Beatles Talk- UK Albums Vs US Albums

[kingdom warrior]

Grew with the US versions but when I hit my teens and the UK versions came out on CD, I was hooked. UK for me but not too crazy about Past Masters compilation but understand the logic for songs not on albums being sold as singles. Didn't like that Capitol made you spend your money on the single and album even though the song on the singles were on the album. Greed!

See,I understand why the record company released singles since that was more popular back then....So having Past Masters collects those songs that were left off the UK albums.......but my thought as a Beatle fan is why can't you have special editions where those songs get restored to the albums they should have been on.
For me it makes for better listening.......and Yes Capitol milked that Beatle cow for everything it could get.

[Blue Meanie]

It all depends on what you want to listen to. The UK versions are better because the mixes are a lot cleaner than what Capitol Records put on the US versions. The mixes on the US are awful by comparison to the UK Versions. In my opinion if you want the best quality sound wise try to find the Beatles Blue Box of LP's that was released in '78 and then released again in the early 80's. I have a Italian import of that set and the sound is incredible. The separation of the instruments is nice and you can hear things in those mixes that you can't here on the newly re-mastered CD's. Everything in the Blue Box up to Pepper is absolutely worth getting. For some reason Yellow Sub and the White Album aren't as vibrant as the rest of the LP's. Let It Be also sounds as good as the early LP's. The new re-masters suffer from the "Loudness Wars" that the record companies are into these days. Their opinion is that the louder the CD is the better it is...what they don't understand is that it tends to destroy/distort the sound of older LP's like the Beatles and the Stones. I've been finding original pressings of LP's and transferring them to CD without any EQ whatsoever. Whatever is on the LP is whatever is put down on CD. I can tell you that those Blue Box LP's sound better than the new re-masters. I also have an original 1st pressing of Ram that blows away the CD re-master that just came out. If anyone is interested in the vinyl vs. CD issue they should try Steve Hoffman's site:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/forums/music-corner.2/

I'm still learning...but when everything is said and done I will be replacing all of my CD's, if they were original versions on vinyl, with a LP transfer to CD. BTW if anyone wants to buy my Capitol US CD box sets let me know. I played them once. Just don't care for them at all.

[SeattleEd]

^Agreed.
The heavy compression on current versions and albums is ridiculous. The remasters are great but are all falling in the digital realm. Nothing will ever beat a properly mixed and mastered analogue recording.
Even the new releases on vinyl are sourced from digital sessions. Defeats the purpose.

UK versions will always sound right to me.

[kingdom warrior]

I've been wanting for ages to get the Blue Box set but, haven't pulled the gun to get it. One of my Buddies has the set and I got to hear it the sound is pretty amazing....at the same time, I've been wanting to get more of the Parlophone UK mono LPs......I just love the sound of Vinyl... Cd's just can't match it.....