Anthology "remasters"

Discuss official releases and re-issues. The only links allowed here are to the Beatles YouTube channel or other band-sanctioned platforms.
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Albert Grove
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Anthology "remasters"

Post by Albert Grove »

Hi. There are several so-called Anthology remasters around, but I wonder if they are real remasters, or somebody's homemade job (not necessarily a bad thing). For example, there 's a remaster "released"/available through the Apple Music iTunes store, either from 2011 or 2016, but is this a genuine remaster, or just loudified? If anybody in the know could enlighten me here, thanks in advance for your time.
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Tex
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by Tex »

The iTunes "Anthology 1" is a genuine remaster but whether they were given better mastering or did it themselves is the the question. I suspect iTunes does it's own in-house mastering since they use the phrase "mastered for iTunes".

Their versions of many Anthology 1 tracks sound far better than the original CDs that's for sure.
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FestVideoRoom
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by FestVideoRoom »

The three volumes of Anthology were in fact remastered (ostensibly for iTunes) way back there -- and while they were never issued on CD, lossless copies of the remasters did leak out shortly thereafter. I can't recall whether or not they were uploaded to the old forum or somewhere else but I do have them -- have CHECKED them -- and they are 100% real deal genuine. Not too sure they're cool to post here, but I suppose accomodations could be made somehow.

S
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masterjedi
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by masterjedi »

Of the numerous tracks I've looked at, the Anthology remaster is always at lease a little better then the original release. Better noise reduction, less destructive declicking, and more natural EQ all around. A must have.
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Lord Reith
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by Lord Reith »

When an album is mixed these days, the completed mixes then go to a mastering engineer who applies eq, limiting and whatever else he feels necessary to make it competitive with other releases. Whoever did the mastering on the original Anthology basically wrecked the first volume completely. Volumes 2 and 3 were slightly better but still bad. The 2011 was remastered by Giles from the analogue mixes made by his dad and Geoff emerick in 1995. He made a much better job of it.
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wades909
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by wades909 »

So are the versions available on streaming services like Spotify the remastered iTunes version or the original CD masters? I found an article on super deluxe edition saying they were newly remastered at Abbey Road by the 2009 team, but I have no idea if this is true. Would that be meaning Giles Martin and his team like Lord Reith says? https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/bea ... streaming/
Last edited by wades909 on Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dk2600
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by dk2600 »

Apple/Universal delivers the masters for itunes, Spotify or whatever the streaming is called. They won't allow these companies to do their own masters.

But you are correct, that Anthology is found in new masters.

The so called ISRC numbers and found on Universal Label Information Sheets used for production indicates that the vinyl Anthology 1 with releasenumber 724383444519 has masters done in 1995, 2009, 2011.

724383444816 Volume 2 has masters done in 1992, 1996, 2009, 2011 and 724383445110 Volume 3 has masters done 1996, 2011.

Universal delivers different ISRC numbers for a song that differs being remix, mono, stereo, HD surround, or whatever and since The Beatles when streaming Apple/Universal delivered special masters with their own ISRC number to iTunes and other streaming companies these days with special Dolby Atmos versions.

You can check the ISRC numbers from songs found on Spotify very easy: Find a song like Taxman -2022 Mix. At the right side of the line with the title there's 3 dots. Click on these, and chose share and click on link to song.

Go to https://www.isrcfinder.com/ point the mouse into the field and press ctrl+v and Find ISRC and you'll get the ISRC number for Taxman being GBUM72202544, the song comes from GB (Great Britain) and company UM7 (Universal Music 7) 22 is 2022 and 02544 the master #.

I don't know how to grab ISRC numbers from other streaming companies

All songs around the world has a unique ISRC number.

The very big database of ISRC can be found here https://isrcsearch.ifpi.org/#!/search. Chose advanced, Artist Name Beatles and press Search and you'll get the various releasenumbers and the ISRC numbers when pressings Show Releases. I don't know why some of the various ISRC numbers are coming with a red * and no release. I checked some months back and these numbers were the various versions as found in the Revolver box.

Good luck, there's 1000 of ISRC of Beatles, solo, Apple, Dark Horse, for others etc. A nice way to find out if you need a specific compilation. Many solo songs has a special master for such releases.
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by Lord Reith »

The 2011 mastering is the universal one on streaming and download sites.

That's "universal" as in everywhere... not the company.
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wades909
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by wades909 »

Wow @dk2600 that's fascinating. It's a bit of a pain to try and go through that database but interesting to know about nonetheless.
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Re: Anthology "remasters"

Post by dk2600 »

Well in fact it's very easy

https://isrcsearch.ifpi.org/#!/search chose advanced and searched for Paul McCartney. Chose Release name The 7" Singles and Recordings per page 100 and Show releases.

Add all to the chart, go to next page and Add all to chart and continue.

Click on cart, Download as csv.

Now you use excel, open an empty sheet, chose data, chose from CSV of the file you have downloaded and import the data.

And now you have the data in the spreadsheet.

Do this for the Beatles, solo, sons, granddaughter, wives, dark horse, apple, etc. and you'll have something like 10.000 numbers and thus all the masters and the releases they are found on. Only artist name and no year, title etc. to get them all and not only a specific album, year etc.

Very easy but takes only a short time to do it. Next time you can search for releases from 2023 alone and then update your big personal database.

You'll be suprised and find various new masters and new remixes you didn't know about.

In less than a minute I have grabbed the entire set of masternumbers from the McCartney 7" singles box. A few are shown below:

Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey GBCCS2200001
Too Many People GBCCS2200002
The Back Seat of My Car GBCCS2200003
The Mess GBCCS2200004
Helen Wheels GBCCS2200005
Sally G GBCCS2200006
Love In Song GBCCS2200007
Venus And Mars/Rock Show GBCCS2200008

GB= Great Britain CCS is Record company 22 is 2022 and 00001 is masters done in this series. CCS is used for McCartney releases. Read more about ISRC here:

https://isrc.ifpi.org/en/

I really wonder why noone has used this database to make "the book". You get the artist, song, mix/remix/remaster, year, running time, release title, releasenumber and more.
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