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Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:43 am
by Rspaight
The official release is on the official beatles.com site, but this version has more details...

http://www.musicnewsnet.com/2009/04/bea ... lease.html

The BEATLES Catalog Remastered for 9-09-09 Release !

MUSIC NEWS - Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music have announced plans to release the original Beatles catalogue (full list below), digitally re-mastered for the first time, for worldwide CD release on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (9-9-09). That's the same day the anticipated Beatles_1969 "The Beatles:Rock Band" video game will be out. Each of the CDs are packaged with replicated original UK album art, with expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited time, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. Also on 9/09/09, date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will be released.

The albums have been re-mastered by a team of engineers at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period using 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 process is said to be the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.

The collection includes 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 out 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.

[photo (c) Apple Corps Ltd, 2009]


With each CD's new packaging, booklets include detailed historical notes along with informative recording notes are included. With the exception of the 'Past Masters' set, newly produced mini-documentaries on the making of each album, directed by Bob Smeaton, are included as QuickTime files on each album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-heard studio chat from The Beatles, offering a unique and very personal insight into the studio atmosphere.

A second boxed set has been created with the collector in mind. 'The Beatles in Mono' gathers together, in one place, all of the Beatles recordings that were mixed for a mono release. It will contain 10 of the albums with their original mono mixes, plus two further discs of mono masters (covering similar ground to the stereo tracks on 'Past Masters'). As an added bonus, the mono "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" discs also include the original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD. These albums will be packaged in mini-vinyl CD replicas of the original sleeves with all original inserts and label designs retained.

No word yet on the digital distribution of the catalog, though George Harrison's son, Dhani, recently commented that a "self distribution" by Apple Corps is a possibility (see MNN story here) ! In the meantime, complete your Beatles cd collection here.

Release Details -

The Stereo Albums (available individually and collected in a stereo boxed set), have been remastered by Guy Massey, Steve Rooke, Sam Okell with Paul Hicks and Sean Magee. All CD packages contain original vinyl artwork and liner notes with extensive archival photos. Additional historical notes by Kevin Howlett and Mike Heatley and additional recording notes by Allan Rouse & Kevin Howlett.


* = CD includes QuickTime mini-doc about the album
Please Please Me* (CD debut in stereo)
With The Beatles* (CD debut in stereo)
A Hard Day's Night* (CD debut in stereo)
Beatles For Sale* (CD debut in stereo)
Help!*
Rubber Soul*
Revolver*
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band* (also includes 1987 notes, updated, and new intro by Paul McCartney)
Magical Mystery Tour*
The Beatles*
Yellow Submarine* (also includes original US liner notes)
Abbey Road*
Let It Be*
Past Masters (contains new liner notes written by Kevin Howlett)

'The Beatles in Mono' (boxed set only), have been remastered by Paul Hicks, Sean Magee with Guy Massey and Steve Rooke. Presented together in box with an essay written by Kevin Howlett .


+ = mono mix CD debut
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles For Sale
Help! (CD also includes original 1965 stereo mix)+
Rubber Soul (CD also include original 1965 stereo mix)+
Revolver+
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band+
Magical Mystery Tour+
The Beatles+
Mono Masters

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:13 pm
by lukpac
Much more here, with bolding by me:

http://www.shorefire.com/index.php?a=pr ... ase&o=2872

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2009

The Beatles' Entire Original Recorded Catalogue Remastered By Apple Corps Ltd. And EMI Music For Worldwide Release On September 9, 2009

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.

Within each CD’s new packaging, booklets include detailed historical notes along with informative recording notes. With the exception of the 'Past Masters' set, newly produced mini-documentaries on the making of each album, directed by Bob Smeaton, are included as QuickTime files on each album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-heard studio chat from The Beatles, offering a unique and very personal insight into the studio atmosphere.

A second boxed set has been created with the collector in mind. 'The Beatles in Mono' gathers together, in one place, all of the Beatles recordings that were mixed for a mono release. It will contain 10 of the albums with their original mono mixes, plus two further discs of mono masters (covering similar ground to the stereo tracks on 'Past Masters'). As an added bonus, the mono “Help!” and “Rubber Soul” discs also include the original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD. These albums will be packaged in mini-vinyl CD replicas of the original sleeves with all original inserts and label designs retained.

