HiRez Poll Jimi Hendrix Experience, The - ELECTRIC LADYLAND [Blu-Ray Audio]

[himey]

There is an outstanding mix of one of my favorite songs on this. If you have this release please check it out.
1983....(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)

The other mixes are good, just the two that were the most popular for whatever reason are lacking.

 

[edisonbaggins]

The other mixes are good, just the two that were the most popular for whatever reason are lacking.

I thought is was because they were recorded 4-track. Maybe due to being earlier singles? And the rest of the album was 8-track.
But that could be wrong. Fact check needed.

 

[Beefalo]

The other mixes are good, just the two that were the most popular for whatever reason are lacking.

There is good and then there is outstanding.
IMHO The only outstanding mix is 1983....

 

[himey]

I thought is was because they were recorded 4-track. Maybe due to being earlier singles? And the rest of the album was 8-track.
But that could be wrong. Fact check needed.

There have been excellent mixes of four track recordings in the last couple years, This Was, is one of them. No excuses just results

 

[windhoek]

I haven't played this one for ages but I'm sure it was an eight in my mind; 1983... is a 10 all day long, but there are fifteen other tracks on the album and I don't think anything else came close. I'd need to listen to it at the weekend and see, but I'm calling it an eight

 

[The56Kid]

Originally I voted a 9 on this one, but going back and re-listening, free of the hype surrounding this unexpected release, I just don't love this as a surround mix. Yes, it's a classic album. Yes, it sounds better than I've ever heard it. But in terms of a discrete surround mix? It's mostly another "everything everywhere" type of mix with small moments here and there of discrete surround activity and some swirling elements from time to time, but there's nothing here that I would consider surround demo material. And the "everything everywhere" style has been done much better (as with Styx "The Mission"). And some of the biggest hits don't sound that great ("Crosstown Traffic", "All Along The Watchtower"). I'm going down to a 7 (don't kill me).

Totally agree with your assessment, Sean, and I consider Electric Ladyland my favorite album of all time.

It definitely has its moments, but it’s clear that an experienced (no pun intended) surround mixer like Wilson, Scheiner, or Clearmountain would have better served the material. It’s a shame this iconic masterpiece was handed over to Eddie Kramer for his first attempt at a surround mix.

 

[shakti]

And the backlash comes... I think I stand by my opinion, which was an 8 initially (maybe I bumped to a 9 after readjusting my system). The biggest letdowns are indeed the 4-track recordings, the inconsistency in the mixing decisions and the use of digital flanging (and the completely uncalled for *added* flanging on Voodoo Child (Slight Return)).

But the material itself is so strong and the mix generally good enough that I stand by my 8. The high points are phenomenal (swirling moments in ...And the Gods Made Love/ending of Midnight Lamp), the «you-are-there» vibe of Voodoo Chile and the afore-mentioned surround tour-de-force of 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be). I swear I feel I sink underwater every time I get to the «submerged» section.

 

[GOS]

And the backlash comes... I think I stand by my opinion, which was an 8 initially (maybe I bumped to a 9 after readjusting my system). The biggest letdowns are indeed the 4-track recordings, the inconsistency in the mixing decisions and the use of digital flanging (and the completely uncalled for *added* flanging on Voodoo Child (Slight Return)).

But the material itself is so strong and the mix generally good enough that I stand by my 8. The high points are phenomenal (swirling moments in ...And the Gods Made Love/ending of Midnight Lamp), the «you-are-there» vibe of Voodoo Chile and the afore-mentioned surround tour-de-force of 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be). I swear I feel I sink underwater every time I get to the «submerged» section.

No worries. You love it. That is your right! I still like it too......I cannot help but take the fact that the source couldn't sound any better than it does.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

There have been excellent mixes of four track recordings in the last couple years, This Was, is one of them. No excuses just results

I'm not so sure This Was is actually that much better. It does have a few more discreet elements, but the best mixes on TW are the tracks that didn't appear on the album proper.

But the material itself is so strong and the mix generally good enough that I stand by my 8. The high points are phenomenal (swirling moments in ...And the Gods Made Love/ending of Midnight Lamp), the «you-are-there» vibe of Voodoo Chile and the afore-mentioned surround tour-de-force of 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be). I swear I feel I sink underwater every time I get to the «submerged» section.

No worries. You love it. That is your right! I still like it too......I cannot help but take the fact that the source couldn't sound any better than it does.

I like it as well. All valid points. I voted an 8 just now (I know, I'm late with this, but I bet I'll never change that 8).

