Hi-Rez Highway

Posted by bmoura on May 30, 2002 at 20:23:59

Here's the full text of the press release on the Stones SACDs. They will be remastered by Bob Ludwig.

>>Aural Satisfaction, At Last: ABKCO Rolling Out The Rolling Stones Remastered Series

22 Classic Rolling Stones Titles Set for Release

NEW YORK, May 30, 2002 -- The entirety of the Rolling Stones' album catalog, originally released in the 60's and early '70's on ABKCO/London Records (ABKCO/Decca in the rest of the world) has been meticulously restored and will be re-released on a series of dual layer hybrid Super Audio discs under the banner ABKCO's The Rolling Stones Remastered. Twenty-two albums including Let It Bleed, Out of Our Heads, December's Children, Beggars Banquet, 12x5 and The Rolling Stones, Now! are part of the most comprehensive single artist re-issue series ever undertaken. Each disc has been encoded with two layers -- one containing a normal CD program, the other Super Audio CD program of the same repertoire. The idea is to provide complete backward and forward compatibility for the consumer, as the albums are playable on both SACD-compatible machines as well as standard CD players. Each dual layer disc was remastered using Sony's Direct Stream Digital process resulting in brilliant fidelity in both standard or SACD formats.

"Over the years, we have had many requests to re-issue these titles using the latest digital remastering techniques," remarked ABKCO's Jody Klein who noted that the albums were first released in the CD format in 1986. Klein, who supervised the development of ABKCO's The Rolling Stones Remastered Series stated, "Improvements in technology had only been incremental since then so we didn't feel there was a compelling reason to go back to the market with these
classic albums -- until now." Klein cites DSD mastering which samples the original audio signal 2,822,400 times per second, 64 times faster than standard CD encoding, as one of the main catalysts for the series. "DSD more accurately reflects the sonic quality of analog than any other medium so the depth one hears on these discs in standard or SACD playback is quite amazing."

The restoration process for ABKCO's The Rolling Stones Remastered Series started with hundreds of hours of painstaking research on both sides of the Atlantic to determine the analog sources most true to the original Rolling Stones studio recordings.

Final mastering for all albums was completed under the direction of the legendary Bob Ludwig who commented, "While three generations of music fans, myself included, are all quite familiar with the Stones' material, DSD has afforded us the opportunity to showcase both their brilliance and rough edges all over again in a meaningful way."

All 22 of the albums in ABKCO's The Rolling Stones Remastered Series, highlighting such classic tracks as "Sympathy For The Devil," "Under My Thumb," "Street Fighting Man," "Mother's Little Helper," "The Last Time" and, of course, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," will be released August 20th with Universal handling distribution worldwide. Suggested retail list price is $18.98 for single disc packages.

A complete listing of the album titles in ABKCO's The Rolling Stones Remastered Series follows:
England's Newest Hitmakers
12x5
The Rolling Stones Now
Out Of Our Heads
Out of Our Heads - UK Version
December's Children
Big Hits (High Tide & Green Grass)
Aftermath
Aftermath - UK Version
Got Live If You Want It!
Between The Buttons
Between The Buttons - UK Version
Flowers
Their Satanic Majesties Request
Beggars Banquet
Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol.2)
Let It Bleed
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out
Hot Rocks
More Hot Rocks
The Rolling Stones Singles Collection - The London Years
Metamorphosis - UK Version

SOURCE ABKCO RECORDS <<