Need some help with Hendrix Polydor CD's

I've recently been thinking of seeking out the West German Polydor Jimi Hendrix CD's of "Are You Experienced", "Axis: Bold As Love", & "Electric Ladyland". I currently have the Experience Hendrix remastered CD's of these titles, & welcome any comments on sound quality between the Polydor's & the EH CD's. In addition, I have the following questions:

Does the Polydor "Are You Experienced" follow the British tracklisting? Probably, right?

Is it true that the Polydor "Axis: Bold As Love" has a different mix than the US album?

Is the Polydor "Electric Ladyland" the same mix as the US album?

Were the Polydor CD's sourced from the master tapes or tape copies (I'm guessing tape copies)?

And finally, does anyone have any idea who may have mastered the Polydor CD's?

Thanks for any help and/or comments.

Fred

 

I'd love an explanation as to why there are 2 different Axis stereo mixes. AFAIK this has never been explained. I've never read any interviews with Eddie Kramer, Chas Chandler, etc where this was addressed.

 

Maybe they used an alternate mix of the album by accident, since the Axis lp's made from the '70's on Polydor UK have the different mix as well.

The Polydor Are You Experienced? CD is the UK track line up with the same US stereo mixes, and the UK version of Red House.

Axis on the Polydor CD is a different mix, the beginning of You Got Me Floatin' is missing.

Electric Ladyland on Polydor CD is the same stereo mix as the US version.

Carlos Olms may have mastered them, probably all from tape copies.

 

If/once I get these I'll put up some comparisons with the various other releases.

 

Thanks Luke, that'd be great!

 

So far I've got...:

- disc 1 of the original Reprise EL
- a CD-R of the original Polydor EL
- the NoNoise/Gastwirt Reprise Axis
- the 1993 Gastwirt MCA remasters
- the HDCD/Gastwirt Ultimate Experience
- the EH AYE

And the original Ultimate Experience, but that's garbage. I *should* have the original (pre-NR) Reprise discs soon. Keep in mind that Polydor apparently "upgraded" each time the US catalog was remastered, so there *are* Polydor CDs with the two Gastwirt masterings.

Anyone have "Kiss the Sky"? That was apparently done from the masters (except for Axis) by Gastwirt before he started using NoNoise.

 

The Polydor AYE does use the same mixes as the US version, but the songs that it does not have in common: Remember, Red House, etc. are in mono (which is not a bad thing necessarily). The latest version of AYE has those songs in stereo.

 

Fred,
This dang (blessed) forum got me into tracking down JH WG Polydor CD's as well. Spent over two hundred bucks in two months and didn't even get ITW!

The W.G. Polydor EL is thought by this forum to be the best official EL on CD, currently out there.
Only the "sides" are mixed up, so the album do not play in it's original order.

Many on this forum think WG Polydor 2CD set "Singles" is the best sounding Hendrix CD, period. Some prefer the SQ of disc one to disc two. I like the sound of disc two. It may be that some believe the SQ of the recording of the songs are superior on disc one.

My fave JH CD & maybe even album is "Loose Ends". This has that live in the studio sound, to me (which is my favorite sound for music reproduction, As in, I don't care for live albums, unless it something super special as in "Live at Leeds". And I don't really want music to sound like an LP. Unless, that LP is perfectly reproducing that "live" in the studio sound. Don't worry I know albums are rarely recorded "live" in the studio. Just, I want it to sound like I was in the studio with the artist).

One person, I know of, on this forum prefers the Japan Polydors over the WG.
They like Hendrix's voice in the mix better, as well as finding the tonal balance to be superior as well (if I remember correctly).

The forum generally finds the WG Polydors to be flat transfers. Where as, later pressing have tended to have had a boosted sound (mostly at the frequency extremes).
I find the EH CD's to be more detailed, however with a forward, drier, and fatiguing presentation. Mitch & Noel seem, to me, to benefit the most from the EH CD's.

My pick for best Hendrix on CD is the Polydor HDCD (if you have a HDCD player, of coarse) Ultimate Experience. One negative, and a BIG one at that, is this disc is a remastered release under the supervision of Alan Douglas (and Chris Griffin). Here is a link to lukpac's 'review';
http://forums.lukpac.org/viewtopic....start=60&sid=7319bcb8bfb8f2958365455ae370eb23

 

Well, think of it this way - if Alan Douglas was still in control of the catalog we'd have HDCD masterings of the 3 core albums at the very least.

