Will a Beatles SACD ever come out?

[chrisguy13]

I a big fan of the Beatles, they're always good to listen too. I think most will agree. The big question is, will they be released on SACD soon?

I think Sony owns the Beatles' music so I would imagine that would be the format it would be released on.

I think a better question is how will they sound. The early (first 4) Beatles albums were released in mono, and a very crappy sounding mono too. It's utterly ridiculous how bad they sound. I tracked down Stereo HDCD rips of the first 4 albums in 320 mp3, and they sound amazing. The ones in the store cost 18 dollars and sound like @#%$. The excuse was that the master tapes were in too bad of shape, but it's all a bunch of bullshit because no one really knows (as far as I've seen) why they were released that way. I think it was just too rushed. I just wonder why they never re-mastered them.

I have a small amount of hope that the cds will be remixed into multi-channel, at least Help and Rubber Soul (they were remixed for cd release in 1988, so it's very possible). Maybe we should start a petition or something.

It's a damn shame that one of the best groups ever has such poor quality releases the completely waste the master tapes potentials. I was just wondering what everyone thought about all this.

Chris

 

[captainwrong]

I think this has been covered elsewhere, but here's the skinny. The Beatles recordings are controlled by Apple with exclusive rights to EMI. The reason there haven't been any remasters or anything is due to Apple, which is to say the Beatles and their survivors. Same reason Let It Be hasn't been avaliable on video since the early 1980s.

The catalog is waay overdue for some kind of remastering. But it's all up to the Fab Two and the widows now. It'd be nice to see Stereo and Mono versions of all the albums that were released both ways as there are enough interesting differences to justify it (Sgt. Pepper and parts of the White Album are quite different in mono.)

Given EMI's playing both sides with a kind of wait and see attitude, who knows if they'd be DVD-A or SACD?

The problem with multichannel is sometime in the 70s the Beatles issued some sort of statement that their releases were not to be changed in any way. Any multichannel remixes (or how about digging up the Sgt Pepper's quad mix refered to on the tape case shown on the MFSL box set???) would have to be agreed on by all parties and given the way things have gone in the past, it's not bloody likely.

Besides, the pre 1968 stuff was mostly recorded on 4 tracks or less, leaving not a lot to work with for remixing without a lot of work (that's why the stereo mixes of the first two albums are vocals in one channel, insturments in the other. That's 2 track masters!)

 

[Quadwreck]

Apple (the Beatles) is not totally against any remixing of their product, they simply want the final say. Paul and George sat in on the remixes for 5.1 surround for the Yellow Submarine dvd, and Paul is personally overseeing the restoration of the Let It Be film, with the accompanying Get Back album (the original form of the Let It Be album, before Phil Spector was given control). He's mentioned all this in interviews granted on his recent tour. No word on surround mixes yet, but I've heard through a "downstream" source that the rooftop concert is to be in 5.1 surround.The first part of the film (filmed in Twickenham Studios) is in mono only, the Apple Studio segment recordings are in multi-track, but the film dialog is all mono. This gives hope that the re-release of the album may be in surround. Let's not forget that Paul McCartney was one of the first purchasers of the Millenium 246 DTS decoder, and had the whole 5.1 system installed in his place, so it's not an impossible dream. I've sent my request to Apple, have you?

 

[captainwrong]

Ahh, I guess I should get newer info. I was going on information I'd heard from around the time the Rock and Roll compilation was released in 1976. The US version was re-mixed, the UK version wasn't and that was the given reason.

 

[paperboy2002]

I'm sure that when the time is right, and Paul is down to his last Billion, the re-mixes will be allowed and all of the albums will be re-released. I would think that the latter albums would be the first to go since they have more to offer. I would venture though that nothing will happen for a while.

I hope that I'm wrong.

 

[Marcsten]

It seems that if a remaster needs the consent of the Big two (McCartney and Ono) then forget it. I'm sure you all saw the flap recently over how the names were to appear on future releases (Lennon first or second). I think they both need to grow up. Its hard to believe that at this stage of the game either is worrying about legacy, so really it comes down to pettiness. I thought McCartney controlled the fate of the masters and could do whatever he wanted with them. Or was that just the copyright to the songs?
Marc

 

[captainwrong]

Just the copywrites, AFAIK. And I thought he sold those to Michael Jackson in the 80's, who sold them to Sony?

The masters are controlled by Apple, which is to say Paul, Ringo, Yoko, and George's widow.

I think that's right. I haven't been following the Beatles as closely as I once did.

 

[timbre4]

Michael Jackson (for the time being) owns and controls Northern Songs, the publishing arm. EMI controls the recordings so far.