The mix reminds me of how Marillion's Misplaced Childhood is mixed, it also reminds me of how the Tull release, and parts of Pepper were mixed. See a pattern with the 4-track stuff?.,, hmmmmmm

 

[sjcorne]

The mix reminds me of how Marillion's Misplaced Childhood is mixed, it also reminds me of how the Tull release, and parts of Pepper were mixed. See a pattern with the 4-track stuff?.,, hmmmmmm

The Band's Music From Big Pink is supposedly from a 4-track source and Bob Clearmountain was able to create a super discrete '4-corner' style mix on almost every song. And I don't see how Misplaced Childhood's 5.1 mix is at all comparable to Electric Ladyland's - to my ears, they are completely different in approach. On Misplaced, you get the drums in the front, lead vocal isolated in the center channel, and isolated keys, electric guitar, and backing vocals in the rear speakers. On Electric Ladyland, you get the lead vocal in all 5 channels, drums audible everywhere but loudest in the rears, and most of the lead instruments (guitar, sax, organ/keys, etc) upfront. There are some cool swirling moments and the occasional discrete placement (backing vocals in "House Burning Down", for instance), but I would agree with the notion that it's a somewhat conservative surround mix.

 

[himey]

The Band's Music From Big Pink is supposedly from a 4-track source and Bob Clearmountain was able to create a super discrete '4-corner' style mix on almost every song. And I don't see how Misplaced Childhood's 5.1 mix is at all comparable to Electric Ladyland's - to my ears, they are completely different in approach. On Misplaced, you get the drums in the front, lead vocal isolated in the center channel, and isolated keys, electric guitar, and backing vocals in the rear speakers. On Electric Ladyland, you get the lead vocal in all 5 channels, drums audible everywhere but loudest in the rears, and most of the lead instruments (guitar, sax, organ/keys, etc) upfront. There are some cool swirling moments and the occasional discrete placement (backing vocals in "House Burning Down", for instance), but I would agree with the notion that it's a somewhat conservative surround mix.

...and the most popular song, The Weight, has the worst, or most conservative mix. Strange how they have that in common.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

And I don't see how Misplaced Childhood's 5.1 mix is at all comparable to Electric Ladyland's - to my ears, they are completely different in approach. On Misplaced, you get the drums in the front, lead vocal isolated in the center channel, and isolated keys, electric guitar, and backing vocals in the rear speakers. On Electric Ladyland, you get the lead vocal in all 5 channels, drums audible everywhere but loudest in the rears, and most of the lead instruments (guitar, sax, organ/keys, etc) upfront.

I'll have to revisit it. I remember it being more "homogenized" than that. Of course I remember a lot of stuff incorrectly as time goes by...

 

[PmikeK]

And the backlash comes... I think I stand by my opinion, which was an 8 initially (maybe I bumped to a 9 after readjusting my system). The biggest letdowns are indeed the 4-track recordings, the inconsistency in the mixing decisions and the use of digital flanging (and the completely uncalled for *added* flanging on Voodoo Child (Slight Return)).

But the material itself is so strong and the mix generally good enough that I stand by my 8. The high points are phenomenal (swirling moments in ...And the Gods Made Love/ending of Midnight Lamp), the «you-are-there» vibe of Voodoo Chile and the afore-mentioned surround tour-de-force of 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be). I swear I feel I sink underwater every time I get to the «submerged» section.

The 4 track recordings were finished on 12 tracks. NO EXCUSE. I belive there are authoring issues. AATWT and Crosstown sound horrendous. I do not think Kramar would be happy, I think something went wrong.

 

[Eggplant]

The thing with this album [is] ... that it 'decodes' to surround amazingly with just Dolby PLIIx. So this discrete mix has to compete with that....and it doesn't *always* win on that count.

I have found this to be true for many, many albums.
Thank you for acknowledging surround sound’s dirty little secret.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I have found this to be true for many, many albums.
Thank you for acknowledging surround sound’s dirty little secret.

Other options also: Surround Master- Involve; Tate II; Sansui QSD-1; SpecWeb; Penteo...

 

[jimfisheye]

Just listened to this again and I agree it isn't perfect. My initial excitement over a plethora of bad things that didn't happen still stands! Hard not to be skeptical with Hendrix having nothing but the crudest digital presence this whole time. All the lo-fi CD editions over the years... And then - bam! Dropped this on us and... It's not more volume war bs! It's a genuine surround mix! (Very happily) and apparently none of the past bs is Eddy Kramer's fault and he can still hear and mix and everything! Just that makes me happy.

But this isn't just perfect is it.
A few tracks sound significantly better in stereo. Better mix. Better fidelity. (Those with the right vinyl pressings know that the stereo mix of this album features truly excellent fidelity. Deutsche Grammophon reissue here.) Watchtower really stands out as lo-fi doesn't it. None of the mix aesthetic on the 12-string even attempted, for example. The hell?

Yeah, the opening track. The 2nd half of 1983. Voodoo Child pt1. Some absolute moments of greatness! This is a genuinely fantastic set of bonus tracks to the original here at the absolute worst.

 

[staygroovy]

I've had the opportunity to listen to it on several different systems, including a no-holds-barred large dream rig and have to say that it scaled up extremely well. As a matter of fact the bigger the system, the more it shone.