 

lukpac,
Did you feel me posting a link to you, that you posted in less than ten minutes afterward?!?!?!

That MIGHT have made up for all of AD's previous transgressions... MAYBE!!!

 

Though unless I'm mistaken, most tracks would not have been made from the master tapes. I know that somewhere I have a magazine where Chas states that he had many of the masters and Alan Douglas was working with copies. Chas said that the masters were turned over to Jimi's family and used for the latest remasters.

 

I have the Japanese target and though it's from a better source than the W. German Polydor's it sounds kind of hard and a touch bright when reasonably loud.

 

I have Kiss the Sky (target) as well as the very rare P20P Axis CD with different mix.

Luke, PM me if you need any of the tracks from the two discs above to use for comparisions sake.

 

And I'm sure we'd also have HDCD's for "Crash Landing" and "Midnight Lightning" as well. (sorry, couldn't resist ). They may not be perfect but Experience Hendrix has been a much more responsible curator of Jimi's legacy IMO.

 

According to Joe Gastwirt, he had the masters to AYE and EL. Notes and doodles from Jimi on the tape boxes, among other things...

As for Douglas, other than the 2 mid-70's LPs with added overdubs, what did he do that was so terrible?

 

Has anyone confirmed they actually have different mastering?

 

Maybe he's right, but it does contradict what Chas said when the EH remasters were coming out.

 

Wasn't Chas dead by that time?

At any rate, Eddie Kramer has also said that he used the masters "for the first time" or some such. While I don't have the links handy, a red flag for me was Gastwirt said the tapes he used had splices between the songs, while Kramer said his did *not*. Now, splices don't mean the tape *has* to be a master, but no splices pretty much means it can't be.

Either way, the proof is in the pudding. I'd give the edge to the HDCD disc over the EH discs, regardless of HDCD encoding...

 

Voodoo Soup - leaving Straight Ahead off of this compilation because his teenage daughter felt that the lyrics didn't fit in the 1990's. As unbelievable as it sounds, Alan said this in an interview which I have. Wiping drum tracks and replacing them with the drummer from The Knack doesn't go over too well with Hendrix fans either.

Alan's general attitude towards Hendrix's fans has always been on the negative side. When questioned about why make these changes to a particular track, or why release this and not that, he's attitude was basically, don't like it, too bad. The one thing that would frustrate fans is how in interviews, he would always talk about these great projects that would be coming up which everyone will go crazy for, and then never deliver. When something finally arrives, it's never complete or he makes changes which he knows people are going to hate. Can you imagine one day releasing the Beatles albums and changing the artwork. Doing this to Jimi's catalog is unthinkable. He felt the new teenage fans couldn't relate to the old artwork. I'm not saying the EH is perfect, but getting rid of Alan was a step in the right direction.

 

No, that was at least a few years later.

Of course I don't know who is right on this, but I would have to go with the info from Chas and Eddie. In the interview I have, Chas talks about having the masters in his possession for many years before turning them over to EH. Eddie talks about knowing they are the masters because of his own handwriting on the boxes. Maybe Gastwirt was using tapes marked as masters but were really copies. Steve comes across this problem all the time, right?

 

Chas died in 1996, so...

Even ignoring the issue of Jimi's notes on the boxes, if the tapes EH is using don't have splices, that's almost a sure sign they aren't masters.

 

My number of years comment is obviously off, but the remastering did take place before he died.

 

I have recently got all the original polydor west german cd's and they sound SUPERB compared to the EH releases, apart from the original band of gypsys, the EH are very loud/maximised there fore cliped and the original west german polydors sound so warm (similar to vinyl) the problems:
Axis: intro missing to you got me floating (fixed that by editing the intro from the current releases)
Smash Hits: Has the original mono stone free version but the first second is cut, the wind cries mary first second is also cut, i had to fix them by editing from the EH releases
Electric Ladyland: Wrong track order


Apart from this they are the best!!

 

The whole CD is a different mix, is it not?

 

I have not compared them, that will be great if they are a different mix! will compare them tonight??