Ok, so I've always been quite a fan of The Beatles, "Rubber Soul" has been played by me on many occasions over the years, and I own the entire CD catalogue. However, recently I've really got into the sound and feel of this amazing band. I recently, for the first time bought a "real" copy of the "1" album, and boy have I enjoyed it. To complement it I've also bought the Red album 1962-1966 and the Blue album 1967-1970.
On September 9th 2009 the entire Beatles catalogue is being re-released as a stereo box-set with additional DVD and a mono box-set. Along with this they are also releasing Rock Band Beatles which includes 45 of thier hit singles in the game.
Now, for me, although I will get all of this as close to release as possible, it's probably the mono box-set that I am most excited about buying. There's something special about the mono mixes that are lost in the stereo transition. Of course, stereo is good, but The Beatles actually spent 90% of thier time making and mastering the mono mixes, and the other 10% was left to the engineers to fulfill the stereo mix of the albums or singles.
Take "Rubber Soul" for example. Stereo version (which is the one available on CD) is great, it's a new 1987 mix that appears on this version which is a nice listen. The original 1965 stereo mix has singing on one side and music on the other, and again is quite nice. However, the mono mix is a whole new ballgame! This is how it was meant to be heard, and you'll hear things in the mixes that were lost with the sloppy stereo mixing was done on the albums.
It's going to be a great year for The Beatles... and my next post will be "5 must have things in 2009", and right up there will be The Beatles re-masters. I've recently downloaded "The US Singles collection", a 3-CD collection of the single released in mono in the US, and that has been a great listen, so these new re-masters should be fantastic!!!!
:) Mark
