Abbey Road 2019

[shoes]

I often have mixed emotions about remixes especially when messing with masterpieces, but I have now listened to the Abbey Road 2019 remix both of the original album and the bonus material (outtakes and alternate takes) and I have to say I am thrilled with it. I don't have the musical chops of Dell, hoop, big daddy and others on this forum nor am I really an audiophile equipment wise but I feel like I can hear many of the parts better (Ringo's drumming for one) and the vocals are so clear and warm.

I would be curious if anyone else has heard this yet and what you think. One cut:

[spiderjohn]

just streamed the new version to a nice sound system in a vehicle. Sounded good--a lot of digital separation and brightness. Would be interesting to hear the analogue vinyl version. I am hardly a Beatles expert. I know through their career(particularly up to Sgt.Pepper), they had no real interest in mixing for stereo. They approved the mono version of everything, then left it up to others to create a stereo mix. Very common for that era, and explains why mono lps are more valued(stereo is a man-made simulation—-the current era preferring the term "binaural").

I am not big on a lot of re-masters, while a lot of them are outstanding. they are someone else's idea of how the original tapes should have been mastered. A lot of "cleaning up" has been done to these old tapes from all artists, with most of them being successful--still you need something of quality/accuracy to make something out of it. Not going to enter the digital vs analogue debate--a lot of good with both. Analogue still best for older, while digital is great on newer studio work.

I am a 50+ year vinyl junkie, and instead of buying a lot of re-masters or digital downloads, I search for first pressing vinyl. It is hard to beat since it is as close to the original source as possible. I read the etchings in the run-out at the end, and over the years II have learned what are the original labels on the record.

I do have a box set of heavy clean vinyl mono pressings of the British versions of every lp up to Magical Mystery Tour, and these versions are outstanding.
Haven't heard the latest alternates and out-takes of Abbey Road, though there usually is a good reason why these versions were prior un-released.

I was never big on side 1 of this lp. Side 2 is the masterpiece imo.

[1hooper]

abbeyroad.thebeatles.com/1lp_standard/
Polythene Pam