Beatles Love on LP

I asked Music Direct where my order is and this is what they told me...

"It’s on pre order and is not expected to be released until Mid February. "

It's nice to know some things in the music industry haven't changed...reliable release dates.

 

I'm not one who appreciates the sound difference of vinyl compared to well mastered CDs, but I'm curious about old digital recordings like Donald Fagan's The Nightfly. That album was recorded digitally at 50kHz 16bits, which is not too far from a CD's 44.1/16 resolution. (I have no clue if converting 50/16 to 44.1/16 results in a loss of more than 12% of the samples.) I would think that like playing music through an tube amp, many audiophiles would prefer to hear Nightfly on vinyl due to a warmth factor that is added. (Plus a belief that no samples are lost unlike with the 44.1/16 conversion.) Is that not the case?

 

i'm way late with this, but i was reading back through the beginning saw that quote and thought of this:


ohhhhh the album is in the computer!

digital vinyl, that sounds like an oxymoron. i'd still buy a copy of it though i'm sure... when it comes out.

 

Well, it finally looks like this release is back on track, but at a price.

I received this email from Key Mail Order today........

"Can’t buy me ‘love’ on vinyl? You can now!
Finally due for release on 30th April 2007 is The Beatles ‘Love’ on double vinyl. It will come with two heavyweight records in printed inner sleeves and a 12” size 28 page book containing imagery and photos from the CD booklet. We have been told by EMI that this will be limited, so we will need your orders as quickly as possible. As usual, if paying by credit/debit card, you will not be charged until we despatch. Now, sit down for the price…
We can offer this double vinyl for £29.99 (+ £3.00 P&P UK, £6.00 P&P EUR, £9.00 P&P ROW)"

I thought that this was pricey until I checked Amazon.co.uk. Their preorder price back in January was £18.99 (which I took advantage of thankfully). Their price as of today however is now a whopping £40.99 (that's approx $80 for you US folk) . EMI must've slapped a huge RRP on this one. I wonder how may folk will actually go for this one now......

Chris

 

The sleeve's bigger. Sod the sonics - it's the packaging that matters!

No, seriously - look at "Anthology". The CD is a bit chintzy, a bit naff, nothing spectacular to look at. The LP packaging, on the other hand, had some serious redesigning applied to it.

Or, to use a much older example, which is more aesthetically pleasing: "Sgt. Pepper" in 12" x 12", or 4.75" x 4.75"?

Not that quality of packaging necessarily applies to "Love". It'll look like a rehash of "Derek & Clive Ad Nauseam" in any shape or size.

 

Now thats what I call a well hung Beatles record...

 

elusive disc has it for $40 US.

http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EMILPI79808

later, chris

 

Perhaps they made a tape when they mixed it, and the vinyl is cut from that?

 

The answer can be found by listening to Brian Wilson's SMiLE vinyl (and others). Very high-res sound compared to the CD. It depends how it's mastered, like dave says above.

 

According to the interview with the Martins in this month's "Sound On Sound", they made a tape and mastered the CD from it. They preferred the way the tape "knitted" the elements together, compared to the direct output of the soundcard.

Wildly paraphrased, but you get the idea. In effect, they used analogue tape as a "dithering" medium.

 

Analogue tape survives then! Great news at last but I can't help but wonder if the sales for the lp would had been potentially more high had the release been around the sametime as the CD/DVD.

 

Well if you want to buy it, get in there now!! Normally these retailers will put an approx price for preorders but by the looks of things EMI have not long furnished the UK vinyl retailers with the final recommended price for this set which is way above initial estimates, so don't be suprised if this filters through to other sites before too long. After trawling through various sites this morning, the cheapest I'm seeing it in the UK is now £30 ($60) before shipping costs are added.

CHris

 

I would hope the vinyl will have the full-length versions of "Back In The U.S.S.R." and "Revolution". It would be nice if there were other bonuses too, but I am not going to hold my breath.

 

Surely they will include the full versions of Revolution & Back In The USSR. (but then again when has Apple/EMi been driven by logic?) The only thing that required these songs to be edited down for CD was the 80min time limitation of Red Book and they won't have this limitation for vinyl......

Chris

 

now scheduled for may 8th, $45.

http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EMILPI79808

later, chris

 

Well, gives us something to look forward to.

 

That's got an obvious answer!

 

Read back a few posts, at the end of page 1. Not so obvious, and interesting.

Jason

 

Know thy audience:

Would've been intruiging if, to capitalize on the fact that this is on vinyl, they had created a unique mono mix of the album, passed through a Fairchild to tape... and then cut the LP edition from that master. Then, we'd get punch, cymbal splatter, sound effects and overdubs at slightly different levels and placements, different edits...

...and then quietly slip the stereo LP out in Germany and watch the chaos begin.

 

The use of that rooftop photo for the centerspread of the "Love" CD booklet (and the inside LP gatefold) still strikes me as incredibly lazy.

It's the SAME photo they used as the centerspread for the previous Beatles release, the "Let It Be ...Naked" album, and it really has nothing to do, conceptually or otherwise, with the "Love" project. (That said, the vibrant psychedelic treatment of the "Love" booklet-photos of the four individual Beatles is both eye catching and in keeping with the spirit of the "mash-up" album.)

I thought Richard Ward and The Team did a brilliant job with the artwork and design for "Live At The BBC" album and "Baby It's You" single, and the "Anthology" 3-LP sets look spectacular. But the art direction on both "Let It Be ... Naked" and "Love" are painfully bad. In fact, I'd say "Let It Be ... Naked" is by far the worst Beatles album cover ever -- worse even than the double-LP version of "Rock & Roll Music."

 

I previously never thought they could do any worse than "Rock & Roll Music", but I guess they found a way.

Hopefully with Aspinall out of the way things hopefully can improve.

 

I made a downmix of the 5.1 dvda and burned that to a dvda. I have no doubt that will be better than this. You all obviously know this will be the same thing I have made because this was done digitally. I'll order one though and make a comparison. This album was done in 5.1 only. The stereo is a fold down of the 5.1.

 

No way could it all fit on mono IMHO. The master is 5.1. To downmix to mono with the limitation of a records fidelity would be fair to good at best. This was done after the millenium folks. These are all going to come from a digital copy I guarantee it.

 

the album was not done in 5.1 only, and the LPCM stereo mix on the DVD is not a fold-down