For those of us old enough to have been growing up when the Fab Four were still around, it now seems like a mixed blessing that the group are FINALLY getting the digital treatment they deserve.

The group’s record company have uttered the words that fans have long, long wanted to hear: THE ENTIRE BEATLES CATALOGUE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY REMASTERED AND WILL BE REISSUED THIS SEPTEMBER.

We’ll probably never know why it’s taken so song. The Beatles albums were reissued on compact disc in the ’80s, when the medium was new. They were what is infamously known as “vinyl masters”, and many pundits reckoned they sounded awful. In truth, they DID sound thin, but at least the mixes were true to what was on the original vinyl. In the case of the psychedelic era albums, it was fun to listen to only the left or right channel, because the way the stereo was mixed, certain instruments would only be in one channel, making it possible to get an insight into the recording process.

Now that just about every major and minor pop band on earth has had the remix treatment, the greatest pop band of all time finally gets their CD remixes. Ironically, just as the CD medium itself is on the verge of extinction.

There’s no hint as to whether these remasters have been future-proofed by getting mixes that will translate to HD audio mediums like Blu-ray, or high bitrate downloads. And speaking of which, why STILL no news on availability to download the Beatles catalogue?

So then, what do we get? All the original Beatles albums will get reissued in their British versions. Goodie. They will all be stereo mixes. Goodie. The album packaging will be “authentic” and “lavish”. Sounds okay. The remastering has been carefully done over a five year period by a team of engineers. Sounds promising, but no info yet about how far these engineers have gone to alter the soundfield. Have they gotten rid of the fantastically “unnatural” early stereo effects for a more “natural” sound? And will the CDs end up getting mastered horribly loudly, thereby destroying years of hard work in the studio?

For those who just have to have everything, two box sets will be available: one of the complete catalogue with some DVD extras, the other a replication of their albums in MONO. I have to ask: who needs it?

What they could have done, instead of sticking redundant Quicktime video files on each of the CDs (do they imagine that most of the listening will take place on computers? Why would they bother remastering, in that case?) is to include both mono and stereo mixes on each CD. Oh well.

I’ve been looking forward to this event for what seems like centuries. But it’s taken so long to happen that the event has lost some of its lustre. Like many, I’m finding that I’m now curtailing somewhat my expenditure on CDs with a view to the future, where it’s inevitable that people’s music systems will be stored digital files. I’m now not sure whether I’m up for the expense of buying The Beatles on CD.

What do our readers think? GS