Jimi Hendrix Main Albums - Best CD Versions?

Well the title basically says it all. I'm just looking for everyone's opinion on the best cd versions of his main albums consisting of: Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland and Band of Gypsys. What are your thoughts?

 

Many folks (myself included) prefer the early Warner Brothers CDs, the ones without RE in the matrix. A few of the Early Polydors are essential IMO. The Polydor of "Axis" offers a different mix, so for that one you might want both the WB and Polydor. The Polydor of "Electric Ladyland" sounds great and is a must buy if you see it. I prefer it to the early WB mastering. I think the best version of Gypsies is the early Polydor, IIRC.

I will have a WB non-RE copy of both "Are You Experienced" and "Axis Bold as Love" for sale soon in the Classifieds.

 

so the new remasters aren't very good, i.e. Ladyland 40th anniversary?

 

The remasters I have heard (I haven't heard that 40th anniversary CD, sorry) are OK, but the Reprise and Polydors sound much better on my main stereo. Less harsh, more natural and crankable.

I should mention that I am not usually a fan of remasters.

 

Ladyland ? the one that comes with the dvd ?? if you are talking about that one , stay far , far away , I bought it & returned it & made the store take it Back , it sounds like a remaster of the remaster , really flat & harsh sounding ..... they ruined the album .

taken from a review on amazon ..

 

I'm afraid you will have to seek out the originals.

And do a search here - there have been several very long threads on this topic. And why would there not be? Hendrix is top-drawer and has been discussed plenty.

 

Indeed, discussed on this board before, the general consensus is (IIRC):
AYE: Reprise NON RE-1, and 1st Polydor for the non-USA tracks.
Axis: Reprise NON RE-1 (original mix) and 1st Polydor (alternate mix)
EL: 1st Polydor (2CD)
BOG: 1st Polydor

Better avoid the Reprise RE-1 (nonoised), '91 Polydors (nonoised), the '93 remasters. For collectors only.

Runners up are the '97 remasters if you can stand the compression and clipping.

Best sounding compilation would be Ultimate Experience HDCD version. Also on normal CD-player it sounds great, but avoid the non-HDCD version, the worst sounding compilation of all.

Or wait until next year's new remasters come out, should be better than the current issues.

 

If you do a search you will find loads of interesting info here, including Polls and samples etc, The Jimi Hendrix Experience/Hendrix best sounding Cd's has many long threads and we talk about them here at least every 6 months or so!

To summarise if you are a new fan to Hendrix and wish for a more modern soundstage the present EH Cd's will do just fine, but if you are used to the original sound and perhaps come from listning on vinyl or cassette etc, the first edition Reprise and Polydors are best, although you really need both First editions of the Reprise and Polydor for AYE and Axis, IMO the 'Nudie Cover' Polydor double is best for EL and the first edition Polydors are best for BOG and Cry Of Love?

 

are they doing new one's again ??

 

Jimi Hendrix - The Original Reprise CD's - Non NR! - Best Sounding
Taken from low generation tape sources circa 1985
and lovingly mastered by Lee Herschberg, these discs are still the most natural sounding and cleanest sources of these albums on CD.
Not unsurprisingly, they are becoming harder and harder to find as many fans have discovered this fact by now.
They went out-of-print in 1988, when Alan Douglas (who was not involved with the production of the original CD's), replaced them with his own remasters.
Those 2nd generation Reprise CD's are easily the worst sounding Hendrix remasters ever, thanks to the excessive use of sonic solutions noise reduction.
The catalog numbers stayed the same, making it harder to identify the originals.

Unlike what is often claimed, the US version of 'Smash hits' did not see its first CD release untill 1988, and thus no non-NR Reprise version exists,
which is a pity as it has some tracks that are not on the other four discs.
Many CD releases of these albums (and tracks) have followed since.
Only the currently in print EH remasters actually used the mastertapes as well, and as we all know the EH ones are mastered way too loud .

 

Universal Music inks deal for Hendrix catalog

 

And I rather hear to the remasters, if a little loud. They are NOT brickwalled, by the way.

If the new remasters that are coming next year have bonus tracks, I will get those again.

 

They are compressed and very different to the original vinyl and Cd, for example all the instruments are at the same volume making the music very dull and lifeless IMO and the listner bombarded in a barrage of noise, instead of different instruments complementing each over!!

