The Beatles: Stereo Vinyl Box Set (2012) [Vinyl Rip 16/44 & mp3-320]

Albums included:
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles For Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles (The White Album) (2LP)
Yellow Submarine
Let It Be
Abbey Road
Past Masters (2LP) The Beatles' acclaimed original studio album remasters, released on CD in 2009, make their long-awaited stereo vinyl debut.

Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band's cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles. The albums are accompanied by a stunning, elegantly designed 252-page hardbound book in a lavish boxed edition which is being in limited quantities worldwide.

The book, exclusive to the boxed edition, is authored by award-winning radio producer Kevin Howlett and features a dedicated chapter for each of the albums, as well as insight into the creation of the remasters and how the vinyl albums were prepared. The 12"x12" book showcases a wealth of photographs spanning The Beatles' recording career, including many images which were not included in the 2009 CD booklets.

The titles include The Beatles' 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group's core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, first released individually in 1988, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities. With this release, The Beatles' first four albums make their North American stereo vinyl debuts.

There has always been demand for The Beatles' albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011's best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles' acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI's Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles' vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

A 'blind' listening test was arranged to choose between a 'lacquer' or 'copper' cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day's Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having 'blank' discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone 'limiting' - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any 'sibilant episodes' - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of 'inner-groove distortion' was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a 'mushy' sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as 'surgical EQ,' problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the 'lock-groove' at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

Tracklist VNL01 - 1963 Please Please Me:

A1. I Saw Her Standing There
A2. Misery
A3. Anna (Go To Him)
A4. Chains
A5. Boys
A6. Ask Me Why
A7. Please Please Me
B1. Love Me Do
B2. P.S. I Love You
B3. Baby It's You
B4. Do You Want To Know A Secret
B5. A Taste Of Honey
B6. There's A Place
B7. Twist And Shout



Tracklist VNL02 - 1963 With The Beatles:

Side 1
1. It Won't Be Long
2. All I've Got to Do
3. All My Loving
4. Don't Bother Me
5. Little Child
6. Till There Was You
7. Please Mister Postman

Side 2
1. Roll Over Beethoven
2. Hold Me Tight
3. You Really Got a Hold on Me
4. I Wanna Be Your Man
5. Devil in Her Heart
6. Not a Second Time
7. Money (That's What I Want)



Tracklist VNL03 - 1964 A Hard Day's Night:

Side 1
1. A Hard Day’s Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can’t Buy Me Love

Side 2
1. Any Time At All
2. I’ll Cry Instead
3. Things We Said Today
4. When I Get Home
5. You Can’t Do That
6. I’ll Be Back



Tracklist VNL04 - 1964 Beatles for Sale:

Side 1
1. No Reply
2. I'm A Loser
3. Baby's In Black
4. Rock And Roll Music
5. I'll Follow The Sun
6. Mr. Moonlight
7. Kansas City

Side 2
1. Eight Days A Week
2. Words Of Love
3. Honey Don't
4. Every Little Thing
5. I Don't Want To Spoil The Party
6. What You're Doing
7. Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby



Tracklist VNL05 - 1965 Help!:

Side 1
1. Help!
2. The Night Before
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
4. I Need You
5. Another Girl
6. You're Going To Lose That Girl
7. Ticket To Ride

Side 2
1. Act Naturally
2. It's Only Love
3. You Like Me Too Much
4. Tell Me What You See
5. I've Just Seen A Face
6. Yesterday
7. Dizzy Miss Lizzy



Tracklist VNL06 - 1965 Rubber Soul:

Side 1
1. Drive My Car
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. The Word
7. Michelle

Side 2
1. What Goes On
2. Girl
3. I'm Looking Through You
4. In My Life
5. Wait
6. If I Needed Someone
7. Run For Your Life



Tracklist VNL07 - 1966 Revolver:

