Capitol Beatles Box Set Vol 2 - Continued (Part 2)

STOP The box set we get on April 11 WILL NOT have mono fold-downs on Rubber Soul. I don't care if Wollensack's set has them or not...that's NOT the set the public will get. There is ZERO chance that Ted Jensen CREATED NEW mono fold-dowmn mixes and would allow them to be marketed as the original 1965 mono mixes as prepared by George Martin. And NO ONE at Capitol would perpetrate this on the record buying public either. This ISN'T the 1960's folks....Ron

 

This is friggin' crazy. Two days after this story broke and STILL no-one can confirm or deny the state of the mono mixes on this release. I'm hearing all about beatles festivals and samplers and Bruce Spizer and promo set and yadda yadda yadda. So NO-ONE in the world except Wollensack has heard this release?
This has gotta be some kind of a joke surely? Add to all this the weird way SHmf website is behaving at the moment and its like some bad edition of the 'Twilight Zone'!!

 

Couldn't have put it better myself - especially the Twilight Zone comment (!) - but I think brainwashed is right, we will be getting the 'real deal' when this sucker hits the streets!

 

This forum, great as it is, does not represent the entire world of Beatles fanatics. Think about it - it was seen as impressive that about 50 people were accessing "Part 1" of this thread at the same time. That is less than a drop in the ocean as far as Beatles fans worldwide who are interested in this release are concerned.

Yes, other people probably have the box and many certainly have the sampler by now. Just because they don't read this forum doesn't mean they don't exist!

 

Yes Mal I know we don't have world domination yet (soon though ) but a hell of a lot of lurkers are out there. Heck my thread about the UK catalogue remasters ended up on the Abbey Road site...a LOT of people read the SHmf. Some beatle nut would LOVE to have the scoop on this subject and all it would take is to post here on the SHmf.

There are even people who have already posted on this thread who say THEY ACTUALLY HAVE the sampler. Yet they can't apparently listen to the thing to confirm or deny the Rubber Soul mixes!!?!? wtf?

 

You're right Mal....BUT no one else has posted hearing this set on more than a dozen Beatles and/or music sites I've checked today. There's thousands of people on these websites and not a single person has mentioned they have heard the set yet. Here's an open question....Why did Wollensack go into hiding? Even if his set is some sort of advanced copy, or pressing anomoly...or even a boot...he COULD say definitively what he's hearing on it. Are the mono tracks on Beatles VI and Rubber Soul identical time-wise? Is he postive the mono tracks he's hearing ARE mono? I guess it's POSSIBLE, that he has a pressing mistake where the stereo mixes were used on all tracks, including the supposed mono tracks...but I doubt it. I'll stand by my sources who all claim the mixes; stereo, duophonic and mono are all original 1965 Capitol mixes. Ron

 

Again -- I cannot imagine that Ted Jensen or Bruce Spizer would sign off on this. Maybe they just edited the cough out? And why do lengths stand as proof?

 

Could someone try to get a link, I mean a Capitol Records direct link that displays that Press Release? I'm trying and I can't find it anywhere on their website, but I'm probably just missing it. Thank You.

 

The timings of some mono and stereo mixes differ greatly. Kansas City is almost 6 seconds longer in stereo; the mono mix of Words Of Love is 9 seconds longer than the stereo mix. If the times are the same on both mixes, than the mono mixes would be fold-downs of the stereo mix. If they differ, than we have the original mono mixes. As far as editing out specific anomolies (coughs, guitar squeaks, count-ins, false starts...etc)...again WHY? This was not done on a single track on Volume 1....I doubt it will happen on Volume 2. Ron

 

Got it
http://capitolrecords.net/beatles/041106pressrelease.html

 

www.myspace.com/thebeatles They have an EPK promo video and have a few songs to listen to...I think they are all stereo. Ron

 

21 guests reading this thread as I post this.

 

I find it amazing at all the speculation!...it will be fine, and just as promised. I guess the American Versions are more popular than you thought! Onto volume 3!

 

Maybe there is a subset of forum members who are PMing back and forth and orchestrating an April Fool's joke just to see how many loonies here they can push over the edge. I can't figure it out. It's so flippin' weird!

Either that or these people who have the sampler are in a Beatlemania trance now with their poor brains reduced to quivering jelly by the new product/event.

 

I wonder why he didn't play any of the monos? Hmm....

 

cause...he prefers the S T E R E O...

 

Here's the press release in its entirety:

http://capitolrecords.net/beatles/041106pressrelease.html


And here's the page on Capitol's site that links to it:

http://www.capitolrecords.com/artists/newsDetail.aspx?artistId=901441&newsId=7574


I noticed the following comments in the press release:

Beatles VI marks the stereo debut on CD of five Beatles recordings, including cover versions of Kansas City and Words Of Love, as well as Lennon and McCartney's What You're Doing and Every Little Thing. The album also marks the CD debut of four Beatles songs in their original 1965 George Martin mono mixes.

This would rule out anything on Beatles VI being a fold-down, right? States categorically that the original mono mixes are on here.


