By Yasuko Everard
Released yesterday on vinyl were the remasters of The Beatles’ mono albums, and to celebrate the event a listening session using some of the best High End gear was held last week in Abbey Road Studio 2, where many of their famous recording were made.
Released yesterday on vinyl were the remasters of The Beatles’ mono albums, and to celebrate the event a listening session using some of the best High End gear was held last week in Abbey Road Studio 2, where many of their famous recording were made.
With a replay system comprising a Vertere turntable with Ortofon 2M Mono cartridge, Naim SuperLine phono preamp, Naim Statement preamp and power amps and Focal Grande Utopia EM speakers, tracks from the newly-released discs were played and discussed by a panel including writer and broadcaster Mark Ellen (who also acted as host for the event), Beatles engineer Ken Scott, and Sean Magee, who worked on the remastering.
Working from the original master tapes – the previous mono remasters project of five years ago used digital technology – Magee and mastering supervisor Steve Berkowitz carried out the whole remastering process in analogue, guided by the original transfer notes made by the engineers back in the 1960s.
The tapes were played back on a Studer A80, and the new vinyl cut on a 1980s Neumann VMS80 lathe.
The mono versions of the classic Beatles albums were the band’s preferred format, not least because that’s how the majority of listeners will have heard them back in the 1960s, using portable record players such as the classic, single valve amplified Dansette.
Until 1968 each Beatles album had separate mono and stereo mixes, with tracks sometimes of different lengths and including varying elements: for example Helter Skelter is a minute longer in stereo and has a very different mix, with engineer Ken Scott revealing that in the later years the band realised fans would buy both versions if they were different.
And Scott also revealed that the famous jet engine sound opening Back in The USSR was different for the stereo version, simply because the original effect had been used so many times by then that it was showing wow and flutter effects.
Even then, not all the stereo versions met band approval: it seems John Lennon always preferred the mono Hey Jude.
For more on The Beatles in Mono see here http://www.thebeatles.com/news/beatles-get-back-mono
Yasuko Everard is the Hi-Fi Widow http://www.hifiwidow.com
The tapes were played back on a Studer A80, and the new vinyl cut on a 1980s Neumann VMS80 lathe.
The mono versions of the classic Beatles albums were the band’s preferred format, not least because that’s how the majority of listeners will have heard them back in the 1960s, using portable record players such as the classic, single valve amplified Dansette.
Until 1968 each Beatles album had separate mono and stereo mixes, with tracks sometimes of different lengths and including varying elements: for example Helter Skelter is a minute longer in stereo and has a very different mix, with engineer Ken Scott revealing that in the later years the band realised fans would buy both versions if they were different.
And Scott also revealed that the famous jet engine sound opening Back in The USSR was different for the stereo version, simply because the original effect had been used so many times by then that it was showing wow and flutter effects.
Even then, not all the stereo versions met band approval: it seems John Lennon always preferred the mono Hey Jude.
For more on The Beatles in Mono see here http://www.thebeatles.com/news/beatles-get-back-mono
Yasuko Everard is the Hi-Fi Widow http://www.hifiwidow.com
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