So The Beatles catalogue has finally had a real 2012 re-engineering job on it at a time when the Four Seasons ‘Jersey Beat’ re-mastered set which came out in 2007 is being dumped on the UK market at an incredible 13 pounds($21).
The big difference is that the Beatles catalogue has been lovingly restored to 180 gram vinyl and the Seasons 2007 re-master contains many poorly re-mastered tracks.
The Beatles EMI Press release tells us…”At the start of the restoration process, engineers conducted extensive tests before copying the analog master tapes into the digital realm using 24-bit/192 kHz resolution and a Prism A-D converter. Dust build-ups were removed from tape machine heads after the completion of each title. Artifacts such as electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance, and poor edits were improved upon as long as it was determined that doing so didn't at all damage the integrity of the songs. Similarly, de-noising technology was applied in only a few necessary spots and on a sum total of less than five of the entire 525 minutes of *Beatles *music. *Compression was also used sparingly and only on the stereo versions to preserve the sanctity of the dynamics.*” Not all of these are from multi-track masters either as they used George Martin’s mixes from 1986 in some cases.
We know the 60s multi-track masters are lost and as Paul Urbahms commented in the valliseasons e-group….” The Four Seasons Partnership has the problem that they don't really have anything to go back to except album masters (maybe a few singles masters). These were processed years ago by Bill Inglot for the 25th Ann collection and I am assuming (based on what I have heard) most companies just master off previously released CDs including probably the ACE album masters.”
George Schowerer and Bob Crewe at the mixing desk in 1967
We also know this was the situation on the recent Working My Way Back To You CD set (WMWBTY)on UK Rhino because the engineer told us and he spent hours correcting defects in those so called ‘Masters’.
As going back to tape and re-mastering at 24 bit 96 khz is the only way to really get the best out of analogue master tapes the BIG question for The Partnership is “is there going to be a commercial benefit?”. Even with no multi-tracks and Stereo masters, or mixed to Mono masters it is possible to do a lot with 24/96 transfers. Even with 16bit 44khz(standard CD format) the WMWBTY sound engineer showed that improvements are possible. The much denser sound files of 24/96 transfers from analogue tape will give a clarity and dynamic range not achieved since vinyl……and our amplifiers(and headphones) are so much better now.
Unlike the Beatles the 4 Seasons “are not a social movement’ and Seasons collectors do not match the thousands they(EMI) know will want the Beatles re-masters. And how many Seasons fans would want the vinyl re-issues?. Many of us still have our carefully collected 60s and 70s vinyl albums in near mint condition. And the size of the 4 Seasons market even allowing for the success of JB it appears doesn’t warrant the work.
But historically importance is the sole reason why The Four Seasons Partnership should invest in this work. It will have to be done one day. Bill Inglot was the previous engineer with exacting standards but there are top engineers around today…like Mark Linett of Beach Boys fame. And then the Partnership would have a long-term asset in ‘fit-for-purpose’ condition to lease to record companies into the future. With short-term license prevailing record companies are not going to fund the re-mastering costs and can only make a profit on a short-term ‘individual’ project basis so re-using old CD masters is their best way. Inevitably the Partnership will have to make the investment.
And bearing in mind the lack of certain Mono and Stereo master copies it is surprising that the Partnership have not done what Paul suggests….” Back in "the day" when the 4 Seasons were popular Vee Jay and Philips would have sent tapes of their releases to English speaking foreign countries, these would have only been one step away from the original album and single masters. In the beginning of the digital age, RCA realized thatthe masters that they had been using for Elvis reissues were pretty bad, so they sent out a call to all their licensees in the world and told them to return all Elvis "tapes" to the US. As the tapes arrived they were cataloged and they went through them to check and see if they were actual masters, dubs from masters, album or singles masters, or just production masters. Production masters are the lowest grade tapes. Once they figured out what they had, they started assembling a new set of masters to transfer to digital and those are what they have been using the last few years. The quality of Elvis reissues has raised significantly since then, and RCA assured collectors that the best quality masters are being preserved and will not be thrown into a dumpster someplace in the world.”
Whilst we continue to search out different versions and the best CD based
versions for our collections, members of 4 Seasons collectors groups are set to
preserve vinyl masters in preference to the CD Mono Masters. We have so far
heard great salvaged versions of the Vee-Jay catalogue and we hope the Philips
sets will follow.
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