Any of all y'all thinking about 'investing in' the next new White Album reboot?

mhardy6647

Señor Member
Site Supporter
of6s5dli1a4d.png

q4gn710bzrt7.png

I may be totally barking up the wrong tree asking here, but I imagine that some of you have had more than passing exposure to the Fab Four's oeuvre, so I figured I'd ask your opinion.

There is, of course, a cottage industry (check that, more like a big business) of remixing, remastering, repackaging any and all snippets of anything Beatles recorded or related -- almost to the point of comic exaggeration.

I am also not particularly a Beatles completist, even though I'll admit to more than a passing fancy for their records (at least, as I knew them growing up, as US Capitol LPs played on a Magnavox tabletop record player, which in my memory sounded pretty damned "right").

But, I got sucked in and I just read this review of sorts of the "White Album" re-whatever by Giles Martin:
https://www.analogplanet.com/content/beatles-re-mixed-giles-martin-any-good

... and I am wondering, I suppose:

If any of all y'all'd care to share your opinion(s) on any and all of the recent (last 20 years'!) worth of Beatle album retreads? There have been so many (and, yeah, I've gotten suckered into springin' for a few of 'em already) -- any that you think are great, or terrible for that matter? "Terrible" might mean "so different to what you grew up with that you wouldn't like it", I suppose.
smile.png



Would (will?) any of you invest in any shape or flavor of this particular... umm... reissue? Exhumation? Whatever one would call it?

Thanks for your consideration and insight!

oi6hyneeuvv3.png
 
Fremer made a pretty convincing case but I have a good portion of the Beatles catalog, including the White Album, which I NEVER listen to. I appreciate the Beatles. It was the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show that started me on my musical journey as a player, sound engineer and now audiophile. The decor of my listening room contains a plethora of Beatles related art and such. I just don't care to listen to their records that much anymore. Honestly, mono pressings of their records interest me more because frankly, they sound better, but I digress. It isn't that expensive but I could put the money spent on that toward records that I really would play the hell out of. So, meh, probably not.
 
I'm of an age that I totally missed The Beatles - they were my parents' music. I don't have a single Beatles album, though I am familiar with their popular tunes. (Who isn't?) So, "meh, probably not" fits me too, haha.
 
Probably not the White Album, although I did buy a bunch of the early stuff on mono when the Parlophone repressings came out a couple of years back (and yes, they were worth it). There are some gems on the White Album, but there's also a fair amount of self-indulgent (e.g. John Lennon at his most obnoxious) crap.
 
I do have a Beatles collection. Most are original a few reissues. I do greatly enjoy the majority of their music however I can't say I'm a super fan. The truth is I am for the most part at this time burnt out on the Beatles.
 
I do like the White Album, despite its... eccentricities (more like its overindulginces).

In fact, over the weekend i listened to Disc 1 (i.e., Sides 1 and 2) of the original - widely reviled :p - CD release (from, what? 1987?). On the FrankenAltecs, it sounded pretty darned good to me.

It would be kind of cool to at least hear the Esher demos in hifi. I am thinking the 3-CD set* might be a cost effective way to justify an investment in this latest excuse for revenue-generation on the backs of the Lads from Liverpool. :)

_____________
* 3 CD set: https://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Whit...=beatles+white+album+50th+anniversary+edition
as opposed to the super-ultra-hyper-giga-deluxe Thank you sir may I have another? morph: https://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Whit...=beatles+white+album+50th+anniversary+edition

:)
 
I have never listened to the White Album all the way through but I'm glad that all of you generous baby boomers exist to keep the fine folks in the record pressing, remastering chain, and marketing departments employed ;) I wish this much adoration and attention was lavished upon my favorite album of the time period, The Zombies' "Odessey & Oracle".
 
Odessey & Oracle was a wonder to behold. I didn't "get it" at the time...but time passed on...wisdom set in....and then I became to appreciate the brilliance of the album.
 
