. While the US tapes are probably not as bad as the myth goes, they still are some generations removed from the masters. Other than for nostalgic reasons, I see zero reason to praise the Capitol boxes. (Except for the release of a handful of unique different mixes.)

2. The pre-whining is understandable in light of the two recent EMI Beatles releases, "1" and Let It Be Naked, both of which sound horrible, especially compared to the 1987 CDs.

3. Everybody hates the 1987 CDs, but for very different reasons. Some hate the mono mixes on the first four, others hate the stereo mixes of the middle four, some hate the digital remixes, others hate some of the original mixes. The real question is, why does the mono A Hard Day's Night CD (which is my preferred mix) sound so harsh and lifeless, and why does the Revolver stereo CD (which is not my preferred mix) sound so wonky? Nobody talks about these ever. (I am exaggerating.)

4. I find the ridiculously expensive Singles and EP CD boxes amazing in sound. And Pepper stereo will not sound much better than what is on the CD, unless you give it the Hoffman-tubes-smoothening process. Let It Be CD is definitive. MMT CD is quite good. White Album CD is okay, although there are some songs that are noise-reduction-suspicious (Julia).

Andreas wrote:1. While the US tapes are probably not as bad as the myth goes, they still are some generations removed from the masters. Other than for nostalgic reasons, I see zero reason to praise the Capitol boxes. (Except for the release of a handful of unique different mixes.)

I couldn't care less about the added reverb (Second Album, folks) and Duophonic tracks, but the rest sounds really good. Can you hear any difference, other than EQ, between something like Matchbox on PM1 to the Capitol box? How about any of the mono tracks and the Parlophone CDs?

4. I find the ridiculously expensive Singles and EP CD boxes amazing in sound. And Pepper stereo will not sound much better than what is on the CD, unless you give it the Hoffman-tubes-smoothening process. Let It Be CD is definitive. MMT CD is quite good. White Album CD is okay, although there are some songs that are noise-reduction-suspicious (Julia).

I'd have to listen again, but I'd highly doubt any NR on the White Album. That album could certainly use better EQ, though.

I don't know if it would make much difference, but wasn't Pepper from a second generation tape? Not that I really care...

Still no details, but it's on Capitol's site, as well as Amazon's:

http://www.capitolrecords.com/artists/d ... 9724&type=

http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/fabnews.htm

Update (3/8/06) There is a sales brochure floating about. Here are some of the details on it:

The set will contain mono and stereo versions of tracks from the U.S. album versions of "The Early Beatles," "Beatles VI," "Help!" and "Rubber Soul." It will be "available for a limited time only." The release date on the brochure is April 11.

The tracks are "24 bit re-mastered from the original U.S. master tapes" with 14 tracks issued for the first time on CD in stereo. A 56-page collector’s booklet will include rare photos. The "Help!" original soundtrack with George Martin's orchestral interludes (and James Bond intro) will be on CD. The American "Rubber Soul" features the CD debut of George Martin’s original stereo mixes of the 12 tracks (these were remixed in ‘86-87 for the UK versions of the CD’s)... and the first time the mono mixes will appear on CD.

There will again be two packages: a premium long box and a brick version. TV will get segments for morning and news shows. Promotional video will be serviced to national, regional and local video outlets (i.e. MTV, VH1, VH1 Classics), as well as PBS, United, American & Delta Airlines. A radio special will be serviced to all appropriate radio networks (to air the weekend before release). (Thanks very much to Anonymiz.)

TRACK LISTING:
The Early Beatles
(Stereo/Mono versions)
01/12 Love Me Do
02/13 Twist And Shout
03/14 Anna (Go To Him)
04/15 Chains
05/16 Boys
06/17 Ask Me Why
07/18 Please Please Me
08/19 P.S. I Love You
09/20 Baby It’s You
10/21 A Taste Of Honey
11/22 Do You Want To Know A Secret

Beatles VI
(Stereo/Mono versions)
01/12 Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey
02/13 Eight Days A Week
03/14 You Like Me Too Much
04/15 Bad Boy
05/16 I Don't Want To Spoil The Party
06/17 Words Of Love
07/18 What You’re Doing
08/19 Yes It Is
09/20 Dizzy Miss Lizzy
10/21 Tell Me What You See
11/22 Every Little Thing

Help! Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(Stereo/Mono versions)
01/13 Help
02/14 The Night Before
03/15 From Me To You Fantasy (Instrumental)
04/16 You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
05/17 I Need You
06/18 In The Tyrol (Instrumental)
07/19 Another Girl
08/20 Another Hard Day's Night (Instrumental)
09/21 Ticket To Ride
10/22 The Bitter End/You Can’t Do That (Instrumental)
11/23 You’re Going To Lose That Girl
12/24 The Chase (Instrumental)

Rubber Soul
(Stereo/Mono versions)
01/13 I’ve Just Seen A Face
02/14 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
03/15 You Won't See Me
04/16 Think For Yourself
05/17 The Word
06/18 Michelle
07/19 It’s Only Love
08/20 Girl
09/21 I’m Looking Through You
10/22 In My Life
11/23 Wait
12/24 Run For Your Life

Hmmmm. Meanwhile, the Amazon listing has gone away. Who knows?

Probably something I'd pick up if I could get it cheap, though, to have the different mixes.

Ryan

The stereo mixes from BFS/PPM and original stereo mixes from Help/RS will be nice. Supposedly Help is a fold down in mono.

Is RS the "real" mono mixes?

Ryan

It should be, yeah. Michelle should actually be a unique mono mix.

http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/var-1965.html

Help! will be more or less a bust (for the same reason that the AHDN soundtrack would've...I'm glad they avoided that one the first time around), but the rest are interesting. Almost nothing on RS will have been on CD before.

So, as someone who's never heard either the first four regular Beatles CDs or the Capitol Box Volume one, I wonder... does the Capitol box really sound better, as so many on hoffman.tv claim, despite the inferior source tapes? If so, why? What is it about the first four CDs that is so bad, aside from using the inferior mono mixes?

The first four Parlophone discs aren't too bad. The *big* problems only show up on a few cuts, like "Please Please Me" (which clearly has phase issues). Other than that, they're pleasant but unspectacular. The amount of negativity thrown in their direction is unwarranted.

(and I still tend to prefer them to mono needle-drops of the equivalent LPs)

czeskleba wrote:So, as someone who's never heard either the first four regular Beatles CDs or the Capitol Box Volume one, I wonder... does the Capitol box really sound better, as so many on hoffman.tv claim, despite the inferior source tapes? If so, why? What is it about the first four CDs that is so bad, aside from using the inferior mono mixes?

I only ever got BFS because I never liked those mono mixes.

3rd generation or not, I find the "inferior source tapes" line a bunch of bull. Other than some dumb EQ, Vol 1. sounds really good to these ears.