Artist: The Beatles
Album: Singles Collection 1962-1966
Release info: 45rpm singles
[Tracklisting]
1. Love Me Do
2. P.S. I Love You
3. Please Please Me
4. Ask Me Why
5. From Me To You
6. Thank You Girl
7. She Loves You
8. I'll Get You
9. I Want To Hold Your Hand
10. This Boy
11. Can't Buy Me Love
12. You Can't Do That
13. A Hard Day's Night
14. Things We Said Today
15. I Feel Fine
16. She's A Woman
17. Ticket To Ride
18. Yes It Is
19. Help!
20. I'm Down
21. We Can Work It Out
22. Day Tripper
23. Paperback Writer
24. Rain
25. Yellow Submarine
26. Eleanor Rigby
[bonus track]
27. Penny Lane [US Promo Single]
Total running time: 67:25
[Quality]
Transferred at 24 Bit / 88.2 kHz
Downsampled and dithered to 16 Bit / 44.1 kHz (redbook)
[Review]
This collection features the A side and the B side of all the thirteen regular 45 rpm records the Beatles released in UK from 1962 to 1966. The US Capitol promo version of "Penny Lane" appears as a bonus track. Originally I did this for myself, as I wanted to have all these songs easily in one place, then I thought I'd share it.
This set is sourced entirely from 7" vinyl records. More specifically the first 24 tracks are sourced from the "World Records" vinyl boxed set released in 1976 and the last 2 tracks ("Yellow Submarine"/"Eleanor Rigby") are sourced from an original first-issue Parlophone record (1966).
"Love Me Do" is presented here in its non-original form, featuring Andy White on drums and Ringo Starr on tambourine (sorry guys, couldn't find an original Parlophone first-issue of this record). "Love Me Do", "P.S. I Love You", "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why" are presented here in their sought-after "drier" form, different from the versions released on the debut album, Please Please Me. Here's what Steve Hoffman said about this:
[quote]If there was anyone with HALF A BRAIN at EMI when they mastered the first Beatles' CD, they would have realized that these songs inserted into the album master were crappy dubs with extra echo:
ASK ME WHY
PLEASE PLEASE ME
P. S. I LOVE YOU
LOVE ME DO
They should have used the original mixes that were filed under the 45 RPM number for these songs.
ANY GOOFUS MASTERING ENGINEER SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST REALIZED THAT THESE SONGS DIDN'T SOUND AS GOOD AS THE REST OF THE ALBUM AND WONDER WHY, OR MAYBE ASKED SOMEBODY OLDER THAN 25.
The actual mono masters of those four above songs have NEVER BEEN RELEASED ON CD. Listen to a Parlophone 45 of PLEASE PLEASE ME/ASK ME WHY. Notice how much better they sound than the mono album versions? Notice how they have a lot less echo and how dynamic they are?
[/quote]
All the tracks presented on this collection are in mono, as originally released.
As a bonus track, a sonic reconstruction of the famous "mono remix 11" of "Penny Lane" is presented here. This promo version features the extra trumpet notes at the end, as relased by Capitol on a promo single. Yes, I know the song was actually released in 1967 but who knows if there'll ever be a "Singles Collection 1967-1970" sequel...
Note: that is the reason why "(1962-1967)" is used in the title of the torrent.
This is the process of re-creation that was performed:
PHASE 1: Transfer
The primary source was a pirated promo 45. This bogus record is sourced from a vinyl itself, so it is a needledrop. Transferring the bogus vinyl I did a "needledrop of needledrop"... so this one was a "squared" needledrop.
The record is in pristine condition but, being a vinyl transfer, there was a lot of surface noise throughout.
PHASE 2: Click-repairing
To get rid of clicks and pops, I took the transferred file and let Click Repair work on it. Then I added a smiley EQ using Cool Edit Pro 2.0 to get rid of some very fatiguing frequencies in the mid-range.
PHASE 3: Top-end reconstruction
After declicking the transferred version using Click Repair I thought I'd try to recreate the top-end that had been spoiled. This way I created a "reconstructed" version (a sort of "outfake", even though there's nothing truly fake about it), created mixing down the declicked file and the high frequencies taken from my official UK Parlophone single (on vinyl), speed corrected in order to perfectly overlap. In this ultimate version I re-EQ'd the file to get rid of some low frequencies which were too prominent to my ears. I fought a wearing battle against the phasing effect, due to a non-perfect time alignment. You be the judge.
I think it is very interesting to hear what this rare version sounds like. Please note that the version of "Penny Lane" on the US "Rarities" album is a fake, being the commercial version with the trumpet notes added at the end, and the "Anthology" version is a completely new remix featuring the trumpet notes at the end. Both are by no means the original version.
I admit there are some imperfections left, which I really could not get rid of (there's a sort of residual hiss determined by the removed clicks/pops/crackle).
[Technical Details]
Turntable: Pro-ject Debut III (except for "Help!": Pro-ject Xpression III)
Cartridge: Ortofon OM5e (except for "Help!": Audio Technica AT440mLa)
Integrated Amplifier: Denon PMA-700E
Soundcard: SoundMax Digital Audio
Signal Chain: Record > Cartridge > Turntable > Amplifier > Soundcard > Cool Edit Pro 2.0* > Adobe Audition 3.0* > EAC** > FLAC Frontend 1.7.1 > Trader's Little Helper 2.4.1
* manual operations: adjusting DC bias, manual removing of residual clicks and pops, collapsing the stereo channels of the mono tracks together, "trimming" and removing of the gaps between the tracks, "tweaking" to reduce some distorsion (no re-EQ), normalising, making the cue index points
** track splitting
[Torrent details]
A fingeprint (FFP) and a wholefile checksum (MD5) files are included
A cue sheet file with gaps is included.
A m3u playlist file is included.
Front and back cover artwork is included.
This set is sourced entirely from 7" vinyl records. More specifically the first 24 tracks are sourced from the "World Records" vinyl boxed set released in 1976 and the last 2 tracks ("Yellow Submarine"/"Eleanor Rigby") are sourced from an original first-issue Parlophone record (1966).