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This is from Music Direct:

The most exciting analog news this year!

Toshiba-EMI has just announced they will be re-pressing The Beatles catalog on vinyl. Each of these pressings is scheduled for a December 16, 2003 release date. These will NOT be 180g pressings, more details coming soon. Click on each title to pre-order your copy now!

This is an EXTREMELY LIMITED EDITION pressing run...we highly encourage you to preorder these titles because they will not be available very long!

The Beatles - Beatles For Sale $39.99
The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night $39.99
The Beatles - Help! $39.99
The Beatles - Let It Be $39.99
The Beatles - Let It Be...Naked (2LP) $49.99
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour $39.99
The Beatles - #1's (2LP) $49.99
The Beatles - Please Please Me $39.99
The Beatles - Revolver $39.99
The Beatles - Rubber Soul $39.99
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band $39.99
The Beatles - White Album (2LP) $49.99
The Beatles - With The Beatles $39.99
The Beatles - Yellow Submarine Songtrack $39.99
The Beatles - Yellow Submarine Soundtrack $39.99

Does anybody know if these are going to be sourced from the analog masters or the standard CDs?

$40? WTF?

Yeah, and only $650 for the whole set ($625 from Red Trumpet if you use the secret SH.tv password). Whatta deal. For that kind of money you could probably get three British BC13 sets in NM condition (or two BC13 sets, a German MMT, a decent Collection of Oldies and a spanking new Let It Be Naked, if you were so inclined).*

There's a long involved discussion over at SH.tv as to what tapes these are from and whether they're worth buying (and, hilariously, whether buying them would dissuade EMI from remastering the Beatles catalog). Rick from Red Trumpet has promised word tomorrow on what the source is.

Ryan

* I'd like to point out that this is the second thread I've been in this week to involve a mention of spanking, and I've upped the ante here to include "naked."

It's probably from the the cd masters, like a previous vinyl issue was from.

You don't think they are going to, actually, spend money to do a definitive version for just vinyl, and NOT, do another remaster of the cds do you ?

Unless they use the old analog masters that the EAS vinyl was sourced from, though I'm pretty hesitant to believe that Apple would let them do that. I also think it'll be the CD masters. (Do analog masters even exist for things like the YS Songtrack?)

I guess we'll know when we find out whether the first four are stereo or mono.

Ryan

Don't you feel it's kind of smarmy we have to speculate about the sourcing, when all they really have to do is just make an announcement ?

But then, they wouldnt get our money, FIRST, right ?

They could also use the original metal parts, could they not? At least for the stuff they've already issued.

Red Trumpet is now advertising that the original albums are "all-analog," while YS Songtrack, 1 and LIBN are not.

Ryan

I am still with Luke $40 bucks??? WTF! Sorry EMI, Even though I would *like* these, your pricing is this universe and beyond being called insane....

Rspaight wrote:Red Trumpet is now advertising that the original albums are "all-analog," while YS Songtrack, 1 and LIBN are not.

Ryan

Oh my. If this is correct then I just *might* be a bit curious in picking up 3 or 4 of the titles just to compare them to the CDs. Except for some f***-ups, the CDs really are quite good.

I guess Toshiba-EMI has an in-house mastering engineer?

britre wrote:Sorry EMI, Even though I would *like* these, your pricing is this universe and beyond being called insane....

Same here. I rarely listen to the Beatles these days, but I actually might have picked up at least one or two of those titles if the prices were a little more in line with things down here on the planet Earth.

Not to mention the fact that it's really impossible to tell exactly what that money would be buying. Truly all-analog, or no? Stereo for the first four albums, or no? Original mixes for Help! and Rubber Soul, or no? Exactly what tapes (or metal parts, as the case may be) are being used? And so on ...

J_Partyka wrote:

britre wrote:Sorry EMI, Even though I would *like* these, your pricing is this universe and beyond being called insane....

Same here. I rarely listen to the Beatles these days, but I actually might have picked up at least one or two of those titles if the prices were a little more in line with things down here on the planet Earth.

Not to mention the fact that it's really impossible to tell exactly what that money would be buying. Truly all-analog, or no? Stereo for the first four albums, or no? Original mixes for Help! and Rubber Soul, or no? Exactly what tapes (or metal parts, as the case may be) are being used? And so on ...

It's the arrogance of it all, that gets me. Meanwhile people who care about the music, seem to be hyping up the subject by all of the speculation of just WHAT this stuff is !

Not that, they care about what people think, because I'm sure Fans, will be tripping over themselves to get these vinyl issues, but EMI and Apple, dont deserve the time of day, on sluffing crap like this, onto a totally stupid public . By the time they are snapped up, it will be revealed what a load of SH*T this is. And the Beatles are the WORSE offenders, of this crap !

mikenycLI wrote:And the Beatles are the WORSE offenders, of this crap !

Worse than who, exactly?

The main thing I find funny/sad is how some audiophools like to jump on the technical side of things. "They better not be from digital tapes!" "They better not be from copy tapes!" "They better use vintage tape decks!" All else being equal, those are good suggestions. But as we all know, all else usually *isn't* equal. Steve himself has said a number of times that most people would never be able to hear the difference between a master and a good copy tape. And I'd much rather have a good mastering attempt using "new" equipment than a sub-par job on vintage equipment. Vintage doesn't have to equal better.

Look, some of us may not have ALL of the technical expertise, and the super audiophile equipment setups, and the waveforms, etc., BUT we know what sounds good to our ears, and what's a piece of crap ! The memory of Our Mind's Ear is, usually, a good frame of reference to our music purchases.

We ALL know, very well, by now, when we are getting ripped off ! AND who the usual purveyors of this CRAP, are, in the marketplace ! Luke, I don't feel I have to repeat the endless threads on these Jerks, do I ?

Hoffman is SUPPOSED to know the difference, because that's how he makes his living. But then, he is, in effect, the employee of the Music Company, and an unindictable co-conspirator, so to speak, and to a certain degree, in these pieces of Crap, sometimes.

All of us scuttling around, without any information, to make informed purchases, is how They get us sucked into, their Scam.

What's interesting here, is how our venomous concern is, usually, directed to the Music Company or the Producer/Engineer. The Artist, is somehow, magically, exempt from our pointed criticisms of the "how" or "why" a CD sounds like they do. Like they are innocent bystanders, or something, and at the "mercy" of the Big Bad Music Companies.

NOW how's THAT, for a Big Myth that should be exploded ?

I think you're looking way too far into all of this, Mike.

Why are these LPs being issued? Because somebody thinks they can make some money off them. In terms of quality, etc, I think it's much more of a case of the record companies not knowing or caring, rather than some "plot" against the consumer.

Heck, I'm sure some people will think these LPs are the best thing since sliced bread, good or bad. Does that really matter to us? It's their $40, isn't it?