Discussions regarding the digital distribution of the catalogue will continue. There is no further information available at this time.

http://www.thebeatles.com

U.S. Media Contacts UK Media Contact
For Apple Corps Ltd.: For Apple Corps Ltd.:
Shore Fire Media MBC PR
Matt Hanks Moira Bellas
(718) 522-7171 / mhanks@shorefire.com 0 20 7483 9205 / moira@mbcpr.com
Brendan Gilmartin
(718) 522-7171 / bgilmartin@shorefire.com

For EMI:
Jennifer Ballantyne - EMI Music North America
(323) 871-5494 / jennifer.ballantyne@emicap.com

The Stereo Albums (available individually and collected in a stereo boxed set)
The stereo albums have been remastered by Guy Massey, Steve Rooke, Sam Okell with Paul Hicks and Sean Magee
All CD packages contain original vinyl artwork and liner notes
Extensive archival photos
Additional historical notes by Kevin Howlett and Mike Heatley
Additional recording notes by Allan Rouse and Kevin Howlett
* = CD includes QuickTime mini-doc about the album
Please Please Me* (CD debut in stereo)
With The Beatles* (CD debut in stereo)
A Hard Day's Night* (CD debut in stereo)
Beatles For Sale* (CD debut in stereo)
Help!*
Rubber Soul*
Revolver*
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band* (also includes 1987 notes, updated, and new intro by Paul McCartney)
Magical Mystery Tour*
The Beatles*
Yellow Submarine* (also includes original US liner notes)
Abbey Road*
Let It Be*
Past Masters (contains new liner notes written by Kevin Howlett)

‘The Beatles in Mono’ (boxed set only)
The mono albums have been remastered by Paul Hicks, Sean Magee with Guy Massey and Steve Rooke
Presented together in box with an essay written by Kevin Howlett
+ = mono mix CD debut
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles For Sale
Help! (CD also includes original 1965 stereo mix)+
Rubber Soul (CD also include original 1965 stereo mix)+
Revolver+
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band+
Magical Mystery Tour+
The Beatles+
Mono Masters

Re-mastering the Beatles catalogue

The re-mastering process commenced with an extensive period conducting tests before finally copying the analogue master tapes into the digital medium. When this was completed, the transfer was achieved using a Pro Tools workstation operating at 24 bit 192 kHz resolution via a Prism A-D converter. Transferring was a lengthy procedure done a track at a time. Although EMI tape does not suffer the oxide loss associated with some later analogue tapes, there was nevertheless a slight build up of dust, which was removed from the tape machine heads between each title.

From the onset, considerable thought was given to what audio restorative processes were going to be allowed. It was agreed that electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance and bad edits should be improved where possible, so long as it didn’t impact on the original integrity of the songs.

In addition, de-noising technology, which is often associated with re-mastering, was to be used, but subtly and sparingly. Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to this process. Finally, as is common with today’s music, overall limiting - to increase the volume level of the CD - has been used, but on the stereo versions only. However, it was unanimously agreed that because of the importance of The Beatles’ music, limiting would be used moderately, so as to retain the original dynamics of the recordings.


When all of the albums had been transferred, each song was then listened to several times to locate any of the agreed imperfections. These were then addressed by Guy Massey, working with Audio Restoration engineer Simon Gibson.

Mastering could now take place, once the earliest vinyl pressings, along with the existing CDs, were loaded into Pro Tools, thus allowing comparisons to be made with the original master tapes during the equalization process. When an album had been completed, it was auditioned the next day in studio three – a room familiar to the engineers, as all of the recent Beatles mixing projects had taken place in there – and any further alteration of EQ could be addressed back in the mastering room. Following the initial satisfaction of Guy and Steve, Allan Rouse and Mike Heatley then checked each new re-master in yet another location and offered any further suggestions. This continued until all 13 albums were completed to the team’s satisfaction.

New Notes/Documentaries Team

Kevin Howlett (Historical and Recording Notes)
Kevin Howlett’s career as an award-winning radio producer spans three decades. His music programmes for the BBC have included many documentaries about The Beatles, including 'The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes.' He received a Grammy nomination for his involvement with The Beatles’ album 'Live At The BBC' and, in 2003, produced the 'Fly On The Wall' bonus disc for 'Let It Be… Naked.'

