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 idetnical 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
Teack 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 Offcial 7172 and Ebay 7171

Track 20 Belly Button Window Offcial 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 literally 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 100% sample by sample identical with no question or doubt. 100% null is 100% null. 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.