The Beatles Stereo Box Set Limited Edition 16LP Box Set
All 12 Studio Vinyl Albums plus Magical Mystery Tour and Past Masters Volumes One & Two in Stereo Box Set
Includes Gorgeous 252-Page Hardbound Book With Dedicated Chapters for Every Record Album and a Wealth of Insightful Photographs
LPs Sourced from the Original Master Tapes
All Albums Cut at Abbey Road Studios by First-Rate Team of Producers and Engineers: Stringent Procedures and Safeguards Ensure Optimum Sound
Twist and shout, shout, shout: The Beatles have at long last received the treatment they’ve always deserved in stereo on vinyl. Every Beatles album. Every official Beatles song. Faithfully reproduced album jackets. All in this glorious box set.
This box includes a gorgeous 252-page hardbound book written by award-winning radio producer Kevin Howlett, and features dedicated chapters for each of the albums as well as tremendous insight into the remasters and how the LPs were prepared. In addition, the 12 x 12 book boasts a wealth of great Beatles images and photos.
Proper care and a painstaking series of steps were taken
to ensure that music lovers would hear the Fab Four in all their glory.
With EMI’s legendary Abbey Road Studios providing the backdrop,
the four-year restoration process combined veteran expertise,
state-of-the-art equipment, vintage studio gear, and rigorous testing to
net what is authentic, jaw-dropping sound that rivals the original LPs. There is no longer any need to pay hundreds of dollars for Japanese pressings.
At
the start of the restoration process, engineers conducted extensive
tests before copying the analog master tapes into the digital realm
using 24-bit/192 kHz resolution and a Prism A-D converter. Dust
build-ups were removed from tape machine heads after the completion of
each title. Artifacts such as electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops,
excessive sibilance, and poor edits were improved upon as long as it was
determined that doing so didn’t at all damage the integrity of the
songs. Similarly, de-noising technology was applied in only a few
necessary spots and on a sum total of less than five of the entire 525
minutes of Beatles music.
In cutting the digital masters to vinyl, stringent safeguards and procedures were employed. After
cutting to lacquer, determined to be warmer and consistent than cutting
to DMM, the next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at
Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure
it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting,' a procedure to increase the sound level.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound
problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify
them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio
Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any
‘sibilant episodes.' vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds
such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very
small portion of sound causing the undesired effect.
Similarly, any likelihood of inner-groove distortion was addressed. As
the stylus approaches the center of the record, it is liable to track
the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies,
producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what
Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of
the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had
been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests
identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing
in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired
sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing
stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the
highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the
pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting
styli.
For this project, there was no such thing as too many cooks in the
kitchen. Yes, it took a village to get it right.
The Beatles Stereo Box Set Contents:
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles For Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles
Yellow Submarine
Abbey Road
Let It Be
Past Masters