Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Beatles Get Digitally Re-mastered

Beatles fans rejoice! The original Beatles catalogue has been digitally re-mastered for the first time and will be unleashed upon the world on Wednesday, September 9. This is also the date the much anticipated The Beatles: Rock Band video game will be released. To make the day all the more Beatle-rific it's worldwide Beatles Day. Hey, is that a take off of work holiday?

So, over at Abbey Road Studios, that's in London for those who live under a rock or just plain didn't know in which case you should have all of your rock 'n' roll records confiscated as punishment for lack of rock trivia knowledge but, I digress. Anyway, over there at Abbey Road a team of engineers spent four years hunched over ancient, I mean vintage equipment while using new fangled, modern day, state of the art technology, re-mastering the analogue master tapes. They painstakingly fiddled around with the catalogue keeping the authenticity and integrity of the original recordings intact thus making everything all nice and spiffy for Beatles fans the world over.

They replicated the original UK album art for the CD's including expanded booklets containing the original liner notes as well as newly written notes and rare photos. Each disc will also have a brief documentary about the album but only for a limited time. For those who like those nifty packages known as box sets, there will be two boxed collections available the same day.

The stereo collection contains all twelve Beatles albums in stereo, Magical Mystery Tour and Past Masters Vol. I and II which are now combined to make one title. This is the first time the first four Beatles albums will be available in stereo in their entirety on CD. These discs are available individually or in the box set. All but the Past Master disc contains a mini-documentary.
  • 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 mono collection contains ten of the albums with their original mono mixes with an additional two discs of mono masters which is I guess you could call the equivalent of Past Masters. The discs in this collection are only available in the boxed set making it more for the collectors or the hardcore fans. As a bonus, Help! and Rubber Soul will include the original 1965, previously unreleased on CD, stereo mixes. Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour and The Beatles are making their mono mix CD debuts.
  • 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
That's a whole lotta Beatles to dig into. Mark your calendars so you can enjoy a day dedicated to one of the most famous bands in rock history and re-live, re-discover, discover and sing-a-long with John, Paul, George & Ringo.

www.thebeatles.com