I really tried and wanted to like the EH versions, but they did not 'hit the spot' like the original Cd's and turned me off Hendrix, when i switched over to the EH ones when first released, i relised through this forum that it wasn't the fact i was bored with Hendrix which had stopped me listning to the albums, but I couldn't cope with the new EH soundstage, luckly I only had to buy a few originals to get me back to hear Hendrix as intended, i never tire of the music now!, but it is extremley annoying because I am missing out with new releases, and on several of the tracks on the 'Purple Velvet' box I have had to reduce the volume through pro-tools etc

 

Sadly, this appears to be true. I recently purchased a non-RE-1 Reprise copy of Smash Hits. This version has JVC printed on the inner ring and no mention of NoNoise in the booklet, along with slightly different track timing. Of course, I was hoping that it would sound better than the all-too-familiar Gastwirt/NoNoise version. No joy. Close listening on headphones reveals identical mastering.

For the core Hendrix catalog, my personal faves are:

Are You Experienced - Reprise non-RE-1
Axis: Bold As Love - Reprise non-RE-1
Electric Ladyland - Reprise 2-disc non-RE-1 (I've never heard the early Polydor)
Band of Gypsys - Polydor 821933-2 [no bonus tracks, made in W. Germany]

For Band of Gypsys, some people prefer the '97 EH remaster due to the 1st-gen. tape source. I personally prefer the early Polydor because of it's tonality - it sounds warmer, less "hard" and more like the original RL-cut Capitol vinyl to my ears. To each his own, I suppose....

I know its a bit of a sacrilege, but I do prefer the original Reprise NoNoise "Smash Hits" for the non-album tracks, simply because of it's overall tonality and lack of compression. I can't stand the sound of the EH remasters! Some people do prefer the Polydor The Singles Album [green puppet cover] for these cuts, but the inferior tape sources used outweigh the NoNoise treatment of the Reprise disc, IMHO. As always, YMMV....

 

Apart from the mistakes on Stone Free and Mary the first issue Polydor Smash Hits from the mid-eighties sounds OK, but i think the Singles 'Puppet Cover' album is better!!

 

How is The Essential Jimi Hendrix 2 Cd set released on Reprise in '89?

 

And the very beginning of "Fire" being cut off .........

 

This has been addressed several times. The Are You Experienced Reprise is NOT taken from low generation tapes.

Here is the link to Steve H's post and his quote:

"The original CD of the first album in the USA was mastered from the British stereo master. I didn't like the mastering (too much top) but it was from the first gen tape."


http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=683589&postcount=23

 

Thanks for the info , Steve would know better than me! [I just used the old copy and paste from a Prof. Stoned needledrop for my original post], just wondering though - how did that happen when the UK and US have different track lists ?

 

I though it was well established that the first Reprise CD used the master tapes. I'm sure Chris will know. He mentioned it here and well as other threads:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=2417817&postcount=17


For me

AYE - Reprise 1st (NO re1 in matrix)
Axis - Reprise (NO re1 in matrix) for the real 'real" mixes, the original Polydor CD sounds excellent but wrong mixes
EL - Reprise for both Voodoo Chile tracks, and Polydor for the rest. Both are nice listens
BOG - Polydor original version that was not no-noised.

 

I'd have to go back and check the past threads. I know Steve discussed this beyond just the post I linked. I will say one thing about your post. I echo how you feel about the mastering of these. I have the non RE Reprise of the first three albums. I like how these sound! IIRC, Chris did say the EH masterings are boosted volume-wise but he looked at the wave forms and the clipping wasn't too bad. Certainly far from brick-walled. The eq on the EH masterings are fine, it's just the loudness.

A little more bass and less upper eq and it would be perfect IMHO.

 

See post #18

 

That post was 3 years earlier than the ones that established it was from the master. Maybe we can get more current info from Steve or Chris?

 

I don't understand your question. The post I provided, you say was from three years earlier than the ones that established the first Reprise was from the original master tapes but that post established that the Reprise was from the original master tapes.

Again,

""The original CD of the first album in the USA was mastered from the British stereo master. I didn't like the mastering (too much top) but it was from the first gen tape."


Here is the entire thread to put it in context:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=37094


If you need further threads I have linked another (Steve again in 2005):


http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=1370904&postcount=17


Despite Steve's post some forum members continue to think that bad source tapes were used on those Reprise cds

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=3472531&postcount=43

"Most of the Jimi Hendrix studio album catalogue has been released four times (I am referring to US CDs ONLY).
1. Reprise non RE-1 - inferior tapes, no noise reduction, no maximisation."



As I said this has been covered before....

 

Just to further clarify...as I stated earlier, the above links from Steve only applied to AYE Reprise