Did the world really need this ?

Posted by: Cheese on 27 April 2003

Sure, for the success of Beatles #1 filled many pockets. But I am tempted to say that this is another totally useless remaster. The whole thing sounds like ... plastic.

The result does work relatively well on later tracks like Hello, Goodbye or The Long And Winding Road but I am truly disappointed with what they did to the earlier tracks. Okay, She Loves You was dreadfully engineered back then but the old masters delivered at least all the musical information, at least it sounded 'alive'.

Or is my dissatisfaction just due to a nostalgy of how things sounded when we were kids ?!

Cheese

Posted on: 27 April 2003 by Michael Dale

I'm sure all the Beatles back catalogue could be re-mastered to sound better on CD, but EMI don't seem to care, they can still charge £27 for the White Album or red/blue compilations. In fact whenever EMI drop the price on the Beatles stuff it enters the bloody album chart. I wonder if Japanese versions are any better. Anyone know?

Regards,

Mickey

Posted on: 27 April 2003 by Paul Ranson

1 sounds fine to me in a way that makes the adjacent 'The search is on...' thread rather pointless.

Paul

Posted on: 27 April 2003 by Jez Quigley

quote:
Did the world really need this ?

Perhaps us old farts didn't, but it is responsible for creating a new generation of beatlemaniacs - at least at our 12 year old son's school. Even my 17 year old speaks of the Beatles in reverential terms - and he's so hip he can hardly see over his belt buckle

I have to agree though that the mastering of "1" is mediocre but it's not the recordings. I was once lucky enough to hear some beatles master tapes and they were stunning. Surely its well overdue for someone at EMI to do a labour of love on a properly remastered box set of the complete beatles catalogue. I fear though that this will only be done when they think they can cash in on sacd.

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood"