I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

[b] directed by Robert Zemeckis using the same motion-capture effects employed in Polar Express. <\B>

I'm with Tracey Jordan in my views on this.

The success of the mono box is hilarious. Years of encouraging everyone to switch to a multi-channel system and the big audiophile hit of the year is in 1.0.

Weird. Fopp Bristol had a pile of the Mono boxsets (I saw 6 at least), but no Stereo ones.
Thought the Mono was limited and sold out ?

fopp cambridge also had monos, on saturday, and no stereos.

How much is Fopp charging?

£200

Gah! It's the same everywhere. I am reaching the horrible conclusion that I'm going to have to acquire both, and justify it to myself by giving one away as a Christmas present.

The only way to buy the mono ones is to buy the box, whereas the rest may be bought individually. Plus the mono box is limited edition while the stereo box is supposed to remain a catalogue item.

No wonder the mono box is currently more sought after.

This means it is unlikely to be cheaper secondhand too.

They had mono box sets in HMV Oxford with elaborate anti-theft devices. A lot of people were manhandling them.

I d'led some mono wmas and it sounded pretty crap to me, so I ditched them.

directed by Robert Zemeckis using the same motion-capture effects employed in Polar Express.

considering Zemeckis used new effects for Beowulf cos he thought Polar Express sucked, this is pretty heartening guys - obviously he's going for an authentic retro vibe

Is there anything more rockist than preferring to listen to the Beatles albums in an outdated audio format because "That is the way the artists intended them back then"?

I thought people were just saying that the mono versions sound better?

I fail to see how this (Yellow Submarine redo) can be a good idea at all (but that's my attitude to EVERY remake.)

outdated audio format

indeed. lol at compact discs. i'm d/ling it myself.

Yeah, I would really HATE to have sit through a beautifully restored Yellow Submarine rendered in three dimensions and projected onto a screen several storeys high. Especially if they're going to use this newfangled remastered soundtrack.

They'll probably end up forcing free handjobs and hot chocolate on everybody, too.

What a bunch of jerks.

Yes, but with the creepy dead-eyed CGI characters from his other projects? No thanks.

geir the shit sounds better

Well, surely, I know there are those who think Pavement (or Sex Pistols) sound better because they don't play well too. It is all subjetive, of course....

YOU'RE subjective!

It being in mono doesn't affect the notes played, Geir.

also you consistently confuse a style of playback and audio fidelity

Placings of the albums in this week's Top 40: http://www.theofficialcharts.com/top40_albums.php

5. Sgt Pepper
6. Abbey Road
9. Revolver
10. Rubber Soul
21. White Album
24. Beatles in Stereo
29. Help
31. Past Masters
33. Magical Mystery Tour
37. Hard Day’s Night
38. Please Please Me
49. Let it Be
51. With the Beatles
56. For Sale
57. Beatles in Mono

89. Yellow Submarine

and Beatles' 1 at 54

Beatles in Stereo is the box set?

yeah

Well, surely, I know there are those who think Pavement (or Sex Pistols) sound better because they don't play well too. It is all subjetive, of course....

huh? i have no idea what you mean by this, Geir. but you def. miss the point of the mono- in some cases they are wildly different (esp. SPLHCB) and arguably superior mixes

It's really just about very good mix vs. so-so mix, and the mono one happens to be the very good one. Didn't have to be that way, but it is, so there you go...

Massive challops but Abbey Road kind of sucks (other than George & Come Together).

100% wrong

totally wrong

Yeah, I would really HATE to have sit through a beautifully restored Yellow Submarine rendered in three dimensions and projected onto a screen several storeys high. Especially if they're going to use this newfangled remastered soundtrack.

"Restored" is one thing, "remade" another

It's just like an hour of the frog song. oh and i want you (she's so heavy) which is just boring and long. and actually, when i said 'except george' i forgot Something, which is also balls. And so ends my Beatles challops.

one for the rong thread

xpost. You've never listened to it, have you?

I feel like "The End" is their prettiest moment tbh

i want HOOS
i want HOOS so baaaaaad

he's so. . . HEAVYYYYYYYY

Geir especially misses the point of the mono mixes when he states that we "naturally" hear in stereo, therefore all mixes should be done in stereo. I can't speak for Geir, but I've never witnessed a musical performance in which I could only hear the singers' voices in my left ear and could only hear their instruments in my right ear. It's the height of un-naturalness to hear music this way.

I located a torrent of 320mbps MP3 rips of the mono mixes, and I have to say that even at this lossy bitrate I'm mightily impressed. Rubber Soul regains a lot of muscle.

ok, i listened to abbey road again and my 'it's just an album of the fucking frog song innit?' was clouded by the quick hits of maxwells silver hammer and octy's garden usually making me turn it off and making me forget I never really liked the medley either. Polytheme Pam is a jam though.

I've been listening to various takes of 'The End' today, and trying to play along to the unwinding on the air drums - the slowing-down bit is really, really hard to do.

xpost But Octopus's Garden is great! Some of George's best-ever guitar work!

Ha, I did actually find OG a bit charming this time around. Other than hearing it in passing at a friends house the other day, it was the first time I'd listened to Abbey Road in about 5 years and it's not as bad as I remember it. Still most probably my least favourite album though (never heard YS though).

Just sat through the Beatles TV prog that was on recently.

Now, Alice wants to remix them.

What this means, I have no idea. But she has worked out she needs to talk to somebody who has access to the music...

So in the challops department, I acquired some of the stereo remasters last week (MP3/320) and did A/B listens with some of the '87 CDs, and acquired some of the mono ones today (MP3/192) and listened back and forth between all three, and am not hearing enough to make me care to pursue it further. I guess my ears are just not evolved.

I dug out "Help" soundtrack from the Capitol box, and boy there's some weird stereo "echo" on "Ticket to Ride", like it's playing on someone's transistor from down a tunnel. Stereo *and* mono versions.

Say it ain't so, someone!

does anyone think these remasters are lacking a bit in the bass department? It seems like they went for an almost classical clarity on things, which means that while I can hear everything, the overall wallop is a little underwhelming. Abbey Road suffers the least from this to my ears, but the White Album seems awfully top heavy, and I was a bit disappointed in both the Rubber Soul and Revolver discs (which also seemed to de-emphasize the drums!). I haven't compared w/my old CDs yet, and I'm hoping I'm wrong about this.

really? i feel like everything I've read has made a big deal about the bass! haven't heard 'em myself yet, so I don't know ...

320 bitrate of a mono mix is a really reall high bitrate since the left and right channels are the same. That's practically lossless.

there is almost no compression on these, so they are not going to sound bass-heavy compared to some other remasters. I can see how this could be bothersome depending on your playback system. I lost my good earbuds and have had to listen to mp3s of these through the stock apple ones and they're really treble-y, but the cds on my stereo at home through good speakers sound very well rounded, no bass issues at all. the beatles aren't meant to have booty shaking bass.

I dug out "Help" soundtrack from the Capitol box, and boy there's some weird stereo "echo" on "Ticket to Ride", like it's playing on someone's transistor from down a tunnel. Stereo *and* mono versions.

Say it ain't so, someone!

As with all Capitol Beatles albums up until Rubber Soul, Help! was "Dexterized." The process (adding assloads of reverb, and making shitty "duophonic" mixes) refers to Capitol's Beatles-hating A&R man, Dave Dexter. He reportedly assembled the Help! soundtrack in a single evening.