Monday, September 14, 2009

The Beatles' discography was finally remastered!

You may have seen on the intertubes that the Beatles' discography was finally remastered and released in two boxes, one stereo and one mono. This is big news for Beatles fans, because this stuff has not been remastered since 1988 when the first Beatles CDs hit the stores and frankly they were done poorly.
So poorly, in fact, that an enterprising engineer going by the alias "Dr. Ebbetts" remastered them from vinyl sources and released many bootlegs of mono and stereo Beatles LPs as digital files to the intertubes. Until now, if you wanted to hear what the Beatles (and George Martin, their producer, and Geoff Emerick, their engineer) wanted you to hear, Dr. Ebbetts stuff was the best digital alternative.
Why two boxes, one mono, one stereo? I'm glad you asked. England, in the early to mid 1960's was technologically behind the United States in almost every way. Stereo recording and especially reproduction (that is to say stereo broadcast radio, stereo speakers, stereo record players and reel to reel tape players) were relatively new technologies and still expensive in England. Because of this the Beatles took particular care with the mixes of the mono releases (most of which were released in England), especially from Rubber Soul through The Beatles (The White Album), arguably their most sonicly (not a word) adventurous albums. By 1969 the reproduction of stereo recordings had become affordable to the average consumer, and so from Yellow Submarine onward the mixes were all stereo.
What this means is that 10 of the 13 "official" albums exist in both mono and stereo masters, and the different versions offer very different listening experiences. The mono albums had never been "officially" remastered for digital until now, and Beatles aficionados the world over are drooling over these new releases, most especially the mono box.
I mention all of this because while I really really really would like to have those box sets, I don't have the $400 plus to blow on this stuff right now, but I do have the intertubes. Thank god for the intertubes.
I've bit torrented both boxes in FLAC. FLAC is an audio file like mp3 but it sound better, mostly because they are larger files. I've been listening to them and I can honestly say, I'm pretty blown away. I haven't gotten to the mono box yet, but even the earlier yeah yeah yeah I wanna hold your hand stuff sounds amazing. I'm hearing things I've never heard before.
You should hear this music. Think about it. You have never heard a Beatles LP. Never owned a record player. Never heard any Beatles that wasn't from an mp3 file or a poorly mastered CD. Even what you've heard on radio has been from a poorly mastered CD.


So. Do this:
1. You do have a bit torrent program, right? If not go here:

http://www.bitcomet.com/

2. You need the mono and stereo boxes in FLAC for the best listen, so go here

http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/129773529/beatles+mono?tab=summary

and here

http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/129735717/beatles+stereo?tab=summary

3. Once BitComet has gathered all the files, you'll want to listen to them, but you can't because you probably use Windows Media Player (which I admit, has it uses) and it won't play FLAC files. Or will it? Hmm. Try it an see, but I don't think so. In any case go here:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

becasue VLC Media Player plays nearly every kind of audio/video file and never has to download a codec, and it's not a resource hog like WMP. It's the shit. For realzies..

Do it! Do it NOW! What are you waiting for?

DO IT!