Mike Heatley (Historical Notes)
Mike entered the music business via HMV Record Stores in 1970, transferring to EMI Records' International Division three years later. He eventually headed up that division in the early Eighties before joining the company's newly created Strategic Marketing Division in 1984. In 1988, he returned to International, where he undertook a number of catalogue marketing roles until he retired in December 2008.

During his career he worked with many of EMI's major artists, including Pink Floyd, Queen, Kate Bush and Iron Maiden. However, during the last 30 years he has formed a particularly strong relationship with Apple, and has been closely involved in the origination and promotion of the Beatles catalogue, besides solo releases from John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Bob Smeaton (Director, Mini-Documentaries)
Bob Smeaton was series director and writer on the Grammy award winning 'Beatles Anthology' TV series which aired in the UK and the USA in 1995. In 1998 he received his second Grammy for his ‘Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys’ documentary. In 2004 he gained his first feature film credit, as director on the feature documentary ‘Festival Express.' He subsequently went on to direct documentaries on many of the world's biggest music acts including The Who, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Elton John, Nirvana and the Spice Girls.

Julian Caiden (Editor, Mini-Documentaries)
Julian has worked with Bob Smeaton on numerous music documentaries including 'Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys' and the 'Classic Albums' series, featuring The Who, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Elton John and Nirvana among others. He has worked on documentary profiles from Richard Pryor to Dr. John to Sir Ian McKellen, Herbie Hancock and Damien Hirst and on live music shows including the New York Dolls and Club Tropicana.

The Abbey Road Team

Allan Rouse (Project Coordinator)
Allan joined EMI straight from school in 1971 at their Manchester Square head office, working as an assistant engineer in the demo studio. During this time he frequently worked with Norman (Hurricane) Smith, The Beatles’ first recording engineer.

In 1991, he had his first involvement with The Beatles, copy¬ing all of their master tapes (mono, stereo, 4-track and 8-track) to digital tape as a safety backup. This was followed by four years working with Sir George Martin as assistant and project coordinator on the TV documentary 'The Making of Sgt. Pepper's' and the CDs 'Live at the BBC' and 'The Anthol¬ogy.'

In 1997, MGM/UA were preparing to reissue the film 'Yellow Submarine' and, with the permission of Apple, asked that all of The Beatles’ music be mixed for the film in 5.1 surround and stereo. Allan requested the services of Abbey Road’s senior engineer Peter Cobbin and assistant Guy Massey and, along with them, produced the new mixes.

Two years later, he proposed an experimental stereo and surround mix of John Lennon's song 'Imagine' engineered by Peter Cobbin. Following lengthy consultations with Yoko Ono, the album 'Imagine' was re-mixed in stereo and the Grammy award-winning film 'Gimme Some Truth' in surround and new stereo. This led to a further five of John’s albums being re-mastered with new stereo mixes and the DVD release of 'Lennon Legend' being re-mixed in 5.1 surround and new stereo.

Further projects followed, including The Beatles ‘Anthol¬ogy', 'The First US Visit' and ‘Help’ DVD and the albums ‘Let It Be…Naked’ and ‘Love’ along with George Harrison’s 'Concert for Bangladesh' DVD and album.

For a number of years now, Allan has worked exclusively on Beatles and related projects.

Guy Massey (Recording Engineer)
Guy joined Abbey Road in 1994, and five years later assisted on the surround remix for The Beatles film 'Yellow Submarine.' This led to The Beatles’ 'Anthology' DVD and later, along with Paul Hicks and Allan Rouse, they mixed and produced 'Let It Be… Naked.' In 2004 he left the studios to become freelance and has engineered The Divine Comedy: 'Victory for the Comic Muse,' Air Traffic: 'Fractured Life,' James Dean Bradfield: 'The Great Western' and Stephen Fretwell’s 'Magpie,' co-producing the last two. Since leaving, Guy is still a vital member of the team, and has been the senior engineer for the re-mastering project and was responsible for surround and new stereo mixes for the DVD release of 'Help!'

