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Follow-up: The Beatles on LP – The Text of The Formal Press Release

Follow-up: The Beatles on LP – The Text of The Formal Press Release

London – 27 September, 2012 – The Beatles’ acclaimed original studio album remasters, released on CD in 2009 and in 2010 for digital download exclusively on iTunes, will make their long-awaited stereo vinyl debut on 12th November (13th November in North America).

Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork,  the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cutouts, and special inner bags for some of the titles.  Each album will be available individually, and accompanied by a stunning, elegantly designed 252-page hardbound book in a lavish boxed edition which is limited to 50,000 copies worldwide.  

The book, exclusive to the boxed edition, is authored by award-winning radio producer Kevin Howlett and features a dedicated chapter for each of the albums, as well as insight into the creation of the remasters and how the vinyl albums were prepared.  The 12”x12” book showcases a wealth of photographs spanning The Beatles’ recording career, including many images which were not included in the 2009 CD booklets.Follow-up: The Beatles on LP – The Text of The Formal Press Release

The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.  With this release, The Beatles’ first four albums make their North American stereo vinyl debuts.  In 2013, the remastered albums will make their mono vinyl debuts.  

Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.

When The Beatles’ albums were first released, the listener enjoyed a tangible relationship with the music in the grooves of a record. There was an emotional connection to the artifact carrying the sound, and this bond was strengthened by the LP sleeve. Rather than a merely functional object to protect the disc, it was elevated to a stylish accessory. Certainly, the cover of a Beatles album conveyed a message about the music it was wrapped around. For example, the dominant orange and brown hues and elongated faces on the front of Rubber Soul seem to embody the sound of the record. With the advent of the cassette tape in the seventies and the compact disc in the 1980s, album artwork was reduced in size and importance, losing much of its charm. That is partly why vinyl LPs have not, as predicted, been discarded.

None of that would really matter, were it not for the enduring power of The Beatles’ music. In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.

For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle.  “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle.  And think of the growth or change between those two albums.  The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change… it can’t be done.  Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”

www.thebeatles.com

The Stereo Albums
Available individually and collected in a boxed collection, accompanied by a beautiful 252-page hardbound book.

Please Please Me
“Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You” are presented in mono
(North American LP debut in stereo)
 
With The Beatles
(North American LP debut in stereo)
 
A Hard Day’s Night
(North American LP debut in stereo)
 
Beatles For Sale
(North American LP debut in stereo)
 
Help!

Features George Martin’s 1986 stereo remix

Rubber Soul
Features George Martin’s 1986 stereo remix

Revolver
Original album
 
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Packaging includes replica psychedelic inner sleeve, cardboard cutout sheet and additional insert

Magical Mystery Tour
Packaging includes 24-page colour book

The Beatles (double album)
Packaging includes double-sided photo montage/lyric sheet and 4 solo colour photos

Yellow Submarine
“Only A Northern Song” is presented in mono. Additional insert includes original American liner notes.

Abbey Road
Original album
 
Let It Be
Original album

Past Masters, Volumes One & Two (double album)
“Love Me Do” (original single version), “She Loves You,” “I’ll Get You,” and “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)” are presented in mono. Packaging, notes and photographic content is based on the 2009 CD release.

* * *

REMASTERING THE BEATLES’ ORIGINAL STUDIO ALBUMS FOR VINYL

There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl.  Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road.  Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs.  The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one:  cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound.  However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture.  There were two options to consider.  A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy.  The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc – the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

Follow-up: The Beatles on LP – The Text of The Formal Press ReleaseA ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut.  Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side.  This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself.  After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process.  First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM.  Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.  

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road.  Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order.  He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production.  It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ – a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records.  To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation.  For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ – vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T.  These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect.  Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed.  As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately.  This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals.  Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories.  Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place.  If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected.  In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly.  In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP.  Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever.  All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs.  Handle with care.  But most of all, enjoy the music.

www.thebeatles.com

Neil Gader

By Neil Gader

My love of music largely predates my enthusiasm for audio. I grew up Los Angeles in a house where music was constantly playing on the stereo (Altecs, if you’re interested). It ranged from my mom listening to hit Broadway musicals to my sister’s early Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Beatles, and Stones LPs, and dad’s constant companions, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. With the British Invasion, I immediately picked up a guitar and took piano lessons and have been playing ever since. Following graduation from UCLA I became a writing member of the Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theater Workshops in New York–working in advertising to pay the bills. I’ve co-written bunches of songs, some published, some recorded. In 1995 I co-produced an award-winning short fiction movie that did well on the international film-festival circuit. I was introduced to Harry Pearson in the early 70s by a mutual friend. At that time Harry was still working full-time for Long Island’s Newsday even as he was writing Issue 1 of TAS during his off hours. We struck up a decades-long friendship that ultimately turned into a writing gig that has proved both stimulating and rewarding. In terms of music reproduction, I find myself listening more than ever for the “little” things. Low-level resolving power, dynamic gradients, shadings, timbral color and contrasts. Listening to a lot of vocals and solo piano has always helped me recalibrate and nail down what I’m hearing. Tonal neutrality and presence are important to me but small deviations are not disqualifying. But I am quite sensitive to treble over-reach, and find dry, hyper-detailed systems intriguing but inauthentic compared with the concert-going experience. For me, true musicality conveys the cozy warmth of a room with a fireplace not the icy cold of an igloo. Currently I split my time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Studio City, California with my wife Judi Dickerson, an acting, voice, and dialect coach, along with border collies Ivy and Alfie.

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