The classic original Beatles studio albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the Beatles catalogue has seen since its original release.

Within each CD's new packaging, booklets include detailed historical notes along with informative recording notes. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. The newly produced mini-documentaries on the making of each album, directed by Bob Smeaton, are included as QuickTime files on each album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-heard studio chat from The Beatles, offering a unique and very personal insight into the studio atmosphere.

Beatles Photos

The Beatles Merchandise

The Beatles Rock Band

More from The Beatles

The Beatles Mono Box Set [LIMITED EDITION]

The Beatles Stereo Box Set

The Beatles [USB] [LIMITED EDITION]

BEATLES THE PAST MASTERS (EDICION LIMITADA) (2 CDS)

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Love Me Do (a different version than the one on Please Please Me), From Me To You, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Long Tall Sally, I Feel Fine, Yes It Is, and I'm Down are key Beatles tracks. If you have an essentials-only policy, then the Red Album is sufficient for you. For those that own all the Beatles' regular albums, there's no reason not to have this too, it fills in a lot of gaps.

This CD was made to help the fans by cleaning up the band's catalogue, and it succeeded in doing so. So be aware that it is not a Greatest Hits of the early years, that there are tracks (for example the unneccessary inclusion of the German numbers) that keep this from getting a 5th star and making this album for Beatles fans (and not casual fans who'd be better served with the Red Album).

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

The Odd MixerMay 02, 2001
By David Bradley "David Bradley"
It's taken me years to fully recognize the brilliance of Ringo Starr's drumming.

Listen to the intro and fills on "From Me To You," a tune which was lost in the mania in the US, but became a standard in the UK, where the Beatles used it as their signature tune on the BBC. More obviously, listen to the drum intro to what I consider the greatest early Beatles record, "She Loves You," and the thunder cracks Starr throws when the band returns to the intro prior to the second verse. He could swing, and when people talk about the BEAT in Beatles, they're talking about Starr.

There are 16 good reasons to grab this CD, if you don't already have theses singles in some other form. For my money, the volume pedal George uses on "Yes It Is," Paul's hair-raising Little Richard vocals on the rockers, John's over-the-top ferver on "Bad Boy," and Ringo's drumming throughout are great reasons to own this CD. "She Loves You" is easily one of the very best records ever made.

The German versions of two Beatles tunes are nothing more than a curiosity.

15 of 16 found the following review helpful:

My opinon of the Remastered version of Past MastersSep 16, 2009
By tely "jetzoom"
It took me a while to get used to this version. I expected to be blown away with the sound as I was when I first heard Beatles Love. While I'm not sure exactly of how the project was handled, here is my synopsis. It quickly became apparent to me that these new remasters are just that. A remaster of the existing master tapes. They added more bottom end and clarity without the digital harshness of the previous CD releases. In Love they 'remixed' and 'remastered' the songs thus a much better sound. In a remix, they can adust each track separately and re-arrange it in the mix to make it more effective than was originally done. Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick provides details of how the original tracks were mixed in his book. I would imagine that remixing was not done due to the fact that many die-hard fans would resist hearing it mixed differently. They wanted to keep it somewhat historically correct. That's why a mono version of the original masters was also released. For the sake of the purists. I've read that the Beatles themselves preferred the mono versions. In the recent Capital records mono releases that I've purchased, I much prefer stereo. A total remix would have been welcomed by me, and I'm sure a much more massive undertaking. Don't be suprised if there are remixes (not remasters) like Love released in later years, where they may i.e., take a previously right panned vocal and put it upfront and center in the mix and pan the background vocals right and left.

In this Past Masters there a bright spots. Much more bass. I was disappointed with the muddy mix of 'She loves you' (which is panned mostly right and sounds mono), but quite impressed with the awesome version of 'this boy' and 'I call your name'. Naturally the newer the song the better the sound. 'Don't let me down', ' Get Back' are special treats. I have most of the Beatles LPs and most of the CDs. I think the remasters are good enough that I'll replace my CD collection with the remastered versions. The remasters are much warmer and in your face. If you have never heard many of the tracks on Past Mastered, you are in for a treat.

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