„While The Beatles In Mono CD boxed set released in 2009 was created from digital remasters, Magee and Berkowitz cut the vinyl versions without digital technology. Working in the same room at Abbey Road where most of The Beatles’ albums were initially cut, the pair spent over a hundred days fastidiously comparing first pressings of the ’60s mono records with the original quarter-inch master tapes, played on a Studer A80. The new vinyl masters were cut on a 1980s VMS80 lacquer-cutting lathe, guided by detailed transfer notes made by the original cutting engineers.
For example. I’ll Follow The Sun. This melancholy McCartney ballad from December 1964’s Beatles For Sale sounds far more warm, delicate and human than this writer can recall, with McCartney’s lonesome optimism shining out above the almost jazz-trio arrangement. The sound of Ringo’s knee-slapping percussive accompaniment is so clear you can almost guess the cotton count on his trousers.
For example, Penny Lane. Mono has a more solid and stable image than stereo, meaning that, at its best, it has a stronger central core with less extraneous sonic bleed. Nowhere is this clearer today than on McCartney’s 1967 Liverpool picaresque. Dave Mason’s trumpet solo now sounds centred, less triumphant and the production effects no longer appear to compete with McCartney’s hometown portrait.“
While a lot of people may think this is the next step of exploiting an old myth, I can just say they are wrong. i have the cd mono versions from 2009, and they were not only historically revealing, but also sonically surprising, stunning in many ways. The forthcoming edition skips the digital technology of remastering, and again I have no doubts, that this vinyl edition won’t only live up to the expectations of die-hard fans , but also to those ones of sonic adventurers with a knack for a special version of audio verity (to leave out the overused word “authenticity”, though it might not at all be wrong in this area of so-called well-known stuff with its tons of cultural baggage). – m.e.
Sources: Mojo, M.E.