5.1 BD!! "Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision" 3CD/1BD box set (Experience Hendrix/Legacy) (3/25/2022)

[The56Kid]

But is "The Cry of Love" 5.1? That's what I want to know.

I already answered that for you. Yes, all of The Cry of Love songs are in 5.1.

 

[jimfisheye]

OK, all the rest of the tracks are identical to the leaked version! Perfect nulls against the early copy. Someone started over authoring this corrected version. The track splits and exact start and stop times are off by a few samples vs the early version. Nothing that audibly changes the segue timing feel. You simply notice random new splits and sequencing when you go to line them up with the old copy to null test.

When I listen to this with no caveats I think the mixes are pretty great. I called the fidelity "choked" before. That might be a little strong of a word. The original stereo mixes across the 3 albums had notably clearer, brighter sound. The Electric Ladyland 5.1 remix has similar clear, bright sound and lined up more with the original stereo. When you listen to this new collection after either of those it sounds noticeably choked. One wonders if the tapes are just degraded. The mixes are still on point are welcome beyond belief! Pretty obvious why they didn't include the original stereo mixes anywhere in the set with that. Would have called out the remixes as lo-fi next to them and generated questions.

Back to Room Full Of Mirrors. I think this is an upmix too! Just of the original correct mix this time. Silent C channel this time. I want to speculate that the multitracks are in fact missing for this song and their plan was always to upmix it. Someone made a mistake and grabbed that scratch mix of the alternate drum overdub trial mix (the very one from the bonus tracks in the set) instead of the official original final mix. This set was pulled and held back to fix a genuine audio mistake and had nothing to do with legal battles!

 

[~dave~~wave~]

This set was pulled and held back to fix a genuine audio mistake and had nothing to do with legal battles!

Requiring 969 days from the time the pre-order appeared on Amazon to delivery?
May be more to the story, but the "powers that be" certainly haven't been forthcoming with details.

Grateful for your confirmation there's no further anomalies lurking in the other 19 5.1 tracks.
Good detective work and a happy ending.

Confirming re Room Full, it’s definitely a completely different mix, if not a different take. I must admit that I never really cared for the song, so I am not an expert on it. But the differences are obvious. Gonna check all my numbers and will follow up.

Original disc 1:21:39
New disc 1:22:15

Going forward, it seems checking the time for track 18, or all 20 together, is the simplest way for anyone nervous about his blu ray to confirm he has the "corrected" official release.
Rather than trying to read matrix numbers.

Or just listen for Buddy's cowbell.

 

[esimms86]

Requiring 969 days from the time the pre-order appeared on Amazon to delivery?
May be more to the story, but the "powers that be" certainly haven't been forthcoming with details.

Grateful for your confirmation there's no further anomalies lurking in the other 19 5.1 tracks.
Good detective work and a happy ending.



Going forward, it seems checking the time for track 18, or all 20 together, is the simplest way for anyone nervous about his blu ray to confirm he has the "corrected" official release.
Rather than trying to read matrix numbers.

Or just listen for Buddy's cowbell.


View attachment 109948

View attachment 109949

More cowbell, please!

 

[jimfisheye]

I'm sure there's more to the story. But none the less, someone involved was in service to the music enough that already produced copies were trashed and it was fixed.

Listen for the reprise flourish at the end of Room Full Of Mirrors - the mix fades out... and then back in at the end. That's only in the original mix featured on the corrected bluray. EDIT: I should have said official track, not original mix.

 

[marpow]

I did a little pen and paper between the Official and Ebay release. Both are 24bit/96Khz Blu Rays.

The Dynamic Range each track are identical between the two discs.

The Bitrate between both discs, each track are identical, except 5 tracks.

The time of each track between both discs is identical except 5 tracks.

The 5 tracks with differences are the same 5 tracks both discs as follows:

Track 9 Dolly Dagger Official 4:41 Bitrate 7695
Track 9 Dolly Dagger Ebay 4:42 Bitrate 7678

Track 10 Pali Gap Official 5:07 Bitrate 7589
Track 10 Pali Gap Ebay 5:05 Bitrate 7604

Track 18 Room Full Of Mirrors Official 3:34 Bitrate 6184
Track 18 Room Full Of Mirrors Ebay 2:58 Bitrate 6133

Track 19 Astro Man Official and Ebay are both 3:34, Bitrate Official 7172 and Ebay 7171

Track 20 Belly Button Window Official 3:36 Bitrate 6563
Track 20 Belly Button Window Ebay 3:34 Bitrate 6578

 

[marpow]

I absolutely love the riff and drums of the entire song, Beginning.
Is it Begining or Beginings?

