Search - The Beatles :: The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 (Longbox)

Every Little Thing

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 04/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The good news is that for American Beatles fans we get the albums the way they were originally released in the U.S. The sound is extremely good considering the age of these mastertapes. The gems here are "The Early Beatles", "Beatles VI" and"Rubber Soul". "Rubber Soul" was altered as well but Capitol curiously chose to remove 4 songs and replace two of these with acoustic tracks from "Help!" creating a much more folk-rock sounding album when compared to their British masterpiece. Each one has its merits incidently this one does have the false intro for "I'm Looking Through You" that was on the original stereo issue. The first pressing doesn't feature the original mono mixes (nor does "Beatles VI" although "The Early Beatles" and "Help!" do) but the stereo master remixed for mono. Capitol has already corrected the problem and is setting up an exchange program. Keep your receipt though.



"Beatles VI" actually came out before "Rubber Soul" but featured tracks from "Help!", the earlier "Beatles For Sale" and single tracks such as the gorgeous B-Side "Yes It Is". The stereo tracks sound extremely good and there's not as much as the annoying echo that Dave Dexter poured on some of the tracks from their first couple of albums.



"Help!" has some terrific songs on it but the American release was always weaker than the British although I have always liked the James Bondish intro to the title song that wasn't ever on the original British release. For those purists that want Ken Thorne's score it makes its CD debut here alternating with the album tracks as on the original album release. Unfortunately Capitol elected (according to Bruce Spizer)not to recreate the gatefold jacket due to time constraints--that's too bad as it was a nice feature of the original packaging.



"The Early Beatles" features the oldest songs from their catalog--it's actually a reduced version of their first album "Please Please Me". The stereo tracks (a lot of which are true stereo and not the duophohic ones that appeared on their earlier albums)sound great. I was surprised at how crystal clear "Love Me Do" in this stereo remix.



The box the set comes in isn't all that great. The long box features a box that folds over to house the CD cardboard holders. Two complaints here 1) The packaging still looks cheap even though it's been improved and 2) the cardboard holders should have had plastic sleeves to hold the CDs in so they don't get scratched up. The reproduction of the album graphics are closer to the original ones although, again, they've been modified for the CDs. The pictures are much cleaner and clearer looking. A couple of options here contact Capitol (I called their 800 # listed here and got a recoridng asking for name, address, etc.)or just wait a couple of weeks until the replacements hit town. Then again if enough people mail back their previous editions of RS and BVI this might actually become a collectible. It's a tough call.



The booklet is great with rare (and not so rare) photos quotes from the band and a brief essay by Bruce Spizer who has written a number of books on the band's U.S. releases. Again I would have liked to see sturdier packaging but this does improve slightly on the previous packaging. Evidently the first set didn't set the world on fire like Capitol had hoped selling only a million units so I was surprised to see Capitol move forward with this release. Hopefully they'll release the last set and include "Revolver", "Yesterday and Today", "Hey Jude" (aka "The Beatles Again"). I'm also hoping that they will finally release the mono version of "Sgt. Pepper" and "Magical Mystery Tour" as part of the same package.



Capitol has not issued a recall but, instead, has offered to replace the two discs with the incorrect masters used. Hopefully they'll be more careful with Volume 3. The new discs with the correct mixes has a sticker on it with SK1 in tiny print on the cover of the CD box just below the information on the release.



"

My Heart Sank....

Philip A.Cohen | Bay Harbor Islands, Florida United States | 04/12/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Well,ever-eager to have the latest Beatles product,I rushed out to a local shopping mall record store that had an unbelievably low price on the set,though I was concerned that I might get one of the defective sets,with the wrong mixes for the mono renditions of "Beatles VI" and "Rubber Soul",so,as soon as I got home,I immediately cued up the mono version of "I'm looking Through You",and it had the false start.MY HEART SANK.I got the defective pressing(the false start is only supposed to be on the stereo mix).As of the date of my writing this,Capitol still had yet to announce how we can get the corrected "Rubber Soul" & "Beatles VI" discs.I didn't listen to the rest of the set,because I was so brought down that Capitol was so careless.They can't be trusted to properly present The Beatles music any more today than in the 1960's.Really,what I would have prefered would have been a proper remaster of the original British albums(mono,stereo & perhaps surround) on SACD.Presenting the music from Capitol's 3rd generation tapes was a dubious idea to begin with(though I did like "The Capitol Albums Vol.1",and the set achieved what it set out to do).Capitol should have postponed the release of Vol.2,instead of disappointing me and thousands of others by shipping a half-baked(partly defective) turkey."

Great Music, Terrible Digital Mastering

Scooter | Southern California | 10/07/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"When I ripped these CD's and put them on my computer and listened to them, my heart sank.



First, the sound is so incredibly loud, in comparison to other CD's, that one has turn down the stereo significantly to even carry on a conversation.



That led me to run the files through what is called a wave editor, which shows the digital files in a viewable format. What I saw confirmed what I heard.



All the tracks were recorded at zero decibles, the maximum any digital sound file can have. If it is louder than that, the sound is clipped and there can be modest to significant distortion.



I may be getting too technical for you guys, but in the old days we had a VU meter and the sound could crest into the red (above 0db) and be OK--not with digital music. Above 0db, and the file portions are simply not heard. 80% of the music in each track file are at 0db.



To simplify this for you the quiet portions of each track and the louder portions of each track are compressed so each approaches or exceeds 0db. What I saw were sounds tha instead of peaking or approaching 0db were well above that value. So instead of a good zig zag file pattern, one sees a big blot of red.



When I went back and listened to the sections that were above 0db, you could hear noticeable clipping and distortion.



Lowering the volume using any digital sound editor certainly makes the CD set more listienable, but does not remove the distortion and clipping.



High compression mastering at 0db is now a mistake that some CD mastering plants are doing. I'm not sure why. Audioslave and Red hot chili peppers are two other examples of artists doing this to make the sound appear to be punchier.



From a sound standpoint, this set sucks. Rip the Capitol vinyl versions or buy the Japanese versions, both of which will give you a more honest sound of the greatest rock group ever.



I am so disappointed in this set."