While I was out perusing record stores the other day (looking for quad LPs, of course), I came across a first pressing of
Electric Ladyland. The jacket looked like it went through a hurricane, but both LPs appeared to be in good shape and it was fairly cheap, so I grabbed it. Believe it or not, all three Experience LPs are kinda expensive lately.
As those who read my posts know, I have somewhat mixed feelings about Eddie Kramer's 5.1 mix of
Electric Ladyland. Given that this LP is infamous for excellent decoding (due to the abundance of out-of-phase information, no doubt), I was curious how it would compare with the actual discrete 5.1 mix.
After cleaning both LPs, I tried a variety of matrix decoders using the opening of "House Burning Down" as a test for surround activity. The Sansui QSD-2 and Involve Surround Master surprisingly didn't do much with it: most sounds were isolated upfront with muted reflections in the rears.
Finally, I tried the "Surround" setting on my Fosgate Tate II decoder. WOW. Some intentionally matrix-encoded quad LPs don't pan out this well. Lead guitar intros on "Long Hot Summer Night" and "1983" are completely locked in right rear. Jimi's guitar frenetically bounces around the room on "Rainy Day, Dream Away" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", evoking the quad mix of Santana's
Abraxas. The opening drums to "Crosstown Traffic" do a nice around-the-room pan starting in left rear, and the backing vocals sling-shot from speaker-to-speaker. I could go on...
"Crosstown Traffic" (Discrete 5.1):
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"Crosstown Traffic" (Decoded 4.0):
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"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (Discrete 5.1):
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"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (Decoded 4.0):
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Anyway, I'm not about to tell you that a fifty year-old LP decoded by a forty year-old matrix decoder is a better listening experience than a discrete 5.1 mix from the master tapes by the original engineer. The fidelity certainly can't compare, but I felt that there are quite a few moments where the decoded LP demonstrates superior channel separation. The two four-track songs ("Crosstown Traffic" and "All Along The Watchtower") in particular came off much better here than on the 5.1 mix IMO.
Plus, I got a kick out of making the cover art for my conversion
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