Probably a bunch of nitpicky little details as the audio imprint of the stereo mixes are so deeply embedded into my subconscious and hard to get rid of, and agreed that some of the Hendrix panning trickery was very difficult to translate into 4-channel format without it becoming gimmick. I don't think that songs like 'Voodoo Chile' (the long version with studio audience) lent itself to much heavy surround effects because as a live-ish performance it would have probably been distracting so I'm glad it was left alone. But in general the rest worked very nicely, with a special kudo for the whole delightful and exquisitely rendered "1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)" suite -> for having tinges of new or previously unheard elements that added some nice atmospherics. I mean, there probably are some guitar balance comments to make on 'Crosstown Traffic', 'All Along The Watchtower' and so on... but none felt like show-stoppers. Just a bit different from what my memory was of the sonic footprint.

So overall, and even though some hardcore fanatics brayed about the two kick drum hits sacrilegiously missing at the top of "Gypsy Eyes", I felt that Eddie Kramer acquitted himself splendidly and in a manner that makes me want to revisit this again and again, whereas (comparing to another landmark album being remixed) I truly feel the James Guthrie mixes of some Pink Floyd material are too 'in-your-face' and arguably somewhat tiresome to listen to compared to the elegant Alan Parsons original quad beauty (DSOTM). As a matter of fact, I feel that if this truly was Mr Kramer's first foray into surround mixing one can very much hope we get to hear more such work from him.

Given the amount of intimate creative interaction between Kramer and Jimi in the studio, I am sort of glad he was the person to do it, hat off on this one. Yes, I probably do bow to more adept surround stalwarts and indeed generally favor Elliott Scheiner, Steven Wilson or Bob Clearmountain for that 'go-to demo disc' appeal, but this was subtle, elegant yet powerful where it needed to be, and well-rounded in every way. I can't really find something to fault on a technical level, it was all down to artistic interpretation; I am very proud to have lived long enough to have 'experienced' this wonderful 50th anniversary tribute to an album which has literally changed my life. Kudos to all involved!

I gave it a '9' because I haven't yet heard the surround album that will make me want to ascend to a higher plane, '10' is reserved for that if and when... LOL

[disclaimer] I do not work for Experience Hendrix LLC or anyone associated with this release, just merely a very enthusiastic lifelong Hendrix listener.

 

[skherbeck]

Definitely some great sounding surround tracks on here, my favorites being the standout "1983", "Voodoo Child (Slight Return), and "Gypsy Eyes" (I didn't know it was missing anything, lol)

 

[HugoPhyrst]

I've had the opportunity to listen to it on several different systems, including a no-holds-barred large dream rig and have to say that it scaled up extremely well. As a matter of fact the bigger the system, the more it shone.

Probably a bunch of nitpicky little details as the audio imprint of the stereo mixes are so deeply embedded into my subconscious and hard to get rid of, and agreed that some of the Hendrix panning trickery was very difficult to translate into 4-channel format without it becoming gimmick. I don't think that songs like 'Voodoo Chile' (the long version with studio audience) lent itself to much heavy surround effects because as a live-ish performance it would have probably been distracting so I'm glad it was left alone. But in general the rest worked very nicely, with a special kudo for the whole delightful and exquisitely rendered "1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)" suite -> for having tinges of new or previously unheard elements that added some nice atmospherics. I mean, there probably are some guitar balance comments to make on 'Crosstown Traffic', 'All Along The Watchtower' and so on... but none felt like show-stoppers. Just a bit different from what my memory was of the sonic footprint.

So overall, and even though some hardcore fanatics brayed about the two kick drum hits sacrilegiously missing at the top of "Gypsy Eyes", I felt that Eddie Kramer acquitted himself splendidly and in a manner that makes me want to revisit this again and again, whereas (comparing to another landmark album being remixed) I truly feel the James Guthrie mixes of some Pink Floyd material are too 'in-your-face' and arguably somewhat tiresome to listen to compared to the elegant Alan Parsons original quad beauty (DSOTM). As a matter of fact, I feel that if this truly was Mr Kramer's first foray into surround mixing one can very much hope we get to hear more such work from him.

Given the amount of intimate creative interaction between Kramer and Jimi in the studio, I am sort of glad he was the person to do it, hat off on this one. Yes, I probably do bow to more adept surround stalwarts and indeed generally favor Elliott Scheiner, Steven Wilson or Bob Clearmountain for that 'go-to demo disc' appeal, but this was subtle, elegant yet powerful where it needed to be, and well-rounded in every way. I can't really find something to fault on a technical level, it was all down to artistic interpretation; I am very proud to have lived long enough to have 'experienced' this wonderful 50th anniversary tribute to an album which has literally changed my life. Kudos to all involved!

I gave it a '9' because I haven't yet heard the surround album that will make me want to ascend to a higher plane, '10' is reserved for that if and when... LOL

[disclaimer] I do not work for Experience Hendrix LLC or anyone associated with this release, just merely a very enthusiastic lifelong Hendrix listener.

Other than being able to play this album on a no-holds-barred large dream rig, I can really relate to your comments. This is an all-time favorite album for me and the surround (and hi-res) really opens it up to me, especially when I crank it. And yet, I feel no fatigue after a full listen, unlike after listening to the St. Pepper remix, another favorite. I don't know that I'll change my vote from a 10.

 

[salsdali]

there's very few songs that are as trippy and psychedelic as 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)