FunkyHiFi
04-10-2006, 09:32 PM
If you're planning on buying that Capitol Beatles Volume 2 box set (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EQHXQY/sr=1-1/qid=1144724833/ref=sr_1_1/103-1162775-5488642?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=music)tomorrow, better read this first:
"Beatles Box Endures Production Snafu" (http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/search/google/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002313681)
It affects the albums Beatles VI and Rubber Soul.
excerpt from the above article:
According to a statement from the label, the third-party mastering facility incorrectly sent step-down masters to the manufacturing plant instead of the mono masters ordered by the label. When Capitol became aware of this, the correct masters were sent, and the adjustment was made in another manufacturing run.
Although sources say there is no discernible difference in sound quality in the initial run, Capitol made the adjustment for historical accuracy. Consumers, with proof of purchase, will be able to replace copies of the first run with the correct version.
What's got Beatles audiophile fans in a tizzy is that those step down masters are just the stereo tapes which have been electronically scrunched into one channel i.e. mono*, instead of the original mono master (the technical word for this is "downmixing" or "folddown"). But the thing is, THOSE mono masters from the 1960s were also made by downmixing the original stereo tapes. These two different tapes probably would sound nearly identical but the equipment used to do the downmixing would add its own subtle sound to the final recording. And even if they did sound identical, the new version isn't the actual recording so many people grew up with**, which is the entire point of the entire box set in the first place.
If you really want to read about this in tiny tiny detail, you can check out this thread (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=77191) (it has more than 40 pages!). There are quite a few "industry people" that post at that forum, so much of the info can be very interesting.
* mono mixes, real ones not downmixes, usually sound different than the stereo version. Many people like the mono mix style better because to them they have more "punch". Others don't like them because cramming all that sound into one channel can obscure more subtle instruments & vocalists.
** The Beatles albums in these box sets were not what Europe heard. Besides the downmixing thing back then, here in the States Capitol really futzed with them IIRC by adding extra reverb, changing the track order and doing other things to make them more sellable over here. :rolleyes: There's a major market for the "real" albums that were sold in Europe, either on original vinyl or CDRs of that vinyl.
"Beatles Box Endures Production Snafu" (http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/search/google/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002313681)
It affects the albums Beatles VI and Rubber Soul.
excerpt from the above article:
According to a statement from the label, the third-party mastering facility incorrectly sent step-down masters to the manufacturing plant instead of the mono masters ordered by the label. When Capitol became aware of this, the correct masters were sent, and the adjustment was made in another manufacturing run.
Although sources say there is no discernible difference in sound quality in the initial run, Capitol made the adjustment for historical accuracy. Consumers, with proof of purchase, will be able to replace copies of the first run with the correct version.
What's got Beatles audiophile fans in a tizzy is that those step down masters are just the stereo tapes which have been electronically scrunched into one channel i.e. mono*, instead of the original mono master (the technical word for this is "downmixing" or "folddown"). But the thing is, THOSE mono masters from the 1960s were also made by downmixing the original stereo tapes. These two different tapes probably would sound nearly identical but the equipment used to do the downmixing would add its own subtle sound to the final recording. And even if they did sound identical, the new version isn't the actual recording so many people grew up with**, which is the entire point of the entire box set in the first place.
If you really want to read about this in tiny tiny detail, you can check out this thread (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=77191) (it has more than 40 pages!). There are quite a few "industry people" that post at that forum, so much of the info can be very interesting.
* mono mixes, real ones not downmixes, usually sound different than the stereo version. Many people like the mono mix style better because to them they have more "punch". Others don't like them because cramming all that sound into one channel can obscure more subtle instruments & vocalists.
** The Beatles albums in these box sets were not what Europe heard. Besides the downmixing thing back then, here in the States Capitol really futzed with them IIRC by adding extra reverb, changing the track order and doing other things to make them more sellable over here. :rolleyes: There's a major market for the "real" albums that were sold in Europe, either on original vinyl or CDRs of that vinyl.