In Volume 2, all but four of the tracks on the stereo albums are actual stereo mixes, with two being unique Capitol duophonic mixes. Capitol's engineers created duophonic mixes from mono masters by emphasizing the treble in one channel, boosting the bass in the other, and running the two channels slightly out-of-sync to simulate a stereo sound. In addition, five of the mono tracks are unique Capitol stereo-to-mono mixdowns with added echo and reverb.

Only five UNIQUE CAPITOL STEREO-TO-MONO mixdowns in the WHOLE box set, so SURELY that rules out mixdowns for Rubber Soul???????


The Capitol Albums Volumes 1 & 2 have been carefully mastered from the original master tapes, taken from the vaults of Capitol Records, to ensure that they sound as they did when first released in 1964 and 1965. Each disc in the box sets presents each album in stereo and then in mono.

Surely this means they are NOT going to dupe us with new stereo-mono mixdowns!!!!!! IT HAS TO!!!!!!!!


Would I be jumping the gun in doing this....below....

 

That doesn't make any sense to me that it would be on purpose though. I'm not saying you're wrong, or that whatever gets issued even has to make sense, but it doesn't make sense all the same. What would the point be in issuing "fake mono" - ie fold-downs of the stereo mixes THAT ARE RIGHT THERE ON THE VERY SAME DISC. All one would have to do is combine the channels while playing the stereo portion to get the same effect. If they truly wanted to fold-down what originally wasn't folded-down, there would have been no reason to issue the "MONO" portion at all, and could have made the discs stereo only.

I'm sorry, but if this is how the product gets issued, I think a mistake happened somewhere, or whoever made the call on issuing the "MONO" portions of the Beatles VI & Rubber Soul discs in this manner screwed up big time. I don't see Capitol Records President Andy Slater making a decision like that, not considering his enthusiasm for the whole Capitol Beatles albums project being issued authentically, right down to using those wonky album "master" dubs (which was the historically correct thing to do, IMO), Duophonic in places where historically correct. I'm sure Ted Jensen would have protested as well, considering his expertise as an engineer and his (CD-R) references to the original vinyl as well, but I personally doubt the choice of what tapes to use would be his to make, no matter how much of an opinion he may have had on the matter. Also, hearing how responsive Apple has been in making this set better than Vol. 1, while at the same time unifying the packaging with the 1st set, shows that they seem to care too, IMO. So what does that leave us with? Who would have made the call (and been in a position to do so) to collapse the stereo to mono on Beatles VI & Rubber Soul, and then have the audacity to issue press releases that state that the correct mono mixes for those two albums were used on the Vol. 2 set? I truly hope no one did. So, if this wasn't the intention, AND the fake mono fold-downs of this material gets issued, then how did this happen?

If this set does get issued with the fold-downs on Beatles VI and Rubber Soul in the "MONO" portions of those discs, AND Capitol does not issue corrected discs, wouldn't their be some grounds for a lawsuit, possibly class-action where a group who feels they were misled in buying something other than what they thought they would get, due to the press releases stating the set was something different than what they ended up with? Not to mention the precedent set with Volume 1?

 

The official press release at the Capitol Website that I mentioned a few posts ago has none of the information at the bottom of each album that is in the press release that we've been reading. Where did that press release come from? Is it 100% credible? I'm only asking because as I've said in most posts concerning the mono...as long as the press release isn't a joke.

 

The figure of around fifty people viewing the thread the other day included members and guests (ie "lurkers"). That total number of around 50 people viewing the thread was considered unusually high enough on this forum for people to remark upon it......

All I'm saying is that to accuse Wollensack of making up this stuff based upon the notion that were he telling the truth he would be the only person in the world to have the set since no other former member (only members can post) had joined in this thread to announce they also had it is absolutely ludicrous.

Wollensack has the set. He has stated that at least some of the mono Rubber Soul & Beatles VI tracks are not the genuine mono mixes that appeared on the original mono LPs.

Why is everyone freaking out and insinuating that Wollensack is lying? Give the guy a break!!

 

That's the point YB was trying to make. Newly created fold down mono mixes will NOT be part of this set. Ron

 

I hope the copies of this set that have been heard with the fold-downs mentioned were sets made in error and not representative of what will be issued en masse come April 11th. Otherwise, there'll be a lot of really annoyed people...

 

Hey Mal I never said ANYWHERE that Wollensack was lying. It is just that he suddenly logs on, says "hey, newsflash!" and then tells us all that the mono mixes on his set of the albums are not true mono but foldowns. Now if you are into the Beatles than this is quite interesting news. So can we see a scan of these albums? Can we clarify if they or genuine or not? Does Wollensack post back with further reports on the release? No!
Two days later and it just seems weird. Thats all.
Then we have other members saying they have the sampler. Right there and then a lot could be cleared up just by posting their report of the sound of these discs. But no.
The silence is deafening!
I'm not freaking out, just saying wtf

 

I'm beginning to think that the added information on the press release is a joke. And if that's true, all the release at Capitol's web site says is (Stereo Recording/Original Mono Recordings) and without that added info we have nothing. All my posts have focused on the information that I now tend to think was added to make this possible joke. If so, it's a good one.