Side 1
1.Taxman
2. Eleanor Rigby
3.I'm Only Sleeping
4. Love You To
5. Here, There And Everywhere
6. Yellow Submarine
7. She Said She Said

Side 2
1.Good Day Sunshine
2. And Your Bird Can Sing
3. For No One
4. Dr. Robert
5. I Want To Tell You
6. Got To Get You Into My Life
7. Tomorrow Never Knows



Tracklist VNL08 - 1967 Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band:

Side 1
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With A Little Help From My Friends
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing A Hole
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite

Side 2
1. Within You Without You
2. When I'm Sixty-Four
3. Lovely Rita
4. Good Morning Good Morning
5. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
6. A Day In The Life



Tracklist VNL09 - 1967 Magical Mystery Tour:

Side 1
1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. The Fool On The Hill
3. Flying
4. Blue Jay Way
5. Your Mother Should Know
6. I Am The Walrus

Side 2
1. Hello Goodbye
2. Strawberry Fields Forever
3. Penny Lane
4. Baby You're A Rich Man
5. All You Need Is Love



Tracklist VNL10 - 1968 The Beatles (White Album) LP1:

Side 1
1. Back In The U.S.S.R.
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
5. Wild Honey Pie
6. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
7. White My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Side 2
1. Martha My Dear
2. I'm So Tired
3. Blackbird
4. Piggies
5. Rocky Raccoon
6. Don't Pass Me By
7. Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
8. I Will
9. Julia


Tracklist VNL11 - 1968 The Beatles (White Album) LP2:

Side 1
1. Birthday
2. Yer Blues
3. Mother Nature's Son
4. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
5. Sexy Sadie
6. Helter Skelter
7. Long, Long, Long

Side 2
1. Revolution 1
2. Honey Pie
3. Savoy Truffle
4. Cry Baby Cry
5. Revolution 9
6. Good Night



Tracklist VNL12 - 1969 Yellow Submarine:

Side 1
1. Yellow Submarine
2. Only a Northern Song
3. All Together Now
4. Hey Bulldog
5. It's All Too Much
6. All You Need Is Love

Side 2
1. Pepperland
2. Sea of Time
3. Sea of Holes
4. Sea of Monsters
5. March of the Meanies
6. Pepperland Laid Waste
7. Yellow Submarine in Pepperland



Tracklist VNL13 - 1969 Abbey Road:

Side 1
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell's Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus's Garden
6. I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Side 2
01. Here Comes the Sun
02. Because
03. You Never Give Me Your Money
04. Sun King
05. Mean Mr. Mustard
06. Polythene Pam
07. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
08. Golden Slumbers
09. Carry That Weight
10. The End
11. Her Majesty



Tracklist VNL14 - 1970 Let it be:

Side 1
1. Two Of Us
2. Dig A Pony
3. Across The Universe
4. I Me Mine
5. Dig It
6. Let It Be
7. Maggie Mae

Side 2
1. I've Got A Feeling
2. One After 909
3. The Long And Winding Road
4. For You Blue
5. Get Back



Tracklist VNL15 - 1988 Past Masters Volume 1:

Side 1
1. Love Me Do
2. From Me To You
3. Thank You Girl
4. She Loves You
5. I'll Get You 2:05
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
7. This Boy
8. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
9. Sie Liebt Dich

Side 2
1. Long Tall Sally
2. I Call Your Name
3. Slow Down
4. Matchbox
5. I Feel Fine
6. She's A Woman
7. Bad Boy
8. Yes It Is
9. I'm Down


Tracklist VNL16 - 1988 Past Masters Volume 2:

Side 1
1. Day Tripper
2. We Can Work It Out
3. Paperback Writer
4. Rain
5. Lady Madonna
6. The Inner Light
7. Hey Jude
8. Revolution

Side 2
1. Get Back
2. Don't Let Me Down
3. The Ballad Of John And Yoko
4. Old Brown Shoe
5. Across The Universe
6. Let It Be
7. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)




All thanks go to the original releaser