To cut through all the BS, Sean Magee ( mastering engineer at Abbey Road Studios) stated categorically 5 years ago that trying to reconstruct the original tapes was such a PITA that all future reissues will be based on the CD remastering done a few years before that. They may tweak it or remix it, but it will be based on that CD remastering. No one is going to go through the agony of rereading the notes of the engineers in 1968 to reconstruct what has already been reconstructed. It was a painstakingly reconstructed Herculean effort.

Case closed.

Ray
 
To cut through all the BS, Sean Magee ( mastering engineer at Abbey Road Studios) stated categorically 5 years ago that trying to reconstruct the original tapes was such a PITA that all future reissues will be based on the CD remastering done a few years before that. They may tweak it or remix it, but it will be based on that CD remastering. No one is going to go through the agony of rereading the notes of the engineers in 1968 to reconstruct what has already been reconstructed. It was a painstakingly reconstructed Herculean effort.

Case closed.

Ray

Let's reopen the case. The master's used for the 2012 box set were indeed the 24 bit digit files used, in 16 bit form of course, for the cd set.

However, the mono set was an all analog production, pulled from the mono masters. No digital in the process of any kind.

From what I understand, the White Album is also all analog. At least, the vinyl version. :)
 
Let's reopen the case. The master's used for the 2012 box set were indeed the 24 bit digit files used, in 16 bit form of course, for the cd set.

However, the mono set was an all analog production, pulled from the mono masters. No digital in the process of any kind.

From what I understand, the White Album is also all analog. At least, the vinyl version. :)

The original 1968 album is analog and made from the original tapes. The remasters are not. According to the Sean Magee interview ( Hi Fi World February 2013) all the remasters ( including the vinyl) were cut from the earlier digital remasters. They were remixed, but not from the tape.

Ray
 
I think the selling point (at least, the intended selling point) of the new White Album is that it's been remixed -- from whatever source(s).

This remixing thing seems to be all the rage these days -- like all of them there Yes remixes.

Don't get me started -- I am in full-on Grumpy Old Man mode today, for a variety of reasons. :)
 
All the Beatles retwiddles since Let It Be... Naked in '03, to me, smack of "be careful what you wish for".

Prior to that, the CDs were so poor compared to decent LP pressings that it was hard not to salivate at the thought of them being remixed and remastered.

Now, we've arrived at Beatles recordings lovingly polished to 21st century standards. And that's the problem. Compared to the original LP releases, the new digital Beatles albums sound like completely different recordings - revisionist history.

From a standpoint of fidelity, I think the new re-releases, as fun as they've been, have been sideways steps from the grainy, compressed original CD releases.
 
Last edited:
All the Beatles retwiddles since Let It Be... Naked in '03, to me, smack of "be careful what you wish for".

Prior to that, the CDs were so poor compared to decent LP pressings that it was hard not to salivate at the thought of them being remixed and remastered.

Now, we've arrived at Beatles recordings lovingly polished to 21st century standards. And that's the problem. Compared to the original LP releases, the new digital Beatles albums sound like completely different recordings - revisionist history.

From a standpoint of fidelity, I think the new re-releases, as fun as they've been, have been sideways steps from the grainy, compressed original CD releases.
Ah, but what about the analog reissues, John? I've heard it argued that the Parlophone mono reissues are on par with the original Parlophone monos (or perhaps superior given the heavier wax).
 
At what point does something cease to be what it was? I can't speak specifically to the Beatles catalogue but, for example, the remastering job done on the Pink Floyd albums in the last decade really changed some of the sound. The Wall, for example sounds "better" as far as a hi-fi-ness, but it's different enough to me that its just not the same album anymore, because something sonically got really changed with the reverb and how it all gels together. I can't tell what they did but I much prefer the old issues despite a less open sound, because they sound like that album has always sounded to me. The EMT plate reverb, etc. I just think some of these reissues strive so hard for fidelity that they go right past the fact that sometimes the tape sound, the way instruments kind of sit on each other, etc, is part of the vibe.
 
Back
Top