Disque Americ Revolver

[20YearsAgo]

I was very lucky. I check e-bay once in a while and happened to find one for $12.00. Very Lucky!

I've heard that in the past few days they've gone up to around $50.

I can verify this... yesterday morning, after ready what Doug wrote at his forum, I checked eBay out... one copy was going for ~$50 US, and the other was just beginning to go for 7-day auction... a couple of weeks ago, before Doug started posting his findings, I'm pretty certain you could have found the Disque Americ discs for about $5 each on eBay.

[alphabeatles]

Comparing those SS downloads I got, one was called "(1965) Rubber Soul (Disque Americ pressing 1989)" and track 10 I'm Looking Through You matched the '87 CD mix except for being louder, while on another copy called "Rubber Soul (Parl. C2 46440)" the same track lacked the guitar spike on the L channel as heard about 1:34

Who wants to sort that out?

I assume two things: That first copy I got is not actually what it said it is (it's also in 24/44 somehow), and there are indeed the two mixes of this song and the whole album (original and later GM remix, yes?).

This may help (included text file):

"As you may now know, it was discovered that EMI Canada once released a batch of Help! and Rubber Soul CDs that were made from the original UK stereo mix and NOT George Martin's digital mix from 1987. Those "special" CDs were manufactured by Disque Americ in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada. How can you tell? Look at the inner ring where you have the matrix number. If you see, Mastering by EMI, you have a digital remaster. If you see Disque Americ, bingo!"

[Lord Reith]

I've now checked the Canadian Sgt Pepper and it's the same as the standard 80s cd, except for being mastered about 0.5db quieter.

I read on Hoffman that the Canadian LIB has noise reduction added... so we don't want that one!

Doug has made a video showing the two With The Beatles versions lined up in audacity and they are certainly different. What the practical upshot of this is I don't know since the 87 monos are widely criticized anyway, so you would think an earlier version would be even less satisfactory.

I assume two things: That first copy I got is not actually what it said it is (it's also in 24/44 somehow), and there are indeed the two mixes of this song and the whole album (original and later GM remix, yes?).

[alphabeatles]

According to my collection, I'm Looking Through You on the 'stereo 87 CD has the oddly loud single guitar spike in the R channel, not the L, sorry.

Here's how the rest play out (stereo):

1965 stereo mix (2009) The Beatles in Mono CD: No spike
1982 MFSL Black Box vinyl: No spike
1982 MFSL Collection Box: No spike
2009 Digital Remaster, USB Limited Edition: Spike
2009 Digital Remaster UNLIMITED: Spike
2014 iTunes lossless: No spike
UK Stereo BC13: No spike
UK stereo, tube cut, 12/18 PBTHAL: No spike
Disque Americ (Parl. C2 46440): No spike

No mono version has the spike.

It seems the spike is a more recent addition (since '87).

Maybe the 24/44 version I downloaded is the 1989 (as it says) or early 1990's release?
hxxp://www.beatleg.info/music/docs/beatles/cv/ ... 440-da.htm

While the Parl. C2 46440 version is indeed the original UK mix.

[alphabeatles]

Alright, so how do the Help! mixes differ-?

And are these Canadian CDs necessary since we have the 2009 version of the 1965 mixes?

[Lord Reith]

Maybe the 24/44 version I downloaded is the 1989 (as it says) or early 1990's release?
hxxp://www.beatleg.info/music/docs/beatles/cv/ ... 440-da.htm

While the Parl. C2 46440 version is indeed the original UK mix.

I read on Hoffman that at some point Disque Americ started using the Martin 1986 remix so that might explain it... but 24bits seems to suggest to me that it was just the 2009 Martin version from the Apple USB stick and not a Canadian cd. No-one would convert 16bit to 24bit to share it.

Alright, so how do the Help! mixes differ-?

And are these Canadian CDs necessary since we have the 2009 version of the 1965 mixes?

The original stereo mix of Help as included on the 2009 mono cd doesn't sound as good as the Canadian cd. The basic source is the same but the 2009 transfer has some dropouts and azimuth problems. For instance if you listen to YGTHYLA on headphones, on the 2009 mono cd John's vocal seems to wander slightly from side to side rather than being firmly in the centre.

The stereo mix of Rubber Soul as included as a bonus on the 2009 mono cd is better than the Canadian cd in my opinion. The Canadian cd sounds too bright. The later cd sounds much more like the vinyl.

[alphabeatles]

Thanks for your feedback! It cuts through all my blather

And on Soulseek who knows what you're getting sometimes...

[Lord Reith]

You could have a thread 1000 pages long about the various cds. There's still a lot of misinformation out there about the 87s, that they were made from dupe tapes and with little care. In fact we dug up the evidence on BZ to show that a great deal of care went into them. Unfortunately that thread is now inaccessible!

For me, the best of the cds are:

PPM - BFS (2009)

Help (Disque Ameriq/Cinram 1990)

Rubber Soul (bonus version on 2009 mono)

Revolver (probably Disque Ameriq/Cinram 1990)

Pepper/MMT/YS (1987 standard issue

White Album (Disque Americ) [Doug says that standard 87 has some mastering glitches]

Abbey Road (Japanese Toshiba cd from 1983 - but only after de-emphasis applied)

LIB - 1987

Past Masters - 1988

[alphabeatles]

Thanks for your review, all of your great work, and it's nice to have you back!

[ringo9]

For what is worth these are the Canadian cds available at rhe russplace



Beatles For Sale (1989 Canada, Parlophone Canada C2 46438, Disque Americ)
Help! (199... Canada, Parlophone C2 46439, Disque Americ) Original Mix
Rubber Soul (198... Canada, Parlophone C2 46440, Disque Americ) Original Mix
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1989 Canada, Parlophone C2 46442, Disque Americ)

Let It Be (1995 Canada, EMI Canada C2 07777 46447 2 3, Cinram)