All original Beatles albums to be re-released

All of the Beatles’ original albums are to be re-released, digitally remastered, on the same day, it was announced today.

The back catalogue, featuring all 12 Beatles albums plus 'Magical Mystery Tour' and 'Past Masters Vol I and II' – which has been combined into a single album - will hit record shops on September 9, coinciding with the release of a Beatles video game.

Engineers at Abbey Road studios in London have spent four years painstakingly remastering 525 minutes of music from the original analogue tapes using state of the art technology alongside vintage studio equipment.

Apple Corps and EMI said the result was “the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release” and maintains “the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings”.

Audio anoraks may be interested to know the transfer from analogue to digital was achieved using a Pro Tools workstation operating at 24 bit 192 kHz resolution via a Prism A-D converter.

De-noising, purists will be pleased to note, was used “subtly and sparingly”.

The release is the first time the first four Beatles albums will be available in their entirety in stereo on CD.

Each CD will come with the original UK album art, along with booklets including original and new liner notes and mini-documentaries on the making of each album in video format.

Two boxed sets will be available: one of the 14 stereo albums plus a DVD documentary and one aimed at collectors, containing the band’s mono recordings.

The band already holds the record for most number one albums – 15 – and the simultaneous release of 14 discs raises the possibility that they could occupy every spot in the album chart top 10.