Has another ever did a cover of it?

 

[jimfisheye]

@marpow, I nulled the leaked tracks against the corrected now official tracks. Mirrors aside obviously but all the other tracks null 100% with the early leaked copies. They are sample by sample identical. (Subtracting one file from the other with a perfect zero result.)

Comparing data rates from FLAC or dts encoded files (yes, strictly lossy audio) will show different results depending on level of FLAC compression, etc. This can't be used to compare the actual audio.

Note that the start/stop times (where the tracks are split) is slightly different on the corrected version as I mentioned above. So you have to line up the actual audio program in a DAW to null these.

 

[paligap]

These are my initial impressions after listening to the songs:

General: Good fidelity (with some exceptions), good use of reverb and vocal effects in surrounds, less muddiness, especially of bass and drums, than in stereo mix, some good use of separation and panning. I'm most satisfied with songs 7, 10, and 12. I'm least satisfied with songs 16, 17, and 18 because they still have what I perceive as muddiness, almost sounding lo-fi.

1. Freedom: panning guitar in the mini-solo, vocal response in LS
2. Valleys of Neptune: I'm not familar with this song and wasn't that impressed.
3. Ezy Rider: cowbell in LS, panning guitar and vocals, outro panning
4. Angel: vocal reverb (I'm not sure if it was the same as the stereo mix or improved), new "outro-return"
5. Izabella: much improved from the stereo mix, instruments and vocals separated, background vocals in surrounds
6. Lover Man: unfamiliar with this song, some guitar panning
7. Night Bird Flying: nice intro panning, separation of guitar tracks, reverb on guitar
8. My Friend: effective separation of bar sounds, especially in intro, harmonica in RS
9. Dolly Dagger: good separation of guitar tracks and vocals, panning of guitar solo
10. Pali Gap: My favorite Hendrix song, and this remix didn't disappoint. Nice panning of guitar during intro, bass line much clearer than in stereo, good separation of guitar tracks, reverb on some guitar, different outro.
11. Straight Ahead: panning of lead guitar, separation of guitar tracks, panning of wah-wah
12. Drifting: separation of instruments and vocals much improved over stereo, guitar panning
13. Beginnings: less familiar with this song and less impressed
14. Stepping Stone: some panning of guitars
15. Hey Baby (New Rising Sun): some panning of guitar (and drums!) in intro, slight improvement over stereo
16. Earth Blues: still muddy, but separation improves the mix a bit, such as the "everybody" vocals in the surrounds. Some panning of guitar. I wonder if there are no guitar overdubs on this song.
17. In From the Storm: still muddy, but some overdubs and separation
18. Room Full of Mirrors: This sounded the most lo-fi and almost made me wonder if it sounded worse than the stereo mix.
19. Astro Man: Ah, the fidelity is back. Good separation, reverb on drums (timpanis?), missing/buried guitar riff from "there it goes" break
20. Belly Button Window: wah-wah in RF, not much seems to be happening in surrounds

Overall, I'm extremely pleased. I don't know if I'll keep my preorder for the whole set because I'm not sure how much value the material on the CDs would have for me. I also want to listen to the Atmos mix of these songs (except for Pali Gap and a couple of others) again so I can compare. For that matter, I want to listen to the stereo mixes I have to confirm/re-evaluate my impressions.

After reading some of the comparisons of the leaked and official blu-rays of this release, I don't regret my decision to cancel my pre-order of this set. I'm happy that Room Full of Mirrors has been improved, but I'd be interested to know if tracks 16-18, which I described as "still muddy" because they sound muddy to me on the original stereo mix, have improved fidelity on this official disc.

Regardless, I wasn't very interested in the material on the CDs, which I can access on Apple Music, anyway. I can also listen to Atmos mixes of most of these songs on AM, too. If Atmos mixes of these songs had been included on this release, I would have kept my pre-order, but I can spend the money I saved on other surround music.

