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

[Todd 987]

8
This was a tough one to give a number and had to give it an extra couple of listens. A lot of thsee songs are made for multichannel and it’s wilder tunes are great to get playful with in the mix. Wish some of the songs would have been mixed to give it an even more psychedelic feel. This album always felt to me like it could have used a little editing. Maybe it’s because I’m more of an Axis guy.

 

[The56Kid]

I think it's well known that I was disappointed in what Eddie Kramer achieved with the Electric Ladyland mix. Maybe Eddie and his supreme knowledge of the material could have served as a consultant to someone like Steven Wilson, who I think would have really made this masterpiece shine in surround.

Ironically, I've been ripping a lot of my stereo CDs with dBPowerAmp and ran across my old Joe Gastwirt remaster of Electric Ladyland. I listened to it using my Yamaha's 7ch Enhancer DSP and I swear the faux surround achieved is better than Eddie's official 5.1 surround mix on the bluray. Blasphemous, but true!

 

[sjcorne]

Ironically, I've been ripping a lot of my stereo CDs with dBPowerAmp and ran across my old Joe Gastwirt remaster of Electric Ladyland. I listened to it using my Yamaha's 7ch Enhancer DSP and I swear the faux surround achieved is better than Eddie's official 5.1 surround mix on the bluray. Blasphemous, but true!

The 4-track songs ("Crosstown Traffic" and "All Along The Watchtower") definitely sound better upmixed from a good stereo source, but it's a toss-up for me with the rest of the album. Kramer's 5.1 mixes of "1983" and "House Burning Down" are better than any synthesized versions I've heard to date.

On the other hand - "Voodoo Chile" through my old Fosgate 101A quad decoder puts Jimi's guitar mostly in the right rear speaker and the organ in the left rear, with the drums and lead vocal upfront. I found this to be an improvement over the actual 5.1 mix, which has the drum kit mostly in the rears and vocal in all five channels.

 

[Jim.olga]

Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2018 reissue of the classic Jimi Hendrix Experience album "Electric Ladyland".
This 50th anniversary edition contains a brand new 5.1 surround mix of the album from Jimi's longtime engineer Eddie Kramer. The Blu-Ray also features a full-length documentary on the making of the album, and the box set also contains CDs featuring alternate studio takes and live material from 1968.

 

[Jim.olga]

Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2018 reissue of the classic Jimi Hendrix Experience album "Electric Ladyland".
This 50th anniversary edition contains a brand new 5.1 surround mix of the album from Jimi's longtime engineer Eddie Kramer. The Blu-Ray also features a full-length documentary on the making of the album, and the box set also contains CDs featuring alternate studio takes and live material from 1968.

I just got this today 2-19-24. Why didn't I get this 6 years ago!? I can't rate the 5.1 version less than 10. If there was an 11 rating, that's not high enough. I blasted this recording because, well, it's Hendrix. I wish my brother could have heard this version. He got me hooked on Jimi when I was about 12 years old. I know he would have dug it! This is my new favorite! I'm glad I bit the bullet. Let the good times roll!

 

[Matt Wilson]

What, I never voted here?

9

 

[par4ken]

I've recently revisited this release and am upping my vote! Firstly it is a very active mix and secondly it is not compressed, it is very dynamic sounding and sounds great cranked up! As others have stated "Crosstown Traffic" sounds very different from the stereo version. It in fact almost sounds like a different recorded version rather than a different mix. I think that put me off a bit, first go around. "All Along the Watchtower" sounds different as well but you can still readily tell that it is the same recording as the stereo version.

Lately I've been listening to "Smash Hits" and "Rainbow Bridge" in the car and the fact that Smash is very compressed in comparison with Rainbow Bridge is obvious when listening to them side by side. I checked Smash and it has a DR of only 8, Rainbow is DR12. The two tracks that are on the Hi-rez stereo version on this Blu-ray show the same low DR values. Fortunately neither are brickwalled, the compression was done on the original stereo master. This is one rare case where I wouldn't mind a stereo re-mix so that the full dynamic range could be preserved.

So my vote is very close to a ten but for the odd sounding "hits", I have to drop a point, so a nine it is!

Oh and Jimi on "Voodoo Child" sounds just like another great guitarist Walter Rossi, or to be more accurate Walter sounds like Jimi check out Charlee.

 

[SomethingAnything]

I never knew this album, being young when it came out and then not looking back on it. I was aware of and probably heard some of the tracks individually down the years, certainly some of the songs in different guises (for example, from Isle of Wight gig). So anyway, I stumbled upon the Atmos of this on Tidal, and wow, it's a really great album, isn't it? Not too mention quite long, with a lot of songs I've never heard. And the mix is terrific. Fun and adventurous. And yes, dynamic sounding, as the above reviewer mentions.

I won't vote, as I've only heard the streamed version, but it's a tenner!