Thinking of investing in the Doors collection – all 6 albums remastered/remixed – anyone heard it, is it worth it? Does the re-doing add anything to the originals?
Doors collection
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We find that remastering our doors every five years or so does make a difference – usually a lick of paint is good enough.
Not sure about remixing them though – I don’t think our bedroom door would look good as a front door..
B’DOOM!
Obstructing them causes delay and can be dangerous though.
I went to the record shop and I said: ’What have you got by The Doors?’
He said: ’A bucket of sand and a fire blanket!’
TISSSSHHHH!!!
Are they remastered or remixed? Huge difference.
There are basically three sets of the Doors albums: the original LP masters as they were released from 1967-71. The remastered albums (with, for example, the previously censored ” …I want to **** you” audible in “The End”). And finally, the “2006 Anniversary” mixes by Bruce Botnick: newly mixed from the original session reels, with – in some songs – different or extended solos, added lyrics and vocal passages, etc., all taken from the original tapes. Some of these new mixes are 1 or 2 minutes longer than the originals.
Not all reissues on CD or LP since 2006 make it clear which version was used, though. The jury’s still out whether the new edition of the first album announced for spring will have the original censored mix or one of the new ones…
Thanks Fatima have you compared the earlier ones with the Botnick mixes ?
The Anniversary mixes surely sound fantastic, but for purists it might be a bit irritating when the guitar solo you’ve known for decades is different. Or when you’re expecting a song to fade and Jimbo croons a couple of additional lines you’ve never heard before.
The initial remasters (also by Bruce Botanic, and first released on the “Doors Of Perception” box, I think) don’t sound bad at all, and they do correct the speed problems and the censored lyrics, so these are the “historically correct” best versions.
Thx
…the box set I have is “The Complete Studio Recordings”, which (obviously) has all 6 original albums, plus an extra disc of rarities from the 1997 box set and a decent booklet.
From 1999, I think these are the initial remasters referred to by Fatima, being “digitally remastered”/engineered by Bruce Botnick.
Oh yes, and they sound mighty fine to me, and felt no need to get the versions that effectively were not the same as those released at the time.
I have just about every version of the Doors catalogue one way or another, including original vinlys, the 1997 Box Set and the Perception Box from 2006. There’s also an Infinitie Box of SACDs. You know what? They all sound very good and the differences between them are pretty marginal. The most profound differences are on the surround mix dvds on Perception. These sound absolutely wonderful whizzing around your room. At one point on LA Woman’s Been Down So Goddamn Long (or whatever it’s called) you can hear Jim Morrison walking around your room and improvising words and sounds. Brilliant.
Anyway, long and short of it is that the Doors catalogue has got so confusing that I could not pass any kind of blind test on the different mixes and masterings. The source tapes are all in fantastic shape so it hardly matters which you get (or in my case, choose to listen to…)
Probably doesn’t help but I have the mini LP style packaged CDs from the late 1990s and they all sound pretty tip top. Have the vinyl from about 10 years ago and think tracks are uncensored ie ‘she gets high’ on Break On Through
The first album gets a 50th anniversary reissue in March as a 3 cd set.
http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-doors-super-deluxe-edition/
Let’s face it. The original recording quality of pretty much all the Elektra albums of that era is outstanding. Bruce Botnick & Paul Rothchild were perfectionists when it came to recording and mixing.
There may have been some dodgy CD transfers in the earlier days of the format, and some substandard pressings towards the end of vinyl’s heyday too, but the original Elektra vinyl almost always sounded very very good indeed.