 

[jefe1]

Hi @marpow

I am no expert on Hendrix or anything else but I believe Beginnings has previously appeared: as a live version on Woodstock included in Jam Back At The House and a studio version on the War Heroes collection. Also on the First Rays Of The New Rising Sun as Beginnings.
I have always liked it.

 

[jefe1]

I am ecstatic I have so much Hendrix in the house to listen to now.
I just got the set West Coast Seattle Boy and am listening to disc 3 cut 9 Hendrix with Larry Young a jam.
On the Nine to the Universe album it is ten minutes long
On this set it is unedited at 20:56 double the length double the pleasure
The sound of these cds are not as good as the superb Electric Lady set but they are good.
I would like to call in sick for the next two weeks and stay home to listen to Hendrix music.
To think this man only lived to age 27 and left so much music for us. He must be doing SRO concerts in Heaven

 

[JNL]

I so much love Drifting, what a beautiful song and what fantastic guitar playing. Those notes and chords! The superb 5.1 mix of this song is the highlight for me and worth the price of the box on its own.

 

[~dave~~wave~]

My bluray disc says 2021 the cardboard cover says 2024 why did they reprint it with a new date?

I am listening to CD 2 the sound is superb. I am really enjoying this and love the package the book the photos etc
I suspect I will listen to the cds more than the bluray. Many tracks here I have never heard before.
And to think I contemplated canceling this order thinking the bluray was enough.....

Is there a stand-alone blu-ray?

The guy in Wisconsin is again selling the "promo dumpster find" 2021 un-released blu ray with the "alternate" Room Full of Mirrors Mitch Mitchell overdub, for anyone who only wants the movie and 19 out of 20 5.1 tracks the same as in the official new box.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/387466348585

 

[andyp]

Anyone hear about this?

Previously Unheard Jimi Hendrix Tapes Resurface After 50 Years​

The rare demos could fetch $261,000 at auction.

 

[watsontr]

I'm sure there's more to the story. But none the less, someone involved was in service to the music enough that already produced copies were trashed and it was fixed.

Listen for the reprise flourish at the end of Room Full Of Mirrors - the mix fades out... and then back in at the end. That's only in the original mix featured on the corrected bluray. EDIT: I should have said official track, not original mix.

The original drum track on Roomful was by Buddy Miles as presented on Rainbow Bridge. I seem to recall that during the Douglas era, Douglas had Bruce Gary replace Buddy's track so maybe they upmixed it because the original track was unavailable and no safety copy? There were others as well

 

[jimfisheye]

I'm speculating on how not only the wrong track, but an upmix of it could have been included. A wrong track mistake is one thing. But then upmixing it?! Picture the mastering/authoring guy not being able to find the 5.1 mix track. So he decides to upmix one of the bonus tracks to try to disguise that? I don't mean to suggest I think that happened! Just a thought experiment for how could an upmix come about.

So we finally get the proper track. Clearly the original official recording. And it also appears to be an upmix! It's the official track this time but really sounds and looks like an upmix of the original stereo mix.

So the new theory: They knew they didn't have the multitracks and had decided to upmix Mirrors. Someone screwing up and sending the wrong track to the upmix guy is a lot more likely theory for what happened here.

None of this explains why they would struggle to make an upmix of Mirrors but not address the other few tracks missing from the collection. At any rate, this is the theory I was presenting for what might have happened. Just a thought experiment to try to explain how an upmix of one of the bonus tracks might have come about.

That alternate drum overdub would be Mitch. The alt upmix lines up with the stereo copy sample for sample, FYI. Meaning they came both came from the same digitized copy or one came from the other. Technical observations reveal that as well as the rest of the tracks being exact clone copies of the "promo" bluray.

But where are Drifter's Escape, Look Over Yonder, and Star Spangled Banner, right? They included Valley Of Neptune here. Why not South Saturn Delta if the liberated bootleg tracks were game? Oh well.

 

[5.1 4 Life]

But where are Drifter's Escape, Look Over Yonder, and Star Spangled Banner, right? They included Valley Of Neptune here. Why not South Saturn Delta if the liberated bootleg tracks were game? Oh well.

Experience Hendrix is probably holding on to those songs for another archival release in the future.