Posted by Bud on September 06, 2009 at 09:00:50:
With Beatles Day (09/09/09) just a few days away, some local Beatles experts take a look at how the newly remastered Beatles discs sound. From Mark Caro in the Sunday Chicago tribune:
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Maniacs coming together to critique the Beatles reissues
An easy day's night
By Mark Caro
Tribune reporter
September 6, 2009
The massive launch of the newly remastered Beatles CDs and " The Beatles: Rock Band" video game is aimed to drive new generations into the Fab Four tent.
But the older fans no doubt are the ones who already have sold out Amazon's pre-orders of the new stereo and mono CD boxed sets (which come out Wednesday along with the individual stereo CDs and "Rock Band"), and the rabid fans will be the ones comparing their original 1987 Beatles CDs and perhaps their old LPs to the reissues.
Does the latest generation of CDs, as hyped, really make you feel as if you're in the studio with John, Paul, George and Ringo?
There may be no better way to find out than by assembling a small group of Beatles fanatics and listening to the new CDs on a $120,000 stereo system in the showcase room of Audio Consultants in Evanston. The expert panel included WXRT-FM 93.1 disc jockey Terri Hemmert, who hosts the station's Sunday morning "Breakfast With the Beatles" show and emcees the annual Fest for Beatles Fans, as well as Gregory Alexander, who as "Professor Moptop" contributes mini-seminars on "Breakfast." (Disclosure: My wife anchors the WXRT morning news.)
Also in attendance: Robert Rodriguez, a veteran local musician who co-wrote the 2007 book "Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Beatles ... And More!"; Bob Purse, a longtime "Fest" regular and musician; and Scott Soloway, Audio Consultants' reigning technical expert and Beatles aficionado.
The panel settled into comfortable chairs and prepared to be wowed by what would come out of those $26,000 Wilson Audio speakers via the $25,000 DCS CD player, the $36,000 Ayre Acoustics pre-amp and amplifier and the $35,000 Transparent Audio cables. No, we can't guarantee similar results at home.
Let's take it from the top. "One, two, three, four!"
"I Saw Her Standing There" ("Please Please Me," 1963)
The first song from the Beatles' debut bursts from the speakers -- and then again and then again. We listen to three versions, each offering more dimension, more spark.
The first was the 1987 CD, released only in mono. The second was the new mono CD, and the last was the new stereo.
"That last one sounded fantastic," Hemmert says.
"I think the drums really crack a lot more," Alexander says of the stereo.
"Anna (Go to Him)" ("Please Please Me")
"You can hear the phlegm in his voice," Hemmert says as she listens to John Lennon, who had a head cold at the time, belting out Arthur Alexander's R&B ballad on the stereo CD. "It's great."
"The immediacy of the vocals is amazing," adds Rodriguez.
"It does sound like you're hearing the playback in the studio," Hemmert says.
"You Really Got a Hold on Me" ("With the Beatles," 1963)
The stereo mix impresses again on the Beatles' second album, with special praise for George Harrison's guitar sound. But true awe arrives with the three-part harmonies on "hold me" on this Smokey Robinson cover.
"Oh, my God, the vocals," Hemmert says. "It sounds like you're finally getting to hear it."
"A Hard Day's Night" ("A Hard Day's Night," 1964)
The volume must get cranked for the introductory guitar clang, but what really impresses Rodriguez is the detail on Lennon's rhythm guitar playing.
"It was percussive," he says. "You could hear every strum."
"If I Fell" ("A Hard Day's Night")
How do you know you're in a room of Beatle geeks? When everyone falls silent and leans forward in eager anticipation of whether Paul's voice will crack on the repetition of "in vain" in the stereo mix.
Wait for it ... wait for it ... Yes! Rodriguez is offering high fives. The engineers didn't fix the mistake, thus gaining credibility with purists who want such idiosyncrasies preserved. (Paul's voice doesn't crack on the mono.)