Steve Rooke (Mastering Engineer)
Steve joined Abbey Road in 1983 and is now the studio’s senior mastering engineer. He has been involved on all The Beatles’ projects since 1999. He has also been responsible for mastering releases by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Paul Hicks (Recording Engineer)
Paul started at Abbey Road in 1994, and his first involvement with The Beatles was assisting engineer Geoff Emerick on the Anthology albums. This was followed by 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack,' 'Anthology' DVD and 'Let It Be… Naked.' Like Guy Massey, he has also become a freelance engineer and since leaving the studios he has been responsible for the surround mixing of Paul McCartney’s DVD 'The McCartney Years' and The Beatles' 'Love.' Paul has been in charge of the mono re-masters.

Sean Magee (Mastering Engineer)
Sean began working at Abbey Road in 1995 with a diploma in sound engineering. With a wealth of knowledge in analog and digital mastering, he has worked alongside Paul Hicks on the mono re-masters.

Sam Okell (Recording Engineer)
Sam’s first job as a member of the team was in 2006, assisting Paul Hicks on Paul McCartney’s DVD 'The McCartney Years,' and during that same year he was responsible for the re-mastering of George Harrison’s 'Living In The Material World' CD along with Steve Rooke. This led to him restoring the soundtrack to the Beatles film 'Help!' in surround and stereo, in addition to assisting Guy Massey with the song remixes.

Sam has re-mastered 'With The Beatles' and 'Let It Be.'

Simon Gibson (Audio Restoration Engineer)
Simon joined Abbey Road in 1990. He has progressed from mastering mostly classical recordings to include a much wider range of music, including pop and rock, with his specialized role as an audio restoration engineer. Apart from the re-mastering project, his other work includes George Harrison’s 'Living In The Material World,' John Lennon’s 'Lennon Legend,' The Beatles’ 'Love' and the 'Help!' DVD soundtrack.

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:28 pm
by lukpac
Commence the speculation. A few things:

- it's interesting that they decided to go stereo for all of the albums. I would have expected the first 2 to be mono only (or at least mono by default).

- I'm slightly amazed the mono mixes are getting an airing as well, and not just for Pepper.

- Interesting that the remixes of Help and Rubber Soul are apparently still going to be the norm, with the 1965 mixes only available in the mono box.

- Only compression on the stereo tracks?

- "Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to [de-noising]." That begs the question, what 5 minutes? Fades on every song?

- My guess is there will still be quite a few stragglers - US and German alternate mixes, for example

We'll see...

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:53 pm
by Rspaight
Agreed on the remixes for Help and Rubber Soul. IIRC, those remixes were digital in the first place, so we're getting a 2009 remaster of 1987 digital remixes. ???

You're probably right on the fades.

I'm in for the mono box, and probably the other as well.

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:54 pm
by lukpac
Rspaight wrote:Agreed on the remixes for Help and Rubber Soul. IIRC, those remixes were digital in the first place, so we're getting a 2009 remaster of 1987 digital remixes. ???


Well, they already did it with the Red CD and "1". I remember there being talk of "original masters" for "1", yet they used most of the existing stuff, including the remixes from Help and RS.

One wonders what these sets will do to values of the DA CDs and the single and EP sets.

I find this amusing:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/0 ... index.html

"The release marks the first time that the first four Beatles albums are being made available in their entirety on compact disc"

They cut out "stereo" and ran with it...

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 5:01 pm
by lukpac
A few more things to ponder for Past Masters:

- From Me To You: assuming this is stereo, do they use the the stereo "mix" without the harmonica in the intro, or go back and sync up the vocals and harmonica from the session tape?

- Thank You Girl: similar situation. US version, with the added harmonica (presumably pre-Dexterized)? New edit from the session tape to match the mono?

And, YS - Only A Northern Song right from the mono master, instead of the fake stereo dub?

It's slightly annoying the remixes of Help and Rubber Soul have become the standard versions, but I'm not about to lose any sleep over it. I figure the people who care about the difference are probably going to get the mono set anyway, which has the original stereo mixes.

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 5:38 pm
by Rspaight
Yeah, it's not a huge deal, just kind of odd. The whole point was that the original mixes were deemed too old-fashioned (too much stuff hard left and right. So now they're going to reissue the first four in all their primitive glory but leave those two remixed, and shuffle the old-timey mixes onto the mono box? Seems kind of random.

