Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland the ultimate matrix quad lp

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sspsandy

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I recently acquired the Hendrix Family remastered lp of Electric Ladyland, and I have to say that it has the most amazing quad mix of any lp I have heard. Prior to this I was listening to the MCA cd, which contains the same mix, but the remaster blows it away for pure sonic experience. From what I've read, Hendrix recorded Electric Ladyland in an early quad matrix format, probably EV-4. Whatever, this album is a virtual quad demo, particularly the opening guitar effects, Voodoo Child slight return, and all of side 3 (1983). It decodes fine in RM, but I find it works superbly in SQ through the Tate, as well as though a Pro Logic II decoder. When I want to impress my friends with the wonders of quad, this album really does the trick.
 
I'm confused. Are you saying that you have read accounts that Hendrix himself encoded this into quad? I would like to see that, if you still have it. My question arises as I seem to recall Hendrix died in 1970, and I don't know what matrix format existed at that time. Maybe someone else mixed it after his death? I'm always on the lookout for 'hidden' quads, so anyone else know anything about this?
Marc
 
I'm no authority, but it is my understanding that Jimi was experimenting with out-of-phase effects for enhanced stereo performance and not doing so specifically for quad. I don't believe that Jimi intentionally meant for “Electric Ladyland” or any of his other music to be played in quad.

I mean, play Purple Haze through a matrix decoder. This album, recorded in 1967 and well before any hint of quad, has loads of out-of-phase information and decodes quite amazingly! I mean, the separation is phenomenal, but the mix is way off, with vocals being discrete in the rear channels. It sounds crappy and cool at the same time!

I’ve listened to “Electric Ladyland” through a matrix decoder myself. Most of it sounds quite good, but there are parts that sound kind of funky. It is my opinion that this record was not some “secret” quad recording but most of it does sound quite spectacular through a matrix decoder.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that just because an LP sounds good or decodes discretely through a matrix decoder does not mean that it was intended to be a quadraphonic recording. Most of the time these turn out to be happy coincidences.

Speaking of happy coincidences, check out the Dead Can Dance album "Into The Labyrinth". This one is scary bloody good through a matrix decoder (especially Sansui vario-matrix).

 
I'm trying to find the website that discussed the recording of this lp to post the link. As I remember, it specifically described Hendrix using a quad matrix encoding on the mix. There was an early quad matrix system being experimented with in the mid to late sixties, I believe Electro Voice was demonstrating it, and Hendrix was implementing every bit of new technology that was available in the newly built Electric Ladyland studio. This lp differs from Are You Experienced in that rather than being an interesting out of phase quad effect where sound appears randomly, Electric Ladyland has quite definite panning effects and balances, such as how the guitar moves though all 4 speakers in a swirling effect on Voodoo Child slight return, or how the drums move back and forth in the rear speakers on 1983, while other sounds are moving front to back and around the sound field. It has the same deliberate mixing as any other quad record I've heard. I think if it were played back through an EV-4 decoder, you would hear the correct balance. I agree that many stereo recordings sound great through a good decoder, and think it makes a good thread. I personally like how both the Beatles Sgt Pepper's and the Stone's Satanic Majesties sound. Another great one is Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, A True Star.
 
How are you asetting your tate for playback? Is it a fosgate or audionics unit? I would like to give it a try too.
Marc
 
This is the only thing I could find about Hendrix Quad. Here is the link:

www.geocities.com/quadaud...adBob.html

and here is the text from QuadBob:

So, though not set in concrete.........we do know that "Dynaquad" or connecting speakers "out of phase" predated any of the other quad lp formats. Whether the SPV-7 was the "first" lp to promote this I can't be sure.....but it is the earliest in my library of over 2,500 quad lps produced in the early days of quadraphonic sound. But, if you REALLY want to jump to the earliest modern matrix technology my vote would be for Jimi Hendrix on Electric Ladyland!!!!!<G> This album run through a quadraphonic decoder is extremely discrete and an awesome listening experience. I was never a big Hendrix fan, but after reading the booklet with the MCA re-release CD which included quotes from Jimi in 1968 maybe you can understand why:


"I don't know, for what we was tryin' to get across at the time, it was perfect. You can get 16 tracks in the States, but who needs 16? You need only 4 really. It depends what kind of music you go into."


