Is It Just Me.....

[oldasSoul]

   This is the perfect thread for what I've been thinking.

Is it just me... or has the Beatles canon become so familiar that, up until the remasters, we hadn't been really listening to the music, just hearing it?

I know that I'm finding all sorts of things now that I'm carefully poring over each song to find the nuances that were missing from the original CD releases. And because I've been exclusively listening to the monos without going back to the stereos for comparison, I've asked a couple of silly questions. That will now cease!

Just a quick note on the mono Pepper - the segue between GM, GM and the reprise is quite different sounding and a couple of beats longer. Crowd noises are different, more frequent, and there's the sound of someone encouraging the crowd. Just getting swept away by A Day in the Life...

[Greg]

Just sitting here for a minute thinking about that...
I mean...yeah..kind of.  Or this this really just listening to a new Beatles album?  In a way it is.  And would a musician have been listening in a different way than non-musician?  I know I have taken the needle and kept putting it back and back and back while learning the guitar, bass, or piano parts.  You know...kind of saying "how did they do that?" "what were they doing there?".
Anyway.  Unusual question you had.  Great question.

[oldasSoul]

Thanks Greg. Although I wouldn't describe myself as a musician, I fiddle with the guitar and have done the same thing to try and learn a part. Wasn't A-B repeat on CD players a great invention?!

I guess what I was trying to say was that I'm finding the experience very enlightening from a musical point of view. Having heard the LPs a thousand times before, then getting the CDs and hearing the same thing again without the pops and skips, it became similar to a scent: you can be exposed to a particular smell, and initially you notice it, but after some time passes you don't smell it until you leave the area and come back.

It's like we're all coming back into the room and realising how wonderful it smells. Wow! That is one painful, awkward analogy!

[tomfs09]

...or does it sound like(from all the reviews I have read) that the MONO remasters are the way to go? 

How different is the mono master from the stereo? I'm a bit new to the scene when it comes to these things :-)

[mervap]

http://onethirtybpm.com/2009/09/10/the-beatles-remasters-mono-vs-stereo/

Try this link....there's a wealth of differences in the actual "stuff" on each, but it ultimately comes down to what pleases your ears most...

[chris]

my apologies if this has been discussed on another thread. but this seemed like a decent place to post this.

the albums...up into and including the white album were all recored and mixed in momo. it was george martin and the band themselves that were at the controls doing this at the time. when they were recorded, stereo was really not a very big deal in engalnd. so, mono was the reasonable thing to do.

i have heard that emi would in no way send the master tapes overseas for us americans to enjoy this fine new music in stereo. so they made copies. and it was the copies that were separated into stereo. one reason right there for mono to sound better.

alan parsons, who would grow to make some pretty stereo-rific music for himseld later in his career...was one of the few involved ib changing it from mono to stereo (not george martin or the beatles) another reason for mono to soung better.

i grew up listening to the stereo albums. it was what i considered to be normal. if you end up purchasing the stereo set, i can pretty much guarantee you have some splendifferous music to enjoy. but...since i was NOt used to mono...i am enjoying this" the vocals sound slower" sensation. or the "why does this version take ten seconds longer to fade out" sensation. there are different vocal takes. there is guitar where there was not previously. for me...it truly is like hearing it for the first time.

the fact that we can all discuss how fabulous this band's music is decades after they stopped making music...sort of makes this discussion worth it. no?

[mervap]

the fact that we can all discuss how fabulous this band's music is decades after they stopped making music...sort of makes this discussion worth it. no?

Very true....