On FRI, I saw this album on vinyl at, of all places, Cracker Barrel! The sticker on the wrapping said that it was on a much heavier weight vinyl than normal & had been remastered. I'm going to buy two copies of this release. Since I have a good quality turntable, I'll compare it to the original release on CD. I predict the new vinyl will be remarkably better, particularly in light of the fact that the original was recorded on a machine that used only 4 tracks! - for more on that see HERE. The second copy will be for prosperity. It will remain unopened and passed on to the young man that I have named in my will. Within his lifetime the 100th anniversary of the album will roll around.

BTW: XM radio now has a Beatles channel(#18). Don't miss it.

In this case, the remix is warranted. Here's the reasoning. In 1967, Abbey Road studios had a roster of brilliant, well-trained engineers and spectacularly high-quality equipment. Nonetheless, they were still using four-track recorders. They were top of the line, but they were still four-track desks.

What that means is that as the Beatles recorded songs for Sgt. Pepper, they would record four tracks, mix those down to a single track on a second tape, record additional overdubs on the remaining three tracks on that tape, and mix those down to one on a third tape, and repeat the process until they had everything they wanted for the song. This forced them and their producer George Martin to really think through arrangements and how to construct the songs, which certainly upped their game as far as composing and arranging is concerned.

It also had some limiting effects. Each time they mix down and 'bounce' to a single track on another tape, they lose some sound quality and dynamics of whatever the oldest parts are. Also, whatever is on that bounced-down track is mono. So it's well known in Beatles lore that the band and George Martin were meticulous and highly involved in mixing tracks down to a final version for the album in mono. The stereo version of the album, however, was an afterthought, left to staff engineers to quickly knock out later. So those stereo versions have always been red-headed step children, and famously would have lots of things jammed in exclusively to the left or right speaker. The thing is, stereo eventually became the default expectation for consumers over the years, so that's what everybody bought.

Now, with this version, Giles Martin, producer George Martin's son, went back and unpacked all those bounced down tracks, essentially creating for the first time a version of the songs with however many independent tracks were actually recorded, synced up and side-by-side. So it's as if he traveled back in time and installed a 24 or 48 track recorder in 1967 Abbey Road studios. He then used the original mono mix to guide his thinking as he reassembled a stereo mix. He also consulted with Ringo and Paul both for input on the front end and veto power on the back end, so this mix is to their liking. The result is that the current re-issue is the first true stereo mix of that album. Also, because each of those independent tracks used for the mix is from the original, decompiled take of whatever's on it, there are no third or fourth generation copies of things baked into the mix, so this version has more dynamic range than even the original mono mix. Also, as an added bonus, the super-deluxe set has a 5.1 surround sound mix as well, which is spectacular.