Customarily new Beatles product never lacks controversy, and the remastered catalog is no exception. The 1987 CDs remained a sore point for many Beatles fans for over 20 years, with many complaining about their inferior sound quality and producer George Martin's stereo remixes of Help! and Rubber Soul and his insistence on keeping the first two albums in mono.
Purists believe that no aspect of Beatles music should be tampered with, that the original recordings contain history that should never be altered. The long-awaited 2009 remasters, not surprisingly, also inspire controversy, with debate surrounding several key issues.
To honor the 9/9/09 release date, here are nine questions concerning the remasters:
1. Does it make sense to purchase the remasters in yet another format, and is the CD already endangered?
As Dr. Warren O'Boogie, Beatles expert and contributor to Beatlefan magazine, argues, “the ultimate question is, how many times will we have to buy this 'catalog' before we get the 'ultimate listening experience'?” If remastering technology further develops, “will we still be alive when they try to resell this catalog to us again, possibly in 2012?” asks O'Boogie. Beatlefan Editor-in-Chief Bill King expresses concern that “basically...five years down the road we'll all have to shell out again to buy the entire catalog in 5.5 surround-sound! I'm cynical about why they didn't go ahead and do it now.” However, frequent Beatle Brunch radio show and Beatlefan contributor Tom Frangione argues that “it's ridiculous that anyone could dismiss this by asserting that the catalog had already been remastered over two decades ago. The technological advances alone render this argument moot. Far less significant catalogs have been remastered several times in the period since the Beatles CDs appeared.”
2. How much digital cleaning techniques did the recording engineers use? Did they remove any important sounds?
As Abbey Road Project Coordinator Allan Rouse told AbbeyRd's Music Page founder Steve Marinucci, “removing tape hiss from the mono and stereo remasters was rarely attempted, and when it was, it was used subtly and only to reduce the level of the noise, not to remove it. Less than 1% of the catalog was treated.” Beatlefan Executive Editor Al Sussman expresses confidence in the Abbey Road engineers: “The team was determined to remaster the albums but retain the records' integrity, which might not have been the case if they had remixed them. The [art restoration] team cleaned and polished the Mona Lisa, but didn't put lipstick and eye liner on her.”
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