Kelli owns pretty much every Beatles album ever released, so when I decided to fill the gaps in my own digital Fab Four collection, she made it easy for me.
On Sunday while perusing the magazine rack at Chapters we came across a Rolling Stone article that may have me once again, updating my collection. It’s a short paragraph about a Beatles fan (or fans) who have created a fantastic do-it-yourself reissue of all of the Beatles recordings using a record player and original vinyl albums.
The Beatles’ albums came out on CD in 1987, but fans have long complained that the early digital technology used to remaster the recordings left them sounding hollow and thin — and that the official remasters are way overdue. That’s where Purple Chick comes in — a secretive fan (or group of fans) who has been quietly remastering classic discs like Revolver and A Hard Day’s Night, and releasing the digital files for free online. How is this possible? The Beatles’ CDs sound so bad that carefully digitized tracks from pristine vinyl copies are noticeably better — with crisper highs, a fuller soundstage, and more realistic reproduction of instruments and voices.
Check out Purple Chick Six plus three and the many megaupload links he’s posted for some of the highest fidelity digital recordings of the Beatles, ever.
I’ve compared them myself; the DIY remasters are noticeably different and in some cases better, but in at least one instance, (In My Life – Rubber Soul) the new file had the same audio in both the left and right channels, where my previous version was in true stereo. So your mileage may vary.
Also note, the files are in the open source format .FLAC and will need to be converted before they can be played in some players. (Audacity can do it).
Not Purple Chick, but 6plus3… Sorry about that Paul, and thanks for the clarifications in the comments.
Paul (6plus3) says:
May 8th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Hi, and thanks for the plug! Let me put a few popular misconceptions right. I am not Purple Chick, and I’m also very much not a ‘she’!
Six plus three exists as a portal for good quality lossless Beatles material, but I am not in any way connected to Purple Chick. I am just one of the many “providers” out there.
Regarding —In My Life’. I think you must have listening to the mono version on disc 2. The version on disc 1 (the stereo disc) is very much stereo, and the second version on disc 1 (taken from the Anthology DVD) is also in stereo, though less obvious, but more spacial.
Glad you’re enjoying listening to The Beatles in decent sound quality for a change!
Cheers.
Paul.
R10pez10 says:
May 9th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
The WordPress site’s been pulled down!
For violation of it’s “Terms of Service” or something.. damn,
hopefully they’ll find a new home.
Kelli says:
May 9th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Paul, as in Paul McCartney…?
Jeff Milner says:
May 10th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Paul has everything backed up. He has plans for a new site and says to check here for details.
Peter says:
May 30th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
It looks like the Rolling Stone article brought on it too much attention and caught the eyes of WordPress. Hopefully it will be back soon.