The Beatles Remasters/Rock Band Released Today

...sure, everyone pretty much knows by now that The Beatles entire catalog has been painstakingly remastered and is being re-issued today, 9.09.09 [how fitting], as individual discs and as boxed sets compiling the stereo and mono versions separately for the complete diehards. While not as dramatic as the remixes that appeared a few years ago on the Love album [which we highly recommend you check out. It sounds amazing.], these most certainly sound much better than what the versions previously available. Most striking is the new stereo mixes, which were typically given only minimal attention when they were originally done, as most listeners at the time were still using mono playback systems...

...Taken as a whole, dropping what is arguably the most influential back catalog since Beethoven at a single stroke is somewhat, well, overwhelming. For us, the only thing that could have made this any better would have been a vinyl re-issue. Alas, it seems as if we'll have to settle for The Beatles Rock Band game. Which is totally the same thing...

...in addition to all the remastered music, each disc features a mini-documentary on the making of their respective album. While much of the material seems to be derivative of the Anthology set, there seems to be enough new footage there to make them worthwhile. Dig the excerpt below...

The Beatles Catalogue Gets Full Remaster/Reissue

...maybe you've heard of The Beatles. For us, it's the reason we do any of this. Well, thanks to Joe over at Each Note Secure we got some long-awaited news today that has us absolutely overjoyed. For the first time in the digital age, the entire Beatles catalog has been given the remastering job they deserve. Here's the lowdown:

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...

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.

...don't these look nice???



all images copyright Apple Corps 2009

The entire catalog is set to hit the streets on September 9. You can get all the juicy details here. Needless to say, we cannot wait...