But not everyone in the room is crazy about how the echoey opening vocal booms in comparison to the effects-free vocal of the mono mix.
"I think this one loses a bit too much intimacy," Alexander opines.
"Nowhere Man" ("Rubber Soul")
Upon hearing the a cappella three-part harmony intro on the stereo mix, Rodriguez grimaces and says the problem is similar to that of the stereo "If I Fell."
"You're more aware of all the effects on the words," he says, ultimately preferring the mono mix.
But Alexander loves the stereo version's clarity as McCartney hits the high notes on the final "nowhere plans for nobody."
"Tomorrow Never Knows" ("Revolver," 1966)
The volume is cranked up, the low tamboura drone fills the room, and Ringo's indelibly insistent drumming triggers a rhythmic earthquake on this trippiest of album closers (actually the first song recorded for "Revolver"). On the mono version, those screeching-seagull effects and backward-guitar bursts are mixed completely differently -- more abruptly, like stabs instead of surges -- but for full brain-swirling, get-out-your-headphones effect, you need the stereo, which sounds impressive if overly bright to everyone.
"I don't like the separation [of the instruments]," Alexander says. "I want it to mush together. It sounds too digital."
"Eleanor Rigby" ("Revolver")
The string quartet is crisp, rich. "The lower strings are brilliant on this," Hemmert says. "You don't usually hear the lower strings."
McCartney's vocal, as on the original, is panned to the right on the verses and double-tracked on both speakers on the choruses. We pull out the remixed version on the 1999 "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" CD; it has the vocals in the middle the whole time and boasts a louder, pushier feel.
"It just sounds faker," Alexander says. "That's 'Eleanor Rigby' on steroids."
"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band")
"This sounds outstanding," Alexander says. "So far 'Sgt. Pepper' [album] sounds the best."
After the punchy, deep "Thump! Thump! Thump!" of the drums before the chorus, Hemmert says simply, "Wow."
The mono mix, which like many on this album contrasts dramatically with the stereo, also has its appeal, particularly the dreamy phasing effect on Lennon's vocals.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)/A Day in the Life" ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band")
The reprise rocks harder in mono, with louder guitars and additional McCartney yelping in the background, but the stereo "A Day in the Life" is all-enveloping, with Lennon's "aaaaah's" soaring around the room and the massive orchestral buildup bringing your head to the point of explosion.
"That was cool," Purse exhaled afterward.
"Hey Jude" (single, 1968; "Past Masters" CD)
This landmark single comes across as appropriately intimate and epic on the new stereo CD.
"The separation is really good," Rodriguez says. "It's very organic and not digital sounding."
Purse notes "a real percussive sound to the piano" that he had never noticed.
But Soloway decries the "atrocious" tambourine at the beginning and spins the "Hey Jude" from the 2006 Beatles "Love" CD.
"This sounds less aggressive and more comfortable," the Audio Consultants sound guy says of the earlier release, but he's not gaining consensus.
"The new one is better," Rodriguez maintains while others of us nod.
"Here Comes the Sun" ("Abbey Road," 1969)
"That's more bass than I remember," Purse says as McCartney's instrument rumbles below Harrison's delicate acoustic guitar.
"More bass than I want," Hemmert adds. "This is the worst one I've heard."
Out comes my Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab half-speed-master LP from 1980. The bass is loud on this one too, but the familiar vinyl-CD battle line is being drawn, with the listeners declaring the record to be "warmer."
"It's just what you would expect," Soloway says of the CD. "More precise, more detailed, less enjoyable."
"The End" ("Abbey Road")
Still, "Abbey Road," the last and best-recorded of the Beatles' albums, gets mostly high marks -- the loud bass isn't such a problem on "Come Together," for instance. As we reach "The End," it's air-drumming time as Ringo, whose work really shines on the rereleases, pounds out his famous, first-ever solo followed by John, Paul and George trading searing guitar licks.
"Try that on 'Rock Band,' " an exhilarated Hemmert crows.
Nope, it's not on there.