The Beatles: My Response To The Absence Of Remasters

Such is the strength of my Beatles fascination that as a 9 year old I laboriously recorded all my Dad's original UK pressings onto TDK cassettes, neatly scribing in black ink the song titles and storing them in a carry case. I never lost this obsession for cataloging and collecting music and posses a fairly large collection of official CDs, cassettes and vinyls, and even bigger collection of unofficial bootlegs and rare recordings across a few formats. As for the Beatles, like every other aficionado the world over, I was never satisfied with the 1987 digital remasters and as such never bought more than three of them. My Dad never bought them either, mostly because he was a tight git; as a result his vinyls are now more noise than signal. But I have to listen to the Beatles every so often (usually every week), so I turned to piracy, mostly from Oink! before it was shut down, and my format of choice: MiniDisc. Now that the official remasters (including mono versions!) are on the way, I thought I'd share my custom "Beatles Complete" as it begins its final chapter as my primary source of Beatles. So, this is my Beatles collection that has been serving me well since I completed it in 2007:

It covers 20 MiniDiscs. I commenced recording in October and was done by December. I divided it into four parts. The UK releases in mono and stereo, and the US releases in mono and stereo. Sources vary. Most are Dr. Ebbett's vinyls, the latest generations I could find. All the US Capitol album releases are from those official discs, whilst some other rips found their way in there, such as non-Ebbett vinyl masters. Also, the infamous short-lived Black Triangle Japanese Abbey Road release. This collection contains basically every studio song officially released. I went to a lot of effort to hunt down every variant of every single and have placed them in their correct context. It should be borne in mind that the US releases often featured different mixes, so even though, for example, Sgt. Pepper appears numerous times, each is a different version!

Disc #1: The Beatles UK Collection in MONO Part I
-Please Please Me
-With The Beatles
-Long Tall Sally EP
-A Hard Day's Night
-Beatles For Sale
+period singles

Disc #2: The Beatles UK Collection in MONO Part II
-Help!
-Rubber Soul
-Revolver
+Yellow Submarine Score
+period singles

Disc #3: The Beatles UK Collection in MONO Part III
-Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
-Magical Mystery Tour EP
+period singles & extras

Disc #4: The Beatles UK Collection in MONO Part IV
-The Beatles (aka The White Album)
+period singles

Disc #5: The Beatles Capitol Albums/US Collection in MONO Part I
-Meet The Beatles
-Second Album
-Something New
-Beatles '65
-The Early Beatles

Disc #6: The Beatles Capitol Albums/US Collection in MONO Part II
-Beatles IV
-Help! (soundtrack album)
-Rubber Soul
-Yesterday...And Today
-Revolver

Disc #7: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part I
-Please Please Me
-With The Beatles
+period singles

Disc #8: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part II
-A Hard Day's Night
-Beatles For Sale
+period singles

Disc #9: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part III
-Help!
-Rubber Soul
+period singles

Disc #10: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part IV
-Revolver
-Yellow Submarine Score
+period singles

Disc #11: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part V
-Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
+period singles

Disc #12: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part VI
-Magical Mystery Tour EP
-The Beatles (aka The White Album) Disc One
+period singles; extras

Disc #13: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part VII
-The Beatles (aka The White Album) Disc Two
+period singles; rarities; extras

Disc #14: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part VIII
-Abbey Road
+period singles
+extras

Disc #15: The Beatles UK Collection in STEREO Part IX
-Let It Be...Naked
-Let It Be

Disc #16: The Beatles Capitol Albums/US Collection in STEREO Part I
-Meet The Beatles
-The Beatles' Second Album
-Something New

Disc #17: The Beatles Capitol Albums/US Collection in STEREO Part II
-Beatles '65
-The Early Beatles
+rarities

Disc #18: The Beatles Capitol Albums/US Collection in STEREO Part III
-Beatles VI
-Help!

Disc #19: The Beatles Capitol Albums/US Collection in STEREO Part IV
-Rubber Soul
-Yesterday...And Today
+rarities

Disc #20: The Beatles Capitol Albums/US Collection in STEREO Part V
-Revolver
-Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band*
+singles

All recording was done real-time on a Sony MDS-JE520 deck, which is equipped with the penultimate version of Sony's ATRAC codec: 4.5. If the official remasters, with their noise reduction and limiting, should fail to please, I always this collection to fall back on. And since the MiniDisc format is virtually indestructible, it should outlive me.

*This is the UHQ (Ultra High Quality) version from a high resolution rip. To my ears this is the best-sounding Sgt. Pepper I have ever heard.