Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey

So the song title has nothing really to do with this blog post except I’m discussing the Beatles and it is perhaps the best Beatles song title ever. Perhaps I should have titled this Real Love because that is what this is really about. I got to listen to the new re-mastered versions of the Beatles albums, both the stereo and the mono versions. The new disks are amazing, far surpassing the original CDs which were created in 1987. Back then it was just about getting the music onto CDs. This time around it was about making the music sound like it is supposed to sound. The entire process actually began in the mid 90s when the Beatles masters were transferred from the original tapes to digital form for backup. This was not done for re-mastering purpose, but it started the process that eventually lead to this endeavor.

In 2005 EMI and Apple Corps LTD (Paul, Ringo, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono) agreed to re-master the original tapes. Their goal was to produce CDs that sounded like the original LPs did when they were released in the 60s. They clearly scored a big success with these CDs. The songs sound clearer and crisper that anything ever heard on CD before. The only way to hear the music this good would be to take out an original UK vinyl album and play it on a high end turntable. These CDs may even be a bit better than the original albums. Granted, a CD by design can never be as good as a vinyl album, but the engineers at Abbey Road Studios were able to transfer the original analog tape to digital format using the latest technology. This allowed them to get rid of problems like electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, and bad edits. Each album was transferred song by song at an average of one song per day. As I said before, the results are amazing.

There are two different box sets available, and Stereo mix and the Mono mix. Here is a little explanation of each of the box sets, and then at the end, I have prepared some examples of changes.

All of the Beatles albums (and actually most music even today) were recorded with close miking techniques. This meant that each of the Beatles had a microphone and each instrument had a microphone or input into the system. This is really mono recording. For true stereo recording one would need to record into each channel at the same time. Once all of these tracks were recorded, they could then mix them in different ways.

The Beatles recorded their first two albums, Please Please Me and With the Beatles on a two track recording system. This technology did not allow for any kind of overdubbing and was essentially similar to recording a live performance. In 1963, they began four track recording. This allowed them to play with the sound after it was recorded. They could build up the sound layer by layer which allowed much experimentation in the process. To make a stereo mix, they would choose which tracks would go to the left channel and which to the right. They could even record twice, and have one four track recording go to the left and another to the right. This also allowed them to edit different takes into once single recording.

Often in some of the latter albums (outside of Let It Be and Abbey Road which were recorded using more modern transistorized systems) they would record four tracks, and then mix them together into a single track. They could then record four more tracks and mix them into a single track etc. Then they would mix together four previously mixed tracks to simulate 16 tracks.

Stereo was still a new technology in the 60s and only real audiophiles had equipment to play it. So they made two versions of each album starting with A Hard Day’s Night and ending with The Beatles (AKA the white album). The differences were just in how they mixed the tracks. One version was the mono version which was the major seller until the later 60s and the other the stereo version. By the time they recorded Let It Be (which was actually recorded before Abbey Road) they used more modern technology and it was pointless to make a mono mix anymore since most people had stereo equipment in their homes.

So it still remains to decide which is better, the stereo or the mono. That is a very hard question to answer. The first four albums have never appeared in stereo before now, so it is hard to say that the stereo version is any better than the mono, which we have been listening to for many years. There are some notable exceptions, like the song Money from the album With The Beatles (which you can hear below). As for the rest of the mono albums (Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour and The Beatles) the remaining two Beatles still consider the mono mixes as the definitive Beatles recordings. George Martin has been quoted as saying that you have never heard Sgt. Pepper’s until you have heard the mono.

I agree that some of the mono mixes are superior to the stereo mixes. I have included two examples in below, but I think in the end it is up to each individual listener to determine which they like better.

Here is an audio youtube with some examples of the changes in the new CDs.

Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8QETKiD9Qo]