Drop

They reviewed the rest of the catalog and seemed to prefer the mono mixes more given choice. The White Album preference especially surprises me because I do believe The Beatles started to involve themselves in the stereo mixes on that album (and of course never looked back).

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guita...1967-70-219227

Their conclusion to have the best, ultimate Beatles experience is to get both versions.

Oliver Clothesoff

I was able to grab some of the stereo discs at a store in Massachusetts over the weekend and listen to them on my ride home to Philly yesterday. The White Album sounds absolutely ferocious again. I'm impressed.

Gizmo

Gettin' myself the stereo set

kstublen

My source at my local Best Buy confirmed today that they have three copies of the Mono Box Set and will be getting four more at some point in the not-too-distant future. I'll be there waiting when they open, so hopefully I can get my hands on one. So my advice to those of you who were not able to get the Mono Box Set online, it might be worth checking Best Buy tomorrow.

If I am able to get the Mono Box Set I am going to pick up the individual stereo releases of Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, and Let It Be. I'll be getting these at Target because of the $5 Giftcard deal for when you purchase two; for the fourth one, what would people recommend I get? I'm leaning toward picking up The Beatles (The White Album) because I know The Beatles themselves were involved in that Stereo Mix. But I also thought I heard somewhere that the Past Masters in Stereo might have some different songs than the Mono.. Any thoughts?

Damfino

I got this email last week too. I realized that there might be shortages and I pre-ordered the first week of August. When this email arrived last week, I went through a week of wondering if I ordered too late.

So.... This morning, I received a shipment notification for my mono box!

MBoyd

I did the free slow shipping option on my mono set. I'm cheap.

EDIT: Oooh, I just checked and it says it's shipping soon!

EDIT #2:

Looks like no Beatles iTunes tomorrow . . .

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/2009...unes-tomorrow/

sauce07

So far i've listened to the stereo mixes of Revolver, Rubber Soul and The White Album. These sound absolutley amazing, I feel like i'm in studio with them at some points. I've probably listed to The White Album 100x in my life and i've picked up so many subtle things. Can't wait to listen to the rest, on to Help!.

kstublen

Do you think they sound better than their Mono counterparts?

sauce07

I'm going to listen to the Mono mixes after I finish the Stereo

Supermallet

Just FYI, there are mono versions of the Yellow Submarine tracks on the Mono Masters disc, so unless you HAVE to hear "All Together Now" in stereo (or love George Martin orchestral instrumentals), you don't need to pick that album up. I would say skip Yellow Submarine and get The White Album and Past Masters. Personally, I prefer The White Album in stereo, and yes, The Beatles themselves did mix both versions. Past Masters has a few tracks not on Mono Masters, including "The Ballad of John and Yoko."

Man, I find myself disagreeing with so many specific points in this review. A Day In The Life is absolutely killer in mono, Ringo's drums sound like they're coming from another world. The stereo doesn't have nearly as much impact. And I've never had a problem hearing the 15 kilocycle tone at the end of the album.

Edit: Also, he gets some of his facts wrong. The guitar solo on the album version of Let It Be is Lennon, not Harrison.

BuckNaked2k

Just to clear up some of the confusion on Help! and Rubber Soul:

The mono box contains the original 1965 mixes remastered in 2009. The stereo box, (and individual titles), contain the 1987 mix created by George Martin for the initial CD release, also remastered in 2009.

Most Beatlephiles express derision for the 1987 mixes, and will eschew them in favor of the 1965 mixes. However, unless you want to invest in the mono box, there is no other way to get the original 1965 mixes.

Personally, I have the mono box on order, and will be picking up the individual stereo titles tomorrow with the following exceptions:
Using my membership, and one $5 off B&N coupon per disc, will result in a net price of $7.81 per disc, or $12.99 for the two double-disc titles......faaaaar cheaper than buying the stereo box, even at its best price.

Supermallet

I never got the hate for Let It Be. The songs are great, and it's got charm. The biggest problem is The Long and Winding Road, strings or no strings. It's just not a good song.

Let It Be...Naked is such a dissapointment. Instead of releasing Get Back as Glyn Johns had organized it, they went back, smoothed out all the rough edges (wasn't the point of Let It Be to show those rough edges?). It's like the soft rock or muzak version of the album.

CRM114

Where are you getting the $5 coupons for BN?

Buttmunker

To be clear, which "Let It Be" album is going to be released on 9/9? I do hope it is the Phil Spector version (the one we all grew up on).

Drop

I agree, A Day In The Life was especially perplexing, and it's why I find it hard to give any reviewer's opinions that much weight. The only opinion I care for is The Beatles' which is why the mono mixes are so important to me.

Matt

As a Beatles fan, I fall somewhere in between "casual" and "hardcore", and I just wanted to say that all this mono vs. stereo vs. 1960's vs. 1987 vs. 2009 stuff is some of the most confusing shit I've ever read in my life.

cungar

Just say you don't like the song. To say it's a "just not a good song" is ridiculous. Millions of people love the song.

Cornelius1047

I definitely don't like that song, regardless of how many millions of people do, and with or without strings. But that's just me.

So the Mono Masters will have "Hey Bulldog" on it? That would be awesome, as I really only planned on picking up the Mono box and Abbey Road. Eventually I'll get the stereo set too... possibly... Speaking of Mono Masters though, what exactly is on Past Masters that's not on Mono Masters, aside from "The Ballad Of John And Yoko"?

K

Drexl

It's the Spector version. The Naked version already was remastered (or at least recently mastered) anyway when it came out in 2003.

BuckNaked2k

I hear ya! Whatever you do, DO NOT go into the Steve Hoffman forums. They are on Beatles Remasters thread #21, with each previous thread containing 1,000 posts. That's nearly 21,000 posts! I am not exaggerating here, I have read every one since the news broke on 04/07/09.

BuckNaked2k

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/...&cds2Pid=28833


http://forum.dvdtalk.com/8745328-post1.html

BuckNaked2k

Killing that B movie actress was the 2nd murder Phil Spector committed!

I agree about LIBN, but it suffices for my needs.

BuckNaked2k

Mono Masters has:
Yellow Submarine has the same songs in Stereo, except OANS which is in Mono, as no true Stereo version exists. (Not including 1999 YSST).

wahlers

My mono and stereo sets have shipped from Amazon. Yay!

I'm really looking forward to hearing these. I know they're supposed to be a revelation compared to the 1987 cds, but I've been listening to my vinyl copies a lot over the past couple of years and haven't touched my CDs for a long time (actually I sold them not too long ago). I hope the new remasters are as stunningly superior for me even though I will still continue to listen to my records from time to time.

Speaking of which, Suprmallet, I also don't understand the appeal of The Long and Winding Road. I recently picked up 1967-1970 on vinyl finally and was listening to it again and couldn't decide which was worse - the hokey arrangements and orchestrations or McCartney's voice. It's like he had a cold and couldn't hold a note or get anything in tune to save his life. It sounds like a bad demo and was cringe-worthy just to sit through again. I think if the Beatles had gave a crap about it at the time, he would have re-recorded the vocals. I think the legacy of the song holds up much better than the actual recording. The Naked version isn't really much better. Could have been an okay song, I guess, but the recordings of it that exist are just subpar. Just my 2 cents.

Oliver Clothesoff

Well, I know what I'm doing tonight... my Mono box was waiting at my doorstep when I got home from work via Amazon!