"All I did was just be there and make sure the right songs were there, and the SOUND was there, we wanted a particular sound. It got lost in the cutting room, because we went on tour right before we finished and actually cut it. We were unable to spend time on it. The engineers re-taped the whole original tape before they pressed the record for Britain and so much was lost. Some of the mix came out kind of muddy, not exactly muddy, but kind of bassey. I think it's cloudy, the sound of it, because we didn't get a chance to do it complete. We mixed it and produced it and then when it was time for them to press it they screwed up because they didn't know what we wanted. There's three-D sound on there that you can't even appreciate
now because they didn't cut it properly. They thought it was out of phase."


Jimi even had the box of master-reels scrawled on with the warning "special phase effects on this tape. DO NOT change phase!"


Now.........that is genius at work!!!!!!!! And, to think Jimi never even got to hear it through one of our high-end quad decoders/synthesizers. It was common practice for studio engineers to remove "out of phase" material from recordings because they thought it muddied up the recording..........Now here was Jimi Hendrix purposefully recording out of
phase.................and quad wasn't even being whispered about then!!




 
I would just like to point out that I don't doubt that Jimi wanted much of his work to hit quad. He was a notorious audiophile and was one of the first, if not THE FIRST artist to record using 16-track machines. :cool:
 
That would be cool if somebody would convert this album to DTS Quad (hint, hint).
Brian
 
The article I was referring to was in fact on Quad Bob's website, the passage I found was this one: www.geocities.com/quadaud...dBob.html. The way I listen to the lp is to run it through the Fosgate Tate II and into a Technics SA 6700X quad receiver, which has a straight discrete setting, and a discreet setting that sends it through it's Accoustic Field Dimension, which give you two slider controls to adjust the width and the depth of the soundfield. Two other units that I know of that have this feature are the Panasonic SA 6400X and the Technics SA 8000X, which show up on Ebay for good prices, in fact a 6700X went for $127.00 a few weeks back, and it has a 4 channel audio scope like the Marantz 4400. I set the AFD sliders about halfway, which keeps the sound more contained and smooths it out. Incidently, I used the 6700's decoder prior to getting the Tate repaired, and it is a very sharp and discrete decoder.
 
Well, enough on the theory, which is really amazing, but the more amazing thing is to listen to the first 3 Hendrix albums with any kind of decoder going. My favorite is Come On from E.L.L. - the right rear channel is isolated for the guitar leads! Amazing. Even my skeptical and uninterested wife was blown away. Next up was Foxy Lady with very clear and obvious rear channel vocals. Now Have You Ever Been just enveloped the room in sound. Try it out and find your own special treats.

My theory - even though decoding equipment and playback gear did not exist for Hendrix to have ever "heard" the results, he was such a musical genius, like Beethoven, that the inability to "hear" the results did not stop him from creating the music, "knowing" exactly how it would later sound.
 
While Jimi may have been experimenting with EL mixes, he certainly didn't have much if anything to do with AYE or AXIS. The AYE stereo mixes are pretty bad, IMO, anything but creative, they seem limited and even amateurish compared to the more sophisticated mixes Hendrix supervised for EL. Yes, they do decode interestingly, but that's by accident, not design. My UK mono press of AYE is the only one I listen to today.

A bigger question is whether multis for AYE still exist. It's possible multis exist for AXIS, since alt. mixes of a few tracks have turned up over the years. But AFAIK, the '67 AYE mixes are the same ones we've been hearing for 40 years.

ED :)
 
Hendrix pre-dates quad by some margin; Zappa is documented folling around in 1969 but I've never read anything on Jimi in this regard.

To quote Bob Ross: "We don't make mistakes just happy little accidents..."
 
If this isn't a perfect recording for the joys of quadrophonic sound, then I'm Santa...
 
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