I want the box to look like Lennon's Rolls.

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:21 pm
by czeskleba
So, is there any chance Rubber Soul and Help will feature new remixes, rather than the shitty 1987 remixes? I don't have the patience to wade through press releases and the kajillion pages of boneheaded discussion on the Hoffman forum... have they announced anywhere for certain that it's the 1987 mixes that are being used?

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 9:25 pm
by lukpac
czeskleba wrote:So, is there any chance Rubber Soul and Help will feature new remixes, rather than the shitty 1987 remixes? I don't have the patience to wade through press releases and the kajillion pages of boneheaded discussion on the Hoffman forum... have they announced anywhere for certain that it's the 1987 mixes that are being used?


There's nothing in the press release that specifically says the 1987 remixes were used. That said, I have a hard time believing they would create *new* remixes just for those two albums *and* not mention anything in the press release. Saying they used NR on 5 minutes of material and *not* saying they completely remixed 2 albums? I don't believe it.

Somewhere there's an article (I don't feel like wading through 70 pages to find it) that apparently mentions using the 1987 "George Martin rebalances" of Help and Rubber Soul, which has people believing there's a distinction between "remix" and "rebalance", namely that the new CDs will have *new* remixes mimicking the 1987 remixes. I tend to believe it's just a matter of creative writing and crazy imaginations.

High quality version of the trailer:

http://www.emimusic.nl/external/microsi ... eatles.mov

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:20 pm
by JWB
lukpac wrote:- Only compression on the stereo tracks?


Limiting is totally different from compression. As they said, they are keeping the dynamics intact and only using some "light-handed" limiting to bring the volume up a bit. I have no problem with this, depending on what their definition of "light-handed" is.

lukpac wrote:- "Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to [de-noising]." That begs the question, what 5 minutes? Fades on every song?


Oh shit, I didn't think of that. I hope it's not the fades. I was thinking that it might be the hissy Trident tracks on the White Album (Martha My Dear and one or two others).

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 12:55 am
by czeskleba
lukpac wrote:One wonders what these sets will do to values of the DA CDs and the single and EP sets.


September will be a good time to visit Canada... I bet there will be piles of DA and Cinram Help and Rubber Souls in the stores. I've always maintained there must be a decent amount of them out there.

lukpac wrote:I figure the people who care about the difference are probably going to get the mono set anyway, which has the original stereo mixes.


You figure wrong in my case. That damn 1987 Rubber Soul remix just feels wrong to me, I can spot it a mile away. The Help remix doesn't bother me but that RS remix I hate. Maybe it's sentiment... I know it's a wonky mix. At the same time I can't justify buying the mono box just for that. I have little interest in the mono mixes aside from Pepper and White. Can't justify buying a 12-CD box for the four CDs I want.

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 2:01 pm
by TSmithPage
Can I safely assume that the 2 recent box sets of the U.S. versions of these albums in mono and stereo form will be rendered completely superfluous by this set of releases (assuming you don't want them for the packaging, that is)?

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:06 pm
by seth
Only if you don't care about the sometimes differenct US mixes (some have more echo or reverb, some other subtle differences - they sound more "wet"). Also the sequence of songs.

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:16 pm
by lukpac
TSmithPage wrote:Can I safely assume that the 2 recent box sets of the U.S. versions of these albums in mono and stereo form will be rendered completely superfluous by this set of releases (assuming you don't want them for the packaging, that is)?


Assuming they stick with the basic UK stuff, what Seth said. Some alternate stereo mixes (unfortunately with Capitol reverb added) on Second Album, alternate mono mixes on Something New, alt stereo mix of The Word, false starts on the stereo I'm Looking Through You, etc.

Re: Boomer history ends on September 9 (Beatles remasters)

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:52 pm
by lukpac
One semi-interesting note - while the 1987 Help! remix is fairly faithful to the original mix, Martin *did* "correct" some of the extreme panning, as on Rubber Soul. I just gave it a brief listen, and almost nothing is panned hard left or right - everything is brought in slightly. On the original mix, by contrast, everything seems to be hard left, dead center, or hard right.

Using the 1987 remixes again is slightly curious, but I can't say I'm entirely surprised.