The Beatles REMASTERED Stereo/Mono Box Sets

Two hundred six songs. Fourteen original albums plus two CDs and one DVD. Seven years in the making - the complete recorded works of the Beatles - Analog to Digital.

THIS IS BASICALLY THE UK ROLL-TOP BOX SET SET COMPLETELY DIGITALLY REMASTERED IN STEREO, MONO^ (WITH VIDEO DVD AND MINI VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES EMBEDDED ON THE CDs).

Note: The Import Set from Japan costs more because the equipment is state of the art and there are extras.

Digitally remastered 17 disc box set (16 CDs + DVD) containing all 14 original Beatles albums released between 1963 and 1970 plus the two CD Past Masters collection of non-album tracks and a bonus DVD containing all the mini documentaries as told by the Beatles that can be found as enhanced tracks (for a limited time) on each of the individual CD releases. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-heard studio chat from The Beatles, offering a unique and very personal insight into the studio atmosphere. The albums have been remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London utilizing state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. Within the CDs' new packaging, the booklet includes detailed historical notes along with informative recording notes.

The analog recordings have finally entered into the digital age. Now with more details standing out, our consciousness is nudged at even minor alterations in the relative sound values. From a technical point of view, the result is a clean, clearly defined sound, rich with details and carefully balanced spatial relationships. "The Beatles in Mono" has all the clarity of the digital transfer. This is a limited edition run of 10,000 copies (which are numbered.) ^Note: Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be are not included, as they were originally recorded in stereo. The cost is a bit steep at a hundred dollars more for less discs.

In the Stereo set, (limited to 14 million) we still have the same isolating vocals on the right side of the mix and the music on the left side for the same tracks as analog (known as "Duotronic Stereo" in the old days). All the previous mono tracks are welcomed in Stereo.* The music on the left is now clearer and spacious though. This change might throw you off from the remembered UK stereo releases or U.S. Capital stereo (reverb) releases.** The other redone stereo tracks are clear and very spacious.*** Any removed sounds including clicks and pops etc. that were erased on previous stereo tracks are included. This very well might be the last set we see from The Beatles as CDs are being hurt by digital e-music (i-Tunes etc). The next stop for the Beatles may be i-tunes as Apple ponders this release. Sellers on ebay are selling "Open Sets" (some sellers even admit they ripped the songs to mp3 and i-Tunes.)

* Its good to hear the only mono tracks now in Stereo

**The U.S. Capital Stereo (reverb) releases are what the USA/Canada remembered, the songs with more reverb in the Stereo

***Listening to the three different Stereo versions, UK (AAD), US (AAD) with reverb and the new UK (ADD) will form your own opinion.

So what about the original UK set, the Capitol Sets*, Beatles 1, Yellow Submarine (vocal) and Let it Be Naked***. Although the UK "Roll-top Box" has been discontinued, this set as well as the U.S. Capitol Collections are being picked up by collectors like their LP counterparts which are still collected and played today. Plus, there are other releases that still remain popular like the Red-Blue Set, The Anthology 1-2-3- Set, Live at the BBC and the new "Love" CD .

* The Capitol Sets 1 and 2. When the Beatles' albums were reissued on CD in 1987, the group seized the opportunity to standardize their catalog internationally, choosing to release the British version of their LPs on CD in every territory throughout the world. From their standpoint, it made sense creatively, since these were the albums they intended to make, and it also made sense from a consumer standpoint, since these British LPs were longer than their foreign counterparts, particularly the American LPs released between 1964 and 1965. While the reasoning behind the move was sound, it was controversial in America, since the vast majority of their audience there not only grew up on the U.S. versions, they may not have even been aware that there were great differences in how the music was issued in both the U.S. and U.K. up until Sgt. Pepper in 1967. To make matters even more complicated, the first four albums -- 1963's Please Please Me through 1964's Beatles for Sale -- were released in mono on CD, which was like pouring salt into the wounds for American fans: not only could they not get the versions they grew up with, they didn't even sound the same.
The Beatles were hardly the only British rock & roll band to have its LPs released in different incarnations in the U.S. During the height of the British Invasion in the mid-'60s, it was standard practice for U.S. record labels to shuffle songs between records, either to help promote singles or squeeze out as much product as they could out of a limited number of songs, and since LPs were released in both mono and stereo mixes, there several different variations of the basic album on the marketplace. This was done without the artist's consent, and the Beatles protested the issue with the notorious "butcher" cover of the U.S. album Yesterday...and Today, where the Fab Four dressed up in butchers coats surrounded by decapitated baby dolls and raw meat -- not a subtle criticism, but not an inaccurate one, either. After Sgt. Pepper ushered in the album rock era, this practice faded away. Years later, in the thick of the CD reissue boom, there was heavy nostalgia among record collectors for these American and British and stereo and mono variants, which led to '90s reissues of classic '60s rock albums containing both the stereo and mono mixes, or individual reissues of the U.S. and U.K. versions of particular albums. The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Animals, and many other peers of the Beatles were given reissues of these variants, but not the Beatles themselves, even though these were among the most requested reissues and were among the most interesting of these variations. Interesting is a word that cuts both ways -- they were interesting because they were popular, the records that brought Beatlemania to America

**Beatles 1 and Yellow Submarine (vocal) was done by George Martin on original period analog mixers at Apple.

**Let it Be Naked, the "de-Spectorized" version of the original Let It Be album. Paul Hicks, Guy Massey and Allan Rouse did extensive work digitally cleaning up each individual track of every song before remixing it. Some takes were edited together to come up with the best possible final version. In the case of one song—"Dig a Pony"—one errant note sung by John Lennon was even digitally pitch-corrected.