McCartney's efforts at a revised Let It Be film DVD, etc were just mentioned in Goldmine magazine as well. Must be happening finally.

My kids wore out Yellow Submarine, then Hard Days Night and Help on DVD. When I finally got Let It Be on VHS, it was viewed just once. What a downer it can be...

 

[captainwrong]

Yeah, Let It Be is not exactly uplifting viewing. The rooftop concert makes it all worthwhile tho!

 

[emkey]

I believe its the case that Jackson owns a controlling interest in Northern Songs Limited. I also think that Paul and Yoko own a little less then half between them with Paul owning more. He was secretly buying up shares towards the end of the Beatles which ended up being a very sore point with John. I don't know think that George or Ringo owned much or any of Northern Songs.

If Paul and Yoko hadn't been fighting at the time they could have easily afforded to pickup a controlling interest when it was up for sale. Instead Jackson stepped in and "scooped" them.

This is all from memory so hopefully I'm getting it correct.

 

[paperboy2002]

Well Jackson has deep money woes (and it's not like anything is going well for him) and since he is deep in debt the thought is that he might sell his part in the Beatles catalog. I thought that I heard that Sony was interested, but that might be wishful thinking. He almost had his amusement park repossessed

Time will tell....

 

[emkey]

One thing to note is that Northern Songs doesn't own George or Ringo's song writing contributions.

 

[captainwrong]

The thing is, it doesn't matter if Sony owns the publishing rights or not. The sound recording rights lie with EMI, via Apple. The issue here is which way (SACD or DVD-A) is EMI going to go and will the partners in Apple ever give the go. If EMI goes with DVD-A and Apple oks a DVD-A remaster, that's where it will go regardless of if Sony owns publishing or not.

 

[bmoura]

Well, EMI is issuing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on Hybrid SACD disc in a few weeks.

If that goes well, a Beatles SACD series could indeed be a future option. Stay tuned !

 

[texquad]

Saw a news story at the radio station where yesterday Neil Aspinall head of Apple said that after the Un-Spectorized version of "Let It Be" comes out later this year or next that the next thing planned is to remaster the full catalog. Let's hope that also means going Hi-Rez and if we're really lucky some multi-channel. He also said they will look the 50 - 60 hours of stuff that was recently recovered for bonus material.

 

[bmoura]

That sounds likely. After all, if the Stones Remastered SACDs moved over 2 Million units through December and we're told that the initial pressing of the DSOTM Multichannel SACD is 500,000 units (!), the Beatles catalog should be equally successful.

And record companies do like the sound of millions of copies of new sales, especially these days when overall sales are down a bit !

>>Saw a news story at the radio station where yesterday Neil Aspinall head of Apple said that after the Un-Spectorized version of "Let It Be" comes out later this year or next that the next thing planned is to remaster the full catalog. Let's hope that also means going Hi-Rez and if we're really lucky some multi-channel. He also said they will look the 50 - 60 hours of stuff that was recently recovered for bonus material.

 

[4ears]

According to the great web page abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/
Beatlefan/Extra! talked to Neil Aspinall at the Beatles Anthology DVD premier event. He was asked about if they were considering releasing The Beatles' catalog remixed for 5.1 SurroundSound, he said: "Not at this moment in time. I think at some point in the future that will probably happen. A lot of work, though." And on remastering the catalog in general? "That's being thought of also. Even more work."

My guess is that multi channel will be several years away. The Beatles organization take a *long* time to release anything. Look how many years DVDs have been out, and they are just now releasing Anthology on that format.

 

[texquad]

I found this post on Steve Hoffmans site:

Now that the cat is out of the bag....

I've known about this for awhile. I have a contact at EMI who has shared some of the things going on over there. The entire Beatles Catalog was supposed to be remastered a couple of years ago, then the surround formats came out. It was then decided to wait a bit and remaster for surround as well as hi res stereo. 5.1 was a must from the start, which meant DVD-A. (yea, I KNOW SACD does it too)

 

[bmoura]

We'll see. Seems to me some of the early albums wouldn't really lend themselves to surround - being recorded on 4 track equipment. As for later albums, it would be possible.

As for which format - SACD or DVD-A - EMI has issued albums on both. So we'll have to wait and see.

 

[4ears]

To clarify texquad's post:

The quoted text was not by Hoffman himself--it was by someone else, a particular individual who happens to be extremely biased towards DVD-A and extremely biased against SACD.

Keep in mind, the remixing of The Beatles has not even started yet. It is definitely going to be 5.1, but that is all that is definite. My guess is it will be SACD, or maybe